Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Silkeborg - Art Center and Kongensbro










A Taste of Denmark
Winter

The countryside  was very winterly on this February day - and the air was freezing cold. We came from the east coast of Jutland and went to the town Silkeborg in the middle - and the difference in temperature was remarklable, from minus 9 Celsius at Århus till minus 15 Celsius by Silkeborg. The trees had been covered in frost in the morning, but the sun was shining most of the time and it has a little more power now than in the cold period before Christmas. I like the winter lanscape, the white of the snow highlights the blue shades in nature. It's very beautiful.    













I'm always counting buzzards on the fences in winter. They are watching the countryroad and the fields for prey. This was the third "fence-buzzard" that day,  a very light-coloured bird, but it turned its back to us. I'ts not easy to catch a photo of the buzzard from a car. On the motor road you must not stop or slow down, and if you roll down the window, the buzzard reacts at once and fly away.

Not far from the road a little village with a church. It's a suburb of Århus, but it's still a parish church, a Romanesque building with a tower from the Middle Ages. In the church is a very fine Romanesque granite baptismal font with double-lion figures and an old bible etc....but we're not talking churches today!


Framlev church and village









I don't know why I like old sheds. Here's a green one behind pretty trees. 













Our destination was Silkeborg Art Center with an exhibition of Danish and Chinese artists, and when we came to the parking place a fine little bird was singing in the top of a spruce. It was a Common Crossbill. This colourful little bird has eggs and baby birds in the midst of the dark cold winter - and the babies fly out in March as the earliest bird litter in the Danish bird fauna. The crossbill's food are spruce cones, which hold most seeds in January and February, and there are many cones this winter, so it might  be a good year for this pretty little bird.

At the main entrance


detail of painting

The Art Center Silkeborg Bad is placed in the outskirts of the town Silkeborg in a scenic area, close to a pretty lake Ørnsø and a sacred spring Arnakkekilden, surrounded by forest and a beautiful sculpture park. The place was a spa resort from 1883 till 1983. Today it has been transformed into a modern art center. All year are alternative exhibitions of primarily contemporary art from home and abroad.  The art works often appear together with the special physical possibilities of the place, and the park is on a regular basis involved as a part of the display area.The present exhibition  "Seeing Landscape" was an association of Danish and Chinese painters and sculptors, called Corner.


detail of painting









































Above some examples from the exhibition.


In the sculpture park.
stable
Gern Å
A listed area with a water stream with good fishing of trouts and with hills and meadows is laid out as a regional nature area of geological and landscape interest with an important active for the outdoor life. It's not easy to see in winter, but there is public access to large sections of the listed area along foot paths, forest roads and some field paths with several recreational spaces, like in the beautiful hills, Gern Bakker with great views across the river valley of Gudenaa.
Along the hills is an old road called the "Trækstien"  which runs upon a dike from the 1800s, where the river Gudenå was an important trade route with an extensive barge navigation. "Trækstien" is today a popular hiking route, it's about 23 km and it connects Silkeborg to Kongensbro.

Buzzard in tree

















cute horses














Gudenå at Svostrup

stubble field
Blue Skies
Gudenå at Kongensbro

Here at Kongensbro, where the country road between Århus and Viborg crosses the river Gudenå, was a landevejskro (guesthouse) siden 1663, when king Frederik 3. allowed Ebbe Gyldenstierne to run a guesthouse at the riverside of Gudenå. The present inn is from 1949 and is today run by Christian Andersen, who's the third generation Andersen at the place. His great-grandmother founded the tradition of good cooking on Kongensbro. She published no less than 8 cookbooks with dishes from the guesthouse and recipes from the district. Her good  traditions are now brought on in the third generation. Kongensbro Kro is today a modern inn, but in the old days it was known as the Pramdragerkroen, (barge transport inn). There were many of those guesthouses along the barge transport route, when the river Gudenå was the most important trade route through Mid Jutland. The transport was on big barges, being drawn by men and horses along the pramdragersti,  the path along the river("Trækstien").



you cannot go skating here..........
the geese are flying home - whereever that is.....

the light is fading... we're going home too..


10 comments:

Carolyn said...

So very pleasurable to go on your journeys to places that I will never get to visit.

Grethe, is your official language, German or Danish? Did you study English in school? Is English your second language? Whatever... you surely do a good job!

Gerry Snape said...

this area looks so similar to East Anglia...I suppose that's why the Angles came and stayed! we love Suffolk...south Anglia... though we live here in the north-west. great post! Grethe.

Teresa Evangeline said...

Grethe, I thoroughly enjoyed following along on your little journey, both the art museum and the great outdoors. I, too, love old sheds and that green one is a true beauty.

I've been looking at and reading about the Kroyers today. I'm so glad you introduced me to these painters, and the Anchers too. They remind me of my beloved Winslow Homer.

Thyra said...

Hello Carolyn, my official language is Danish. I had English and German in school, but I preferred English, it was just after WWII. After my divorce in 1980 I started a longer course in evening school with exams. No matter how much English I try to learn I'll never learn it, I can see this very clearly, when I read yours and the other bloggers posts, but thank you for your encouraging words, Carolyn!

Thyra said...

Hej Gerry! I've just looked in Google for landscapes in East Anglia, they are similar to DK, I think it's fun that you now can find places all over the world. And see the Google map and the street view. You can travel all over the world and walk in the streets.
I like the districts in England. they are so beautiful and so varied. Why I haven't been there while I was travelling abroad is because of the driving in the "wrong" side of the road!! ´) But England as a whole fascinates me, and you've got a fantastic history - especially in the Middle Ages.
Cheers
Grethe

Thyra said...

Hej Teresa, it was Winslow Homer I thought about when we talked about Krøyer. I think it has also something to do with the colours and the sunshine in their paintings and the story behind it they are telling us. They are so beautiful and a joy to watch. I wouldn't mind having a painting like that on my wall!! Some other painters are dark and gloomy. We've got a Danish painter who paints humans like disfigured beings in beige-brown-dark colours on a dark grey background and with a skin like the colour of a a pig - and he's much acknowledged. A painting like that would make me depressed if I had to look at it each day!
Thank you for your nice comment.
Grethe ´)

Out on the prairie said...

I really enjoyed your photo essay, lovely shots

Thyra said...

Hello Steve, thank you very much - I enjoyed certainly also your winter shots in youor latest post.You've really got some snow!
I hope we'll keep out of the snow storms. February is usually the worst winter month, but you can never tell.
Grethe ´)

Wanda..... said...

Nice visit to the Silkeborg Art Center, Grethe...the building itself is very pretty, love the small terrace at each window/door!

I would have take a photo of that lovely green shed too! It's been cold here, but still no snow to speak of, not any that blankets and lures me out for photos anyways! Appreciate yours!

Thyra said...

Hej Wanda, this pretty building was once a place where people came to have a health cure. My two cousins, two sisters, they are gone now, they were much older than me - they went there and enjoyed such a cure. They were very happy about this and bragged a little - it was luxury and they could afford it!!But it was another generation. Now the trend is fitness and wellness in some hotels along the coasts and they are expensive too!! And I never win the Lotto!

It is cold here now too, I was down by the inner coast in Horsens fjord where the whole sea was frozen. I was glad we had some thermo-coffee with us!! I don't know if February is also the coldest month where you live. Maybe we'll get snow this night.

I've suddenly discovered that it's almost two hours after midnight.

Goodnight!!
Have a nice week-end!
Grethe´)