Away in April 2011

Day 19 – Copenhagen by design

Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Christianshavn

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

Today we plan to see more of the city, having highlighted a number of places of interest on our map.

Firstly a short walk to the Danish Design Centre on Hans Christian Andersens Boulevard. The design centre is well worth seeing and home to all things designed in Denmark – including Lego of course, those famous chairs by Arne Jacobsen but so much more – stackable crockery, felt made from PET bottles, hospitable gowns that preserve a patient’s dignity, cigarette butt disposal unit for parking lots. It aims to highlight the link between good design and wellbeing and economic success for business. Great for D&T teachers and students!

Then a longer walk to Christiania, across the main canal. It’s a beautiful area and well worth the walk – picture postcard views of many criss-crossing canals. Our destination was the Museum of Architecture in a converted warehouse. The museum seems to be geared to architecture students as it houses a fantastic bookshop but the main floor had an inexplicable dirt collection – no English explanations! On another floor, the displays were in the form of mobiles suspended from the ceiling with drawings and photographs of urban design solutions, as well as videos. One very interesting solution was for a beach in Iceland that was too cold for swimming. The solution involved geothermal and design principles for a good outcome for the community.

So much focus on design needed an equal focus on lunch. Found a lovely little French restaurant, Cafe Wilder, in one of the sidestreets of Christianshavn -bohemian rhapsody! Anthony had traditional Danish open sandwiches whilst I had fish cakes with a hot glass of elderflower cordial – delicious.

Then caught the Metro to Solbjerg in the western area of Frederiksberg for the Royal Copenhagen factory outlet. Suffice to say that we did make some purchases, did save lots of money by buying seconds, and will have a surprise waiting for us when we get home!

Metro back to Forum, the closest metro to our apartment. Dinner in and Anthony relaxed on lounge watching DVD on Rome that he missed on foxtel (Finn has good English DVD collection) whilst I did some planning for tomorrow’s siteseeing.

To clear my head and after those Danish crips and Danish pastries headed west along Vesterbrogade for evening constitutional towards Frederiksberg. Passed lots more cafes and restaurants and more affluent looking apartments in tree-lined streets.

Then back up those flights of stairs again – it’s not getting any easier but we should sleep well tonight!

	Inside the Danish Design Centre [Map]		Felt chair made from PET bottles [Map]
	Danish Design Centre [Map]		Copenhagen – the Venice of the North [Map]
	Traditional Danish smorrebrod (open sandwiches) [Map]		Cafe Wilder [Map]
	Danish Architecture Centre [Map]		More cycles and more canals [Map]
	On the escalators of the metro [Map]		Design to stop cigarette butt littering [Map]
	Tidy man campaign – love the logo! [Map]		Canal with opening bridge [Map]
	Design to enable swimming at beach in Iceland [Map]		views from Architecture centre – so many small can [Map]
	view across to Chrisrianshavn [Map]		the spire of Vor Frelsers Kirke can be seen all ov [Map]
	Royal Copenhagen factory outlet [Map]