Photo of the day 27-11-13

Another photo out of my office window - now with fewer leaves left on the tree. Note that this is around 11am, and the sun has not risen above the building next to me. There are only a few hours of daylight this time of year, but the more surprising part for me is that the sun does cross the sky. It stays near the horizon the entire day. Joys of living further north.

Photos of the Day 20-11-13 Birthday!

Jon made me a great birthday breakfast today, complete with Danish flags. It is a tradition to celebrate events and birthdays with flags, and you can find them everywhere. I saw the administrators in my department pull out two 4-ft high flags for a professor's birthday. Serious business. I had a great birthday complete with my famous brownies, (Danish-)Indian food, and the premier of the new Hunger Games movie Catching Fire.

In other news, I had a hard time writing the date in the DD-MM-YR format since I am so used to writing my birthday in the typical US way (MM-DD-YR).

Danish flag adorned breakfast 

Beautiful sunset (at 3:45 pm) - many stopped to take photos.

Photos of the day 19-11-13 Election Day

I was fortunate to accompany a colleague to vote on the 19th. Since it's DTU, we took one of the new Leaf EVs to the school where voting in the area was taking place. He told me that voting only occurs at schools, something to do with the ancient Greek system.

 It was a regional election (smaller than elections than for parliament), but turn out was still really high. He said something like 70-90% of the population votes. The lines were at least 25 people deep when we showed up, although it was right after work. Each voter received two pieces of paper, and only voted for one person per paper. That was surprising to me primarily due to the HUGE size of the paper (see below). The election process is still a little confusing to me, so I will refer people to the internet for clarification.

Below you can also find a picture of the election signs all over town. Each party has one distinct style that every candidate follows. The people on the left are literally on the far left of the posters (half their face is cut off). People in the middle seem to have their photo in the middle of the poster. Unlike in the US where every candidate does their own marketing, here it seems to follow along party lines, of which there are about 7 major parties. I will try to take another photo that shows the various parties, but this was good as it got that night (ie it was cold and rainy and I wanted to find something on the way home).

Giant ballots, vote for one person per sheet

Election posters. the one on top says "More Cake!" 

Trip to Roskilde, part 2

For our second day in Roskilde, we took a bike ride up the fjord. Would have been better without a flat tire, but still a beautiful ride. Beautiful rolling hills, farms, and water galore.

Only a couple kilometers into the ride, still happy

The Fjord, see the Roskilde Cathedral on the horizon

The countryside

In the forest, looking at a meadow and the fjord

More countryside

Essential wind turbine + bike photo

Taken while riding, Jon unhappy while going uphill in the background

My 'taking photos while riding' skills are improving

Made it up the hill

Although there is more wind than solar, I found a few homes with rooftop arrays

One of many thatched roofs in the town

After the flat, still pretty happy

On top of a small hill, later found out it's a burial mound

We could see the bell towers of the Cathedral from the mound, the photo is pretty bad but still neat that we could see that far

Made it to Jyllinge

The marina

Lunch at Hotel Søfryd

Beautiful view

Queen of the restaurant? 

Really awesome hammocks in the park for kids to play on

We took the bus going the wrong direction, at least the sunset was still beautiful

Passing the DTU campus at Risø

Trip to Roskilde, part 1

We took a weekend trip to Roskilde, partially in celebration of my birthday, mostly to explore the country.

Traveling Denmark-style: taking bikes on a train with luggage on the back. The train took about 30 minutes.

When we got into Roskilde, most shops were closed, including this chocolate shop. I was sad.

Store windows are a little odd, not sure why their shirts are pulled up over their bras (yes they sell bras)

Blockbuster still exists

There is something about this poster that is really appealing to me. She is fashionable, wearing heels, on a bike, having just went grocery shopping, with her kid, in the rain. She's awesome. 

City of Roskilde with the Cathedral towers in the background

Viking Ship Museum - they uncovered 5 Viking boats at the bottom of the Roskilde Fjord and have preserved them in this museum. They were originally sunk in order to keep invaders from navigating into the fjord. In addition, they rebuilt all 5 using Viking building techniques (no modern tools or techniques used).

The museum is on the water, built partially in the fjord.

Commerce / trading ship

From the other side

In order to make the curved pieces in the ship, they took wood with natural curves. Those Vikings were some smart guys.

Jon, former Viking captain

Robin, on a boat. They had a bunch of Viking clothing to try. During the summer you can try on whole outfits and go for rides on the recreated boats. 

1/10 scale model of a 60-man war ship, with the actual remnants in the background

Remnants of the 60-man war ship

Viking hat?

Recreated boats starting the winterizing process (rain/snow in the bottom with rot the wood)

Many boats made with Viking techniques, iron and wood nails

Next to the museum there is a shipyard where the Viking ships (among others) are still being built 

Roskilde Cathedral (Roskilde Domkirke)

Inside the main chapel

Among the many tombs

Margrete I (Queen of Denmark from 1387 - 1412)

Lots of tombs on the floor of the church

Tombs underground in with tiny doors

View from the Absalon's arch

Back of the cathedral

Angel 

Christian 4's chapel 

Beautiful iron work

The Glücksburger Chapel, Christian 9 and Louise's double sarcophagus with three women (Remembrance, Love, Grief) modeled after the sculptor's wife, who also modeled for the Little Mermaid. 

Day ends with great beer