Prowling my world, camera in hand

2 September 2011

Week 34: Alicante-Aarhus

Filed under: — Administrator @ 11:52

The big event last week was my trip to Aarhus, the town in Denmark where I grew up and where I still have many friends. So most of the pictures are from there, although I begin with a few from right here in Alicante.

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I got a new wide angle lens for my DSLR and was trying it out at home on one of my favourite subjects. Cheeta in her usual position, under the table, begging for food:
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We have made some new acquaintances this summer. A group of people has been going to the beach every day, and my wife sort of fell in with the crowd. Here is one of them, a keen cyclist with whom I hope to ride a bit this winter:
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I went to see a photo exhibition in the Fundación Bancaja, a cultural centre sponsored by one of those cajas that are in some trouble these days. I liked the exhibition, and I liked the building–it was my first visit there:
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As I walk around Alicante, I continue to look for old signs. This is a nicely preserved example, the old central post office:
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It is lunchtime, but it is also very hot, so nobody wants to sit outside:
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On Wednesday afternoon I flew to Copenhagen.

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I have developed a ritual when I arrive in Copenhagen airport. There is a sausage cart in the baggage retrieval hall, so while waiting for my suitcase, I now always partake of this traditional Danish fast food:
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I then took a train to Aarhus, arriving there around 2 a.m. The walk from the train station to my friend’s apartment is about 15 minutes. The pedestrian street which also is the main shopping street of the city was eerily empty. I have never seen it like this:
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However, a bit further down the street, there was indeed some nightlife going on:
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I got up Thursday morning to the sight and smell of Lars’s homebaked bread:
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Lars lives in the centre of the old city, so it is very nice to go for a morning walk. I sat down for a coffee at a nearby square and just looked at the preparations for the Aarhus Festival Week that was starting that weekend:
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Later, Lars and I walked to the AROS modern art museum. On the way, I noticed this old advertising mural:
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Here is Lars, looking at one of the paintings at AROS:
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Friday morning I cycled in the lovely countryside south of Aarhus where Lars and I would participate in a 100 km road race the following day:
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Lars does not own a car but he has several bicycles, including provisions for carrying heavy loads. Here we are on the way back to AROS from where he was picking up a collection of Soviet-era art magazines from the museum’s library (they had no space for them and decided to donate them to the art school where Lars teaches):
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Before picking up the load, we walked again through the exhibitions at AROS:
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“Oh God”:
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The title of this work is something like “how much tape is needed to keep the box on the wall”:
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At the AROS loading dock, Lars’s bike trailer fully loaded with Commie art:
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On the way back to Lars’s apartment, we passed this installation, part of the Aarhus Festival Week. Obviously, given Danish weather, these sofas cannot stay outside too many days:
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We also stopped at a gallery opening with some interesting stuff:
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On Saturday, we did our bicycle race, which I have documented elsewhere.

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After the race, we went back to the apartment, showered and changed, and went out to celebrate having finished in a time about 1/2 hour better than last year. On the way to the first stop, a pizza place, I saw this amusing scene in a shop window:
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We also had a brief chat with a friendly cook who had stepped outside for a smoke:
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Finally, we reached our watering hole, a bar with a great selection of beer on tap, both Danish and foreign. The one thing they do not have is just plain Carlsberg and similar stuff; that is below their dignity:
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Difficult to argue with this slogan:
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Keeping an eye on things:
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The bar had an American beer festival going on, with about 10 different small US beers on tap (no Sam Adams, let alone Budweiser, here; this place is about real beer). I liked both the name, the slogan and the contents of this glass:
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The evening continued, but the pictures end here 🙂

More of Aarhus can be seen in my gallery here.

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