But first, you must get to Copenhagen

Young Women, Emil Nolde, 1947

If you want to go to Greenland the easiest route is through Denmark, the Mother Country. I arrived here Saturday afternoon, but the welcoming committee (pictured at right) didn't organize until today, when I visited SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark, just across the street from my Copenhagen holiday flat.

It takes five minutes at my incredible slow pace to walk from my front door to the museum. A normal walker would do it in three. Even closer is the Hirschsprungske museum which I plan to visit before flying to Greenland Saturday evening to begin a 17-day cruise to Halifax via Labrador, Newfoundland, France and Nova Scotia.

Yes, France. More about that when I get there. But it will only be a day trip.

My Home Away (like Air B 'n B) flat is in the heart of the museum, district. Other museums just a short walk away include Rosenborg Castle, the natural history museum, the David Collection (private Islamic and European collection open to public), the Cinematique, the Botanical Garden, and the King's Garden. Of these, the David Collection is on my short list.

My afternoon at the SMK started when I walked over and saw the new (1998) addition in the rear, a wide expanse of glass covering two stories, with a grand staircase for seating and enjoying the view of the park and its serpentine pond from the comfort of the museum. (It may still be summer, but the temperature barely reached 60ºF this afternoon.

Here are some more photos from the museum visit:

Emil Nolde, Child and Large Bird, 1912

Emil Nolde, North Sea Dunes, 1936

Nolde was hardly the only artist new to me (then again, 99.9% of the artists in most museums would be new to me). Works by Jens Søndergaard showed clear inspiration from Munch:

Jens Søndergaard, Funeral, 1926

Edvard Munch, Workers On Their Way Home, 1914

Museum interior. My flat is just beyond trees, across the steet.

Comments

Newport: Memory of Childhood

To most the city of Newport, Rhode Island, is associated with the Gilded Age mansions lining Ocean Avenue and the Cliff Walk. For me it's the Awful Awful. The Awful Awful is a thick milkshake, but instead of being made from ice cream, milk and syrup, most of its dairy content comes from ice milk. It originated at Bond's, a northern New Jersey ice cream chain with an outpost in my home town, Elizabeth. It got it's name because it's "Awful Big, Awful Good". Drink three and get your name inscribed on the wall, plus a fourth for free. Two ice cream chains in New England took notice of the thick shake and bought rights to market it under the Awful Awful name anywhere but in Bond's home territory of the Garden State. But when one of them starting expanding, not being able to enter the New Jersey market was a major impediment, so they changed the name to Fribble. That's what the chain -- Friendly's -- continues to call its shake, though it...

Nous Arrivons en France

The church and houses across the harbor are on L'Ile-aux-Marins. Permanent residents left after the electric cable was cut in 1963 and the government decided not to replace it. Summer homes remain. Today we arrived in France. The isles of St. Pierre et Miquelon, about 20 miles off the south coast of Newfoundland, are French territory, not a French-speaking part of Canada. The currency is the Euro. And the croissants and pastries are delicious. This overseas territory, which sends is own senator and deputy to the National Assembly in Paris, is the last toehold of France on the North America landmass. Although the fishing industry remains present, it has been in steep decline, as in neighboring Newfoundland. Local officials hope tourism, fueled by a brand new airport, will boost the economy, though the dream of offshore hydrocarbons is there, too. The passengers abroad the Fram welcomed the visit for many reasons, but chief among them was docking at a St. P...

A Canadian Thanksgiving

Once ashore in Halifax Monday I sought in vain to replenish my cigar supply, and pick up a Cuban or two to enjoy at sea. But it was Canadian Thanksgiving, and all stores selling decent stogies shut. Still, I wanted to enjoy a relaxing cigar after walking up and down the Spring Garden Road shopping district. I found as bench in the sun in front of the Halifax Memorial Library and lit up. Then I turned around to find Winston Churchill gazing upon me, undoubtedly as upset as when Yousef Karsh took away the PM's cigar to make his iconic photograph. I did my best to imitate the Churchillian scowl. A traveling companion from Glasgow thinks I nailed it. Smithsonian Magazine has an interesting account of the story behind the photo. The downtown shopping district of this city of about 400,000 was filled with people -- most of them tourists off the four cruise ships tied up a 15-minute walk away in the harbor, though some locals were taking advantage of the warm if overcast weath...

Greenland Passage

Search This Blog