Århus

Last weekend, Ziyu and I went to Århus, the second largest city in Denmark. We figured that we should probably see something of Denmark other than Copenhagen and the surrounding area before leaving.

We took a bus to Århus. Going there, the bus went onto a ferry between Zealand (the island where Copenhagen is located) and Jutland (the peninsula connected to continental Europe where Århus is). On the way back, the bus took a different route, going overland from Jutland to Funen (another island) to Zealand via a really, really long bridge. The bus rides were really nice because it was a beautiful weekend and I enjoyed seeing the Danish countryside in it’s full greenery. Taking the ferry was also interesting because Denmark has 406 islands and we could see a number of the smaller ones from the ferry.

Århus has a population of about 250,000 which means that even as the second city, it is much smaller than Copenhagen. There is a large university there, so a lot of people see it as a student town. Ziyu and I both liked Århus. It is like Copenhagen, but quieter. It was funny to compare it to Copenhagen, seeing Copenhagen as the big, busy city, because compared to a place like Chicago, Copenhagen is pretty calm and orderly.

Århus has two must-see attractions. The first I ARoS, the modern art museum. In 2011, they added an installation to their roof, Your Rainbow Panorama. It’s a circular corridor on the top of the building with different colors of glass to make a rainbow. It is striking to see from below and the artist envisioned that it could be used as a means of navigation within the city because people could say, “I see the blue side which means I’m north of ARoS.”

Inside was also beautiful. First, there was a nice view of the city. Both because Denmark is an old country and there are building restrictions, there are very few tall buildings. It doesn’t take much you get you above the height of everything else. But it was also interesting to walk around and see the city through the different colors. As you walked through and looked around, your perspective on the city changed.

Overall, ARoS was a really good art museum. They also had an exhibit on the golden age of Danish art. I really appreciated that exhibit because they provided historical information about how Danish culture and history had affected art during that era. The other exhibits of Danish art that I’ve seen haven’t been as helpful with providing context.

After the art museum, we found a nice place to eat dinner outside. It was a beautiful sunny day and we have been loving the long summer days here. Århus has a lot of nice cafés and cute streets to sit outside and enjoy the atmosphere. After dinner, we saw a movie at a small theatre nearby. The theatre had a number of screens, but they were all for small audiences: there were only 12 seats for the movie we saw.

On Sunday morning, I went for a nice run along the coast. There was a beautiful biking and pedestrian path going along the coast. When I got back, we had brunch in the sun next to the river.

Then we set off for the other main tourist attraction in Århus, Den Gamle By (The Old Town). Like Skansen, the historical village I visited in Sweden, it is a sort of Danish Naper Settlement. However, at Skansen, they had lots and lots of buildings, but you could go inside very few. In Århus, almost all the buildings were furnished and you could go inside.

We finished our time in Århus by going to a new exhibit of artwork along the water appropriately called, “Sculpture by the Sea.” We went the second day that it was opened, so there were lots of people out to see the artwork. A lot of the art was very surprising and was integrated with the natural environment. There were over 80 sculptures in the exhibit. We didn’t get all the way to the end because we had to get back to downtown Århus to catch our bus.

It was nice to see something of Denmark besides Copenhagen and Århus is a really charming city. However, the trip also made me aware how small Denmark really is and how many Danes live in Copenhagen.