the wild west

So, this past weekend all of the one semester DIS students had a study tour to western Denmark. We left on Wednesday morning and headed out to Jutland (that's the main peninsula). We traveled across the island that Copenhagen is on and then crossed over to another island. It was beautiful. There was a huge bridge and you could see forever. It was really nice to be out in the open air and away from the city for a while. On the larger island which in English is spelled sealand I believe we stopped at a little church. I think it was mainly to give us a break from sitting, but it also had relevance since we are architecture students. Anyway we continued on into Denmark and made some stops at another church and a sustainable community. Both were very nicely done. The excitement of Wednesday though came when we got to our hostel. It was right in the middle of Aarhus with a great view of the harbor front. It was a prime spot even if it was a little more run down. Oh well, nothing like getting used to hostels.
The next day we got back in the bus and saw mainly the sites in Aarhus. We went to the town hall designed by Arne Jacobsen, which was much disputed at the time, but now it is so well known it is on their register for historic buildings. We then saw the Aros museum which was amazing. It was built on the idea of a main pedestrian walkway that cuts through the center. There is a huge spiral staircase and a long walkway down the middle. The way the exhibits were set up were quite amazing as well. They had this one in the basement called the 9 spaces. It was kind of suppose to go along with the 9 layers of hell. It was amazing. After that museum we went to a couple more, but ended up in Kolding to see the castle and find our hostel. The castle was also quite nice. It had partially burned after it was burnt and was restored in the 1980's about. The restoration was really tastefully done. They kept the new and old parts separate basically so you could tell the difference between them and at the same time enjoy the full castle, it was nice. After that we went to the hostel which compared to the first night it was like staying in a hotel. We had dinner made for us, really nice rooms and were up on a hill overlooking the city. It was beautiful. The only down fall was that it was a 10 minute walk from the town center. Oh well.
The next morning we got up and went to the swimming hall in Kolding. The was a ton of fun. The building sits right on a body of water and has a beautiful shape. It was a lot of fun. We then again spent the day traveling around looking at buildings. There were none that were extremely inspiring except for a vacation community that was designed for patients with muscular deficiency's or something along those lines. It was built to be a get away for these people that didn't fell institution like. They did a good job. Apart from all the equipment needed for the patients the place was really homey. It was on the seaside and had a tremendous view of the bridge.
All in all the study tour was really well done. Everything seemed to flow nicely and it was good to get away from the city a while and actually see some hills. Of course nothing like the hills of southwest Wisconsin, but still something compared to Copenhagen. Here's some of the photos from the trip and look for more to be on flickr within the next couple of weeks.