Wednesday, October 19, 2011

October, a Museum, a Winery and a small Island........

So now it is October, and the time has come for some indoor-visits to museums and alike - we went to Moesgård Museum to see a new exhibition about the Vikings. It was a new way of exhibition, based on electronics and virtual reality. The rooms were very dark. The objects were placed in boxes and rooms behind  glass which were enlighted, making the surroundings absolutely black. And there were videos and holes, where we could look into scenes looking like Viking-dressed people in daily life. There was a scene by a harbor with a Viking ship, where two men were disagreeing about some work on the ship, others came and passed them, and a little girl with a doll came in happily jumping in and out again, it looked exactly like I was looking at people close to me. In the middle room was a large blue circle "with the sea from Denmark to Ireland", and you could sail a Viking ship. Virtual reality. The children loved that. It is said to be a costy exhibition. What I wonder is that if there are many people and many children, then all the voices disturb the sound from the electronic voices. It was a problem already. But the exhibition is much praised. Maybe it will work better in the new museum they are building on top of the hill.

The woman on the picture is one of six models in a room, where five persons were sleeping on plank beds, and I'm sorry to say it, but their room was the first room I entered, and it was so surprisingly black,  that I stumbled over the first bed with a woman " in sleep", because I was adjusting my camera to darkness. She was actually breathing! The upright woman looked so sad, and she told a sad story, which I couldn't hear! I felt she would soon move. I was later told that they have used skulls from an excavation of a Viking burial site to make it perfect.

The golden skull is a replica they have made from the Grauballemand, a bog mummy who's got a whole room to himself in the old section of the museum, and the gold decorations are from the Illerup-find, a large sacrifice find of weapons, shields, saddlery etc. from Illerup moor near Skanderborg. 


village house
corner of Norsminde fjord.













Brandbygegård, Winery.

Denmark is not a wine-country, but in 2000 it was however annected as a wine-producing country in EU together with Sweden and Ireland. This wine-field at Brandbygegård ab. 20 km south of Århus is part of a versatile farming. How the wine will be varies from year to year, it is impossible to plan sunshine hours!
The farm lies climatically in a zone of Denmark, where wine-plants thrive the best. And with absolutely no use of chemistry or fertilizers. The grapes are of a sort resistent to sickness. At Brandbygegård is a farm-shop and a café  "Det lille vineri." (The Little Winery"). The wine is called Dania Wine and there was a fine harvest in the latest years. The owner is a young enterprising woman Lone, one of those multitalents, who can manage more than one thing! Just take a look at one of her web-sites, which also include an English version :
  in english please




The only modern house on Alrø
cultivated land, the church in the back.
village street, Alrø
lots of geese
Alrø is a small island in Horsens fjord  (ab. 25 km south of Århus). Two other islands Hjarnø and Vorsø lie close to Alrø, and farther out in the fjord is the island Endelave. Alrø was since 1931 connected to Jutland with a 1 km long dam. The island is 7 km long and 4 km broad on the broadest place. It has been inhabitated since Stone Age. According to legend the island got its name in the Viking period, where the Viking chief Hjarne resided on Hjarnø. He married Alrune and gav her Alrø (= Alrune's island) . Their son Lave got the island Endelave. Alrø is a farming-island without holiday houses, camping or public open spaces, except for a parking place by an old steamship-pier on the southern tip, where was once a ferry-connection to the town Horsens. In the summer season a small biker-ferry sails to Snaptun one or twice a day. A small part of the Alrø-families are farmers, and the land is fully cultivated. There is a very rich bird life, and a part of the island is protected Ramsar-area. It is an eldorado for birds. The low water and the large protected areas give optimal conditions for the bird life.

There is an Italian restaurant with wine sale and delicatessen in Møllegården,  furthermore Café Alrø and Marens Hus with Antique sale in a former merchant-shop.

the cows were grazing.....
Source: Rikke Agnete Olsen, Ib Krause Kjær, Alrø.dk


the horses were going home.....
 and so were we....

See you soon !
photo 15 October 2011: grethe bachmann



8 comments:

Joan said...

This is amazing. The model woman is unsettling and wonderful. Thank Grethe!

Thyra said...

Thank you, Joan. Yes, she is. I took photos of the other persons, the women, who were sleeping. (But my camera is not good in that light). They were all young, and I thought: How did they die? Maybe in childbirth? Many women died in childbirth then. And now these women were in a way brought to life again in an exhibition, and we can see that they look exactly like us. There is no difference in their physiognomy with people from our time. There was one man, a little fat, middle-aged, he was smiling in his sleep.
Grethe

Michael and Hanne said...

An interesting post. Thank you Thyra!

Thyra said...

Hello Michael and Hanne! That's great, thank you!
Grethe `)

Wanda..... said...

The Moesgård Museum is so interesting, Grethe...I shall Google to read and view even more. Lovely photos of the countryside.

Thyra said...

Thank you Wanda. Yes they've got a web-site. I looked for the English version, but they say it's under construction until January 2012. Maybe it's because they are working on the new museum-stuff in connection to the new building. But maybe the Danish sites show a little.
Cheers
Grethe ´)

Saloma Furlong said...

Gorgeous photos! Thank you for sharing these.

Thyra said...

Thank you very much Saloma!Thank you for visiting!
Grethe ´)