Copenhagen Jouranl #17: Berlin

Ellie with sections of the Berlin Wall

It's been great to have our loved ones visit us in Copenhagen, to witness our lives here. We currently have Jen's mom Karen and Ellie, and our big trip together was to Berlin, last weekend. It was a great trip: we rented a nice flat and visited some one-of-a-kind sights. The first was the Berlin Wall. I distinctly remember when it came down in my youth, specifically the images of students climbing the graffiti laden wall and hitting it with sledgehammers. More text below.

From the Berlin wall, we went to the Brandenburg Gate and on to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The latter was deeply affecting. One of the exhibits contained details of many Jewish families and what happened to each member by the end of World War 2. There were some large families in which almost everyone died. Much time has past since those days, but I suspect that it feels the same to be in a family now as it did then. So, using that as a starting point, I can try to imagine what it would be like to have my family ripped apart in such a barbaric way. More text below.

On the second day, we walked from our flat, through the city streets of Berlin, to the Pergamon Museum, which was amazing. The most impressive things was a reconstructed gate to the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, shown in the following video. We then wandered back home through Christmas markets. More text below.

On the last day, after dropping our bags at the train station, we happened upon Hamburger Banhof Museum which houses a massive collection of contemporary art. The exhibit was huge and awesome.  See the pictures below and final text at the very end.

We returned to Copenhagen Sunday night, just in time for Christmas Eve the next day. With such short flights to near European capitals, it's possible to make a three day, two night trip, spend a little extra for a nice Airbnb, and really see the city in a long weekend. It was a great trip, and Berlin is definitely near the top of my list of favorite cities.

Our time in Denmark will be ending soon. We still have some travel to do January 1-8, and Ellie has requested Finland, so we'll be going back there yet again.

Copenhagen Journal #16: Last Things

On my mom's last day in Copenhagen, I went to Helsinki again for a conference called Inverse Days. My research has always focused in a mathematical area called 'inverse problems', and the Finns easily have the biggest and best group of researchers in inverse problems in the world. Every December for 24 years they've hosted the conference Inverse Days in different cities throughout Finland.

I went to Inverse Days back in 2006, when we were living in Finland, and had a memorable experience: on the night before my talk, I mixed too much sauna and beer, and then spent half of the next day in bed, before heading to the conference midday to give my talk. Thankfully, I was able to pull it off, though I was feeling queasy throughout.      

This Inverse Days, Jen joined me. I went to the conference, but Jen and I also got to do some sightseeing and eating. It was nice to spend a few days together before our next round of visitors, Ellie and Jen's mom Karen, who are here now. Ellie had a hellacious trip with two flight delays, leading to two 8 hour layovers -- one in Minneapolis and one in Amsterdam -- and twelve hours without food.

The end of our time here in Copenhagen is coming soon, so I've been trying to soak it all in, taking walks near our home on Nyhavn. My favorite walk goes around the opera house and then through the 'residential area' of Christiana. I've posted two videos from the walk at the end of the blog. 

Copenhagen Journal #15: Hamburg

This past weekend was Mom's last of her visit (she's now on her way back to Montana), and we spent it in Hamburg, Germany. Hamburg is a big industrial port city, and it was recommended to me by my host at DTU, so I thought we'd see it while my Mom was here. We took the train, which involved a ferry crossing mid-trip, and rented an Airbnb for Friday and Saturday night. It was an enjoyable weekend. I really like Hamburg. It's not as beautiful as Copenhagen (few cities are), but it's bigger and more diverse, just as Germany is a bigger and more diverse country than Denmark. We had good, cheap ethnic food, and saw some good sights. There was a large retrospective show of work by the artist Phillipe Vandenberg at the Kunsthalle, which I loved (see photos below). Also, the model train museum Miniatur Wonderland was insane - Jen and Mom liked that best. I loved the Christmas Market at the Rathaus, which made me feel like I was really experiencing Germany. After three days of pounding the pavement, we were all exhausted. The trip was a great way to cap off Mom's visit.

I loved this piece best. The artist removed almost all of the paint from a finished painting, nearly back to a blank canvas. 

The Elbphilharmoni.

Hamburg Harbor is one of the world's biggest.

Copenhagen Journal #14: Mom

My mother arrived last week, on Wednesday, and we hit it hard over the weekend, seeing the National Museum, the Danish Design Museum, and the Glyptotek Art Museum. All were beautiful, and we had a nice time together. Most of the pictures in this blog are from the Design Museum, because the visuals in there were arresting. And then the Glyptotek had a bunch of large Auguste Rodin sculptures, which I always find affecting, especially when there are many and they are large. I was especially struck by The Burghers of Calais, which you can see below. There was also a really nice exhibit of work by Odilon Redon. This weekend, we go to Hamburg, Germany.

Things have been really busy these past few weeks. I've been teaching every Thursday 8-12. I finished a paper with my PhD student that he submitted over Thanksgiving week. I've been writing a grant proposal, which was submitted yesterday. And I've been writing a paper with my host at DTU, a first draft of which I finished today. 

Things will be equally busy over the next few weeks. I am giving a talk in Helsinki next Thursday and still have to write the talk. I teach for the last time this coming Thursday. I will continue working on the paper with my host up to when I leave. And I give a two hour talk at a workshop here at DTU during the week of 17 December. By then, Mom will be gone and Ellie and Jen's Mom will be here. It's going to be packed right up to our departure.