Frilandsmuseet.

The 86-acre Open Air Museum, north of Copenhagen, has more than 50 farms, mills and houses from the period 1650-1950. They were transported to the site from regions in Denmark, the Faeroe Islands, southern Sweden and northern Germany. The half-timber construction with yellow in-fill is a miller's home from the Danish island of Fyn.

Ash.

Eyjafjallajökull (translation: island-mountain glacier) covers an Icelandic volcano that erupted on March 20 and then again on April 14. I'm sure you've all heard about the extreme disruption that it's volcanic ash is causing in northern Europe. The event actually marks the largest grounding of airplanes since the second World War. There are many students here at my school in Copenhagen that have had to cancel travel plans, many visiting parents that are stranded here and friends of my host family that are stuck in other countries until the air clears.

Fun Fact: Copenhagen has the #1 metro system in the world!

A Weekend on Sustainable Samsø.

Friday evening after studio, about 30 students and our tour leader Mikael Koch, Chief Adviser on Sustainability, took a regional train to Kalundborg and then a ferry to this island where they produce more than enough wind energy to sustain themselves. Early Saturday morning, we hopped on bicycles and headed to The Energy Academy where we got a lecture on the history and future of Samsø. We then rode to the harbor where I ran into a couple that were natives of none other than Madison, Wisconsin. (!!!) They told me that they moved to Copenhagen when their children were ages 10 and 13 and then retired on the island.

We spent the afternoon on Jørgen Tranberg’s farm where we had some pretty unique experiences. Before our day was over, we had all climbed to the top of the 60 meter tall wind turbine that Jørgen had built on his property, half of us had witnessed the live birth of a calf and the other half had seen what is believed to be the oldest windmill in the country. Yep. After all of this, we biked a hilly 7 miles back to the hostel for the evening.



Sunday, we hiked the hills on the northern part of the island and ate our lunches in Nordby, one the most preserved villages in Denmark. Before venturing back to Copenhagen, we visited the Samsø Bryghus, a small local organic brewery.

The Queen's 70th Birthday.

Today Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II celebrates her birthday. She was born in Amalienborg Palace as the daughter of King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid. In 1953, The Act of Succession gave women the right of succession to the Danish throne, but only secondarily. In 1972, Queen Margrethe II became the first Danish Sovereign under the new Act of Succession.



I took part in the tradition of going to the Queen’s castle at noon on her birthday and waiting for her to come out onto her balcony with the rest of the royal family to wave to the crowd. Then, she gets into a horse-drawn carriage with her husband and, in a parade, processes through the city. In the square nearest to my school, 18 karat gold apples are placed in the top tier of the fountain in honor of the Queen.

Spring has finally Sprung!

Copenhagen seems like an entirely new city after my return from Spain and Italy. The weather has made all the difference. The squares are filled with vendors and outdoor seating, people seem to be more social and the sun actually shines good and long!

Back in class at DIS, our studio professors welcomed us back from break with a 24-hour design charette where we had to design outdoor furniture for a particular site in Copenhagen. (construct a model, draw plans/sections/elevations/perspectives and show materiality) This is right in the middle of our long-term final project and its purpose was to get us right back into working mode, a.k.a. not sleeping. There were 8 teams of 3 and our group's design won!

Back in CPH.

David.

Andrea escorted me to the Accadamia Gallery where I snuck this illegal photo of Michelangelo’s statue of David. The hands of this 17-foot biblical man are huge! It was also easy to see that his left toes were subjected to some abuse in 1991 when a "deranged" man attacked the statue with a hammer he had hidden under his jacket. There are three replicas of this contemplating statue in various locations around Florence.

As Andrea and my honeymoon continues, I'm starting to notice the differences between the European city she calls home and mine. Florence has far more tourists than Copenhagen and, therefore, a lot more English is spoken. There is gelato on every corner, the men are much more aggressive than the Danes and there aren't nearly as many blondes as there are in my Scandinavian city. Tonight, we are meeting up with a few other girls from the Interior Design program in Minnesota to enjoy Apertivo. What is Aperitivo? In bars across Florence between the hours of 7 and 9 while you are having a pre-dinner drink you can enjoy a free food buffet of appetizers, pasta, salads and cold cuts. It will be nice to see more familiar faces!

Florence, Italy.

Easter Monday morning, Andrea and I took the train North through Italy to stunning Cinque Terre (the birthplace of pesto!) where we hiked the day away. The trails pass between five seaside villages through terraced hills. The pathways are narrow and often steep with a rock face on one side and a drop-off to the ocean on the other. Good thing I wore my Wisconsin baseball shirt on the trails - we ended up running into a couple from Minnesota! The weather was beautiful and we worked up a sweat before finally dining and jumping on the train back to Florence.



Love locks at the entrance of the Tunnel of Love. Lover's place their locks here and throw the keys into the sea.



I joined Andrea’s sketching class on a trip to Boboli Gardens, behind the Pitti Palace (former residence of the Medici family). The gardens offer panoramic views of the city and countryside, 16-18th century sculptures and vegetation watered by a conduit from the nearby Arno River.