Prowling my world, camera in hand

We spent the week leading up to Easter visiting friends in Copenhagen. I always go to Denmark in late April to visit my mother’s grave on the anniversary of her death, and to meet with my sister who comes up from Poland for the same reason. This year, my wife and daughter joined me, taking advantage of the Easter vacation at our daughter’s school. The pictures are presented chronologically.

Main
Tuesday morning, waiting for our connecting flight in Barcelona’s El Prat airport. The view from the priority lounge is pretty impressive:

Alternates:

Alternate 1
My daughter writing in her notebook. The layover in Barcelona was 3 hours:

Alternate 2
Finally it is time to walk to the gate:

Alternate 3
Three hours later or so, we are walking towards the arrival area in Copenhagen airport. The stained glass windows are a nice touch which I have not noticed before:

Alternate 4
We arrive at my childhood friend Beata’s apartment. Her son Astor is dressed in a disgusting Real Madrid shirt. However, it is such a poor fake that the name of the sponsor is mis-spelled (should be BWIN):

Alternate 5
Per tradition, I take Astor and his sister Natalia to buy candy:

Alternate 6
Beata’s partner Ricardo at our traditional watering in Nyhavn. Ricardo is from Argentina:

Alternate 7
The reason we go to Copenhagen on this date. My sister is touching up the lettering on our mother’s grave:

Alternate 8
Later in the day, we visit Christiania, the hippie enclave that has now existed for 40 years, right in the centre of Copenhagen. There are actually real businesses there, for example this metal workshop manned entirely by women:

Alternate 9
Christiania is today Copenhagen’s second tourist attraction, only surpassed by Tivoli. People from other parts of Copenhagen also visit. Some to buy drugs, an unfortunate feature of the place, but many more to stroll around and to patronize businesses such as this vegetarian restaurant which my daughter enjoyed very much:

Alternate 10
Bicycle couriers taking a break on the main pedestrian street, Strøget:

Alternate 11
We were staying in a neighbourhood called Østerbro, just north of the centre of town. When my parents and I came to Denmark in 1972, we stayed for 2 weeks at a refugee reception centre in this area. Every day we would be given packed lunches, and every day we would walk to this lake and feed the sandwiches we did not like to the great-great-grandparents of these birds:

Alternate 12
Thursday we drove to Louisiana, one of the best modern art galleries in the world. We went to see a Picasso exhibition with theme “war and peace”. This painting is similar to Guernica but it depicts another atrocity from the Spanish Civil War, a Republican family that has been murdered in their home by Franco’s troops:

Alternate 13
Owl and Picasso, photographed by David Duncan Douglas:

Alternate 14
As a bonus, there was also an exhibition of David Hockney’s iPad paintings:

Alternate 15
Whenever I am in Louisiana, I always photograph this room. It contains nothing except this Giacometti sculpture and shows the beautiful surroundings of the gallery:

Alternate 16
There are also sculptures and other art in the gardens. Interpret this one as you wish:

Alternate 17
This is a temporary installation, much to the relief of the ushers, one of whom told me that they are having a hard time keeping children from climbing it, something for which it is not designed:

Alternate 18
Our hotel in Classensgade on Østerbro. The hotel is called De 9 SmÃ¥ Hjem (the 9 little homes) and consists of some apartments which have been turned into a hotel. I always stay there because it is 2 minutes walk from my friend’s apartment. It is also the birthplace of Victor Borge:

Alternate 19
On Friday we borrowed Beata’s car and drove the 3 hours to my hometown Ã…rhus. My best friend Lars met us with lunch:

Alternate 20
After lunch, we walked around the city, taking in, among other places, the Aros museum of art with its huge “Boy” sculpture by the Australian artist Ron Muecks:

Alternate 21
Continuing our walk, we enjoyed the great weather, as did many others:

Alternate 22
All this walking got us thirsty, so we stopped at Lars’s favourite watering hole, 5 minutes walk from his apartment:

Alternate 23
Lars analysing his beer:

Alternate 24
In the evening, Lars’s daughter Klara came by and together, they prepared a vegan dinner for us. She is involved with various left-wing groups, and many of her friends are vegetarians, so she is used to making that kind of food:

Alternate 25
Dinner is served:

Alternate 26
We walked around some more on Saturday morning, my wife taking advantage of the one day during Easter where shops in Denmark are open. I just hung around outside and waited and looked for little details to photograph:

Alternate 27
Finally, in the afternoon we drove back to Copenhagen. On the way, we stopped at Brøndby Strand, where my parents once lived, to pick up some stones from their favourite beach to put on their graves. While there, I snapped these little boys playing around. The one in the foreground is dressed in the shirt of the local football club, Brøndby FC, which a few years ago knocked Liverpool out of the Champions League but nowadays plays second fiddle to FC Copenhagen:

More information about some of the places mentioned:
Christiania
Louisiana
Aros