It was so cold and rainy and we’d all wished we’d brought more winter clothing. 39 degrees with a wind chill of 33 and we were out walking in it and, of course, had forgotten our umbrellas, which made the cold even more biting. The castle itself was also bitter cold as these old buildings had no heat except for the large wood burning fireplaces, which are no longer in use. As we toured these rooms that were “over detailed” with pictures and stuff on every square in of walls and ceilings, I was thinking how oppressive this would have been. Everything was also very dark, which doesn’t make for great pictures, either. We also wondered if these people ever got tired of having everything in their lives “all about me.” Self portraits hung everywhere, in every room, in duplicate and triplicate and more with every material collection and show of their wealth on display for any and all to see. It would be interesting to visit their time period and really see what life was like back then. I’m thinking I wouldn’t have liked all the classes and separate distinctions between the people. Afterwards we ran through the rain to reach the National Museum of Art to see originals from Leonardo DaVinci as well as other famous authors. As in all European art, after a while you get tired of seeing so many naked figures in the paintings. They loved the human body, that’s for sure.
Some thoughts about Denmark. You need a college degree to ride a bike here. Bikes are as plentiful as the cars and don’t even think about stepping into the bike path, or you will get run over. They are serious about pedestrians staying out of their lane. And then when you come to a stop light, you can see green, green, yellow, yellow and red all staring at you at once. Confusion…which one is mine? There are stop lights for the cars, separate lights for turning right, separate lights for the bikes and for the pedestrians all at once. And, all can be a different color at the same time going in the same direction so you’d better know your lights before you hit the road.
Danish people on the street aren’t polite and don’t wait in line. If you are in line for anything and you stop to wait for something or someone, the others will pass you by. It’s almost like you are in their way. And yet the people we’ve talked to and worked with seem super easy going and not like those following the rat race out in the city. A little unclear on this one.
Today was a “long” day at the temple…5 hours of backfill. I could get used to these kinds of “long” days. We are almost finished and it looks beautiful so far. They are polishing the marble floors in the baptistery so we have to play leap frog as we go in and out of the area.
After troweling the plaster, we head downtown to the “Church of Our Savior” which has a great spiral staircase to the very tip of the spire. Of course, we paid the $6 USD to climb it. Because it was a cold, rainy day, there were very few people there. Climbing in circles up and up in this old building from the 1600’s was pretty cool especially as you passed the inner workings of the huge metal bells with a pulley system for the chiming. Huge, thick giant beams were the frame work of the walls as we climbed the well-worn wooden steps inside, which turned into slippery, copper steps in the rain outside. But the view was breathtaking! From the top you could see all of Copenhagen in every direction. Definitely worth the $6! Afterwards we went inside to listen to the organ concert. I’m thinking the pipe organ in the conference center has nothing on this one. It was so ornately carved with the date of 1698 on it. And the music was so beautiful.
Tomorrow we leave the temple patron housing when the job is complete and head over to the apartment we rented for the next four days. This cold, winter/spring adventure continues!
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