Day Two in Copenhagen: A relaxing day exploring Denmark's National Gallery and Botanical Gardens - Exploring Holland, Germany and Denmark on a Recumbent Tandem - CycleBlaze
Day Two in Copenhagen: A relaxing day exploring Denmark's National Gallery and Botanical Gardens
The weather has improved and we have decided to go for a walk and explore the area around Rosenborg Slot (Castle) and the Art Gallery. This huge area is spread over four city blocks and has acres of gardens.
Copenhagen impresses us that it is a very low key city with lots of green spaces and large pedestrian areas for strolling. People seem to really take the time to enjoy life here. We just read this morning on the Internet, that Copenhagen has been voted one of the world's most livable cities - we are beginning to understand this accolade.
When we first arrived in Copenhagen's town centre, we noticed that there is a massive construction project ongoing to add a new metro line. Locals apologized to us about the construction barriers and rerouting of sidewalks - they were concerned that we would be able to see beyond the temporary confusion to the charm of Copenhagen. It didn't take long for us to get our bearings and appreciate where we are.
Copenhagen offers free entry to many of their attractions, such as the National Museum and the Art Gallery. The only entry cost is to their special exhibits and our Copenhagen Card takes care of that. We're looking forward to seeing the special Viking exhibit at the National Museum. Typically the entry costs and metro fares are higher in Denmark, so we find that the Card gives us great value. We more than spent the cost of the 72 hour Card in our first day.
We wandered through the impressive Botanical Gardens and discovered the Palm House - a magnificent glass domed building filled with sky high palm trees and various tropical plants - it is truly a tropical jungle.
Wandering through the parks, we discovered the art gallery, The Statens Museum for Kunst - free for us with our Card. Denmark's National Gallery was founded in 1824 to house art collections belonging to the Royal family. As the largest art museum in the country, the collection is impressive (particularly Danish fine art) and their special exhibit relating to Flowers in Art was very well done. We have visited many art galleries in our travels, but we both agreed that this one is special. As well as the formality of viewing paintings and sculptures, most rooms have interactive features and hands on activities. Seating is provided with Art books, children's areas provide ways for them to create their own masterpieces. They have also built in ipads inside information tables with scanned copies of ancient books that you can read, or interactive exercises to help you understand the scope of what you are looking at. We found ourselves spending hours here enjoying the gallery and had lunch in the cafe. It is good that we bought a 72 hour Copenhagen Card as this gives us more flexibility when we want to take our time as we did today. We didn't make it to Rosenborg Slot, but we have two more days on our card.
We're not sure what this is about - the police stopped traffic and ushered this demonstration of cyclists through the streets. It is hard to imagine that it has anything to do with cycling, as the city is full of cycle lanes on every street.
The Palm House - this stretched in both directions. One area featured protected butterflies. In the main domed area, we were able to climb steps to the top and view the tropical forest below. The heat and humidity made it challenging.
Charmaine RuppoltI got the Copenhagen Card also when I visited Copenhagen a few years ago - it was GREAT and covered so much! Every city ought to have something like this! I also visited the Palm House, as you did. It was nice! Reply to this comment 6 months ago
The entrance to the Museum is undergoing renovations - we entered by a high temporary walkway on scaffolding - a unique way to access the National Gallery.
The art on the wall are the original pages from Gottorfer's Codex - all preserved and framed so that you can appreciate his historic work. The paintings are by Hans Simon Holtzbecker and were the beginning of realistic depictions of flowers in art. Gottorfer's Codex was put in four huge volumes and the paintings represent a record of the flowers in his garden over the four seasons starting in 1649.
The Art Gallery combines old with new in its architecture - this walkway is the Sculpture Walk and is called "We the People". The Danish Vietnamese artist, Danh Vo, has produced a full scale copper replica in 400 parts of the Statue of Liberty from New York.
A close up of the painting, Venus with Cupid Stealing Honey by the German painter,Lucas Cranach the Elder from 1530. This image is derived from the Greek poet Theocritus ("Cupid Stealing Honey")telling the story of Cupid complaining to his mother Venus about the bees stinging him since he stole their hive. Venus laughs that their stings compare to the wounds he inflicts on others with his arrow. After all, the brief ecstasy of love may soon be replaced by suffering and heartbreak.
These leering old men (Judges) are preying on a young woman in her bath - she courageously defies them and is successful. We were interested in this painting as we have seen this same story depicted in paintings we saw last year in Vienna.
The gallery is known for its Matisse Collection - one of the world's finest numbering 25 works. This painting of his wife, Amelie, is one of his best known and considered a principal work of 20 century portraiture.
It is hard to capture the emotion of this painting with the camera. Her sense of sorrow and solitude reaches out to you. Having cycled around the countryside of Denmark and visited many graveyards, everything about this painting feels so familiar.
We enjoyed the Danish paintings that showed their landscape and emotion so well. This painting shows horses towing the boat to the stormy sea to help with a rescue.
