Roskilde

Roskilde is one of the oldest cities in Denmark.
More than 1000 years ago the Vikings established a trading post that developed into a major town. In the medieval period, Roskilde was one of the most important cities of northern Europe, the seat of the Danish crown and an episcopal residence.

Today, the city is rich in historical and cultural sights and attractions. In the beautiful red-brick Roskilde Cathedral the kings and queens of Denmark are buried.

The islands and islets of Roskilde Fjord can be viewed from a viking ship or a small cruiser docked at Roskilde Harbour the atmosphere of which hums with activity. The former gasworks at the same location now houses one of the many art galleries of the town and a glassblower.

The city centre offers a pedestrian precinct as well as a market square with plenty of commercial life. Culture flourishes all year round and the city has a rich musical life ranging from summer concerts at the cathedral organ dating back to 1554 to the Roskilde Festival.

The lovely scenery around Roskilde offers numerous historical sights as well as a landscape perfect for biking and trekking.

On Saturday, May 14th, Cx, Cg, and I went on a day trip to Roskilde which is only a 30 minute train ride from where I live.  Once leaving the station at Roskilde we saw these three huge vases,  near the center of town is not far from the station. Not far from these vases was a small church behind a old brink wall and gate. I looked around for information about this small church but I could not find anything, but at least I got some good pictures. 

 

The brick wall and gate of the church.

The church behind the gate.

The three of us continued walking towards the center of town we passed many shops and restaurants and the farmer's market. We did not have time to go through the large farmer's market, but did Cx purchased some fresh cherries.  There were also many different crafts for sale and many flea markets, there was one wood craftsman that was selling these beautiful hand carved bowls. 

 Walking through Roskilde you could get the sense that is such a beautiful clean, and relaxing town. The houses were in typical European style, small but cute with flower gardens.  Just by looking at the buildings you cold get a sense of the history and heritage in the town.

While walking around town we found an interesting fountain inside a brick wall along side the street. Over the top of fountain it said the word maglekide, which means "The Large Spring." The one thing that we really noticed was the creepy red eyes.

This spring yields 15,000 liters of water an hour, about one sixth of what is used to. The spring supplied 5 mills in the beginning of industrial life in Roskilde. In 1842 a hydro was built in connection with the spring, and was pulled down again in 1972. The Neptune head at the outflow and the weather vane on the well house date from 1842.  The well house itself dates from 1927.

 

The Roskilde area has a lot of history, there were these green signs everywhere stating the history of the area. The was this one sign in the middle of small open area with a nice gravel path.  Next to the sign was what looked like the ruins of a small building. I read the sign and thought the information on it was interesting:

The church of St. John the Baptist was probably built in the 12th century as a parish church for the clergy of the cathedral.  It was pulled down after the Reformation. The surround field is protected area, below which lie the remains of a medieval town with streets and houses. Finds from the excavation of the church can be seen at Roskilde Museum.

I did not have time this trip to go to the Roskilde Museum this trip, which means I have another excuse to go to Roskilde. 

Roskilde is also well know for the Dome Church or The Roskilde Cathedral, we also went see this national landmark.  This church was huge and there is so much history surrounding this church since so many Danish Kings and Queens are buried there.  I took lots of pictures and there is so much to tell about this church that it deserves its own blog post.

After walking through this beautiful park with many trails, steams and small lakes we made our way to the inlet or fjord.  We noticed a strange 'thing' near the road. Once we got closer we discovered that was a small replica of the town Roskilde on display. However, it did look like the birds had fun destroying parts of it. I really liked the detail you could see in this replica.  We continued on our way to the Roskilde Viking Museum.

After spending four hours at the Roskilde Viking Museum (which will get its own blog post) we walked back through town in a thunderstorm and since main street was not as packed I took a few pictures of the area.  Just so that you could get a feel for the town but remember when we first arrived in town in the late morning the streets were packed with people.

Getting to class...is not so easy

I mentioned in an earlier post that I am taking a class. This class is about perl programming and taught at the Denmark Technology University (DTU) in Copenhagen.  This class met Monday’s and Thursday’s for 13 weeks for four to three hours. 

Honestly I did learn a lot in this course and even though there was many times I was so frustrated at all the work, it was still worth it. But I think the most interesting part of this whole class is where it took place and the adventure I had every Monday and Thursday getting there. The perl programming class took place in Lyngby, which is North of Copenhagen.

On every Monday and Thursday I got a train in my small Danish town and rode the train all the way Nørrport, which is just North of Copenhagen. Each time this particular train ride took one hour and 15 minutes and sometimes longer depending on delays. Most of the time the train was so packed that I would be lucky to find a seat. After going through Roskilde and Copenhagen I got off the train at Nørrport station and I make a short detour to the local café for a café latte to go.

Once I have my café latte in hand I wait about 5 to 10 minutes, I get on a bus to DTU. After a 20 minute scenic trip through Nørrport, where I passed the Rosenborg Castle, Botanical Gardens, and the Statens Museum I get off at  DTU.  I repeated this trip twice a week and then had the joy of traveling another 1 hour and 35 minutes back home.

Each time I would pass those neat tourist sites I kept thinking that I have to visits all those sites once this class is over. Well this class is over on June 2^nd at 1pm and my first stop will be Rosenborg Castle

Beautiful flowers

 When I walked around town a few weeks ago there were so many unique, beautiful flowers and the air smelled as fresh flowers. I took out my camera and took some pictures of some of these beautiful flowers.  I hope you enjoy all the pictures.

Cute Chocolate and Farmer's Market

 On Friday (5/6/11) a friend of mine at work came by the office and gave me some chocolate. The chocolate was so cute and unique I just had to take a few pictures of it.  As seen in the picture the chocolate as in the shape of a bottle. The best part was that inside the bottle shaped chocolate was hollow and filled with Orange Liquor. Yumm.....

This Saturday is so nice outside, so I just could not spend the entire day in my apartment working on my perl programming project.  So I went out to the farmer's market in the city center to get some fresh air and fresh veggies. 

In this farmer's market, I can find lots of fresh flowers, fresh fruit and vegetables ranging from strawberries to green beans. There are also two small shops where you can buy fresh fish (fisk in Danish) and another shop were you can get freshly made cheese.  Some but not all of the people selling items can speak  English and all are very nice.  I think many of them do not mind that I do not speak Danish that well, they just appreciate the business.

Well back to work on my project.  Thank for all the love and support.

Sorry for not posting lately.....

Sorry for not posting lately but I do have a valid reason why.  For the past 12 weeks I have been taking a perl programming course. Some of my close family members may have heared me complaining about this course. Yes I have learned a lot at the cost of of sleep, exhausted brain cells and pure frustration.

Anyways a big perl programming project is due in a few days so all my free time right now is being spent on this. So just letting every one know: yes I am ok.

I was able to get a whole bunch of great pictures of all the flowers blooming in the area near my apartment. I plan to post those as soon as I hand in this project.

Again thanks for all your love and support.

Danish Krones

While talking to my brother, he asked what does the money look like? Then I thought other people might be interested in what Danish Krones look like. Typically a Danish krone is about 18 US cents or about 5.5 Danish krones equal a US dollar.

Unlike US dollars,  Danish krones paper bills come in different colors and sizes, at first I thought having bills in different colors and sizes was odd but I discovered that have different colors does make sorting my cash easier.

 I have also seen Danish krones paper bills in 1000 kr. and 50 kr.  I am not sure if there are paper bills larger than 1000 kr because I have seen anything larger then 1000kr.  I did not have any other bills in my wallet when I took these pictures.

You can also see that the other side of the bills have different image on the papers bills, however I do not know what the images on the paper bills are.

When I first arrived in Denmark it was really difficult for me to figure out which Danish coin was which because the 20 kr and 10 kr look very similar AND the 5 kr and 2 kr look very similar.

In this picture the top row is the Danish coins in this order: 20kr, 5kr, 2kr, 1kr and then 50 øre (.5kr). The gap between the 20kr and the 5kr is where the 10kr is supposed to me but I did not have one when I took this picture. The second row is the US coins I still had in this order: quarter, penny and a dime. I just wanted to show the Danish coins next to the US coins for a size comparison. 

20 krone coin next to a quarter for size comparison.

10 krone coin next to a quarter.

5 krone coin with a quarter.

2 krone coin with a quarter.

1 krone coin, Penny, 50 øre (.5 kr)

Recently a friend of my noticed that she had a special issue coin, she told me the history behind the coin. This particular coin was designed by Queen Margrethe II for her 25 wedding anniversary to Prince Henrik in 1992.

This is the coin design done by Queen Margrethe II. You can see the 25 in the heart above the door. I am not sure what the house, door, sun and moon are supposed to represent.

Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik

I hope everyone has a great Easter and enjoy the spring weather!! Thank you for your love and support.

Ouch........

So many of my family members know I have been sending letters and cards to family back in the United States.  Since I moved here the price for stamps to send letters has been 9.5 krones (~$1.75).

 But now the price for stamps has increased to 13 kr (~$2.37). 

The price increased by 3.5 krones (~$0.65).  After going through such a huge increase in price those 4 cent stamp increases do not seem so bad.