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Spring craze in Copenhagen
Practically since Instagram hit. Every spring there has been a crowd swarming the graveyard at Bispebjerg in Copenhagen. Of course it’s lovely to visit the lush green areas of the graveyard. But it’s absolutely only on element that the crows is aiming for, the flowering Sakuras or Cherry blossom. I went to the graveyard for another purpose, but of course we had to see how many would go there. We arrived at 9.00 AM, and just before this picture a group of 40-50 tourist had left the ~100 meter long pathway that hosts the trees. I admit, it’s quite nice flowers and they are only around for 1-2 weeks in…
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San Isidora Cemetery
In Denmark many do not care that much about their dead family members, mostly used way to deal is to cremate and to place the urn in the unlisted graves. Easy for the left-back, no grave to take care of and no on-going obligation. Further it’s budget friendly. Taking a trip – especially to Catholic countries – it’s another situation. Graves are serious business, now and especially in the past. Over the year my wife and I have developed a routine of visiting grave-yards where ever we go. This time it happened in Madrid where we visited San Isidora Cemetery. Some of the grave – especially the older ones –…
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Malmö – The new parts of the city
The old harbor with the post office and station at the end of the left pier, conversion from industrial harbor to recreational harbor has been going on for years. And also two new areas are growing Bo01 and Varvsstaden (Shipyard city) with the signature building Turning torso. The area around turning torso is build with diversity in appearance, some low family houses and some arrays with flats in several stories. But, its as if turning torso always pops up above it all Lot’s of cafes and restaurants are found in Bo01, and yes of course others than the primary guest can forage on the scraps. The part of the city…
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Dance Show in Kandy
Traditional dances are a part of the attraction in Kandy, so if you haven’t seen on before Kandy is a good place to see one. There are different places near the temple of the sacred Tooth. The show we attended included a final section with fire eating and fire walking.
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Sigirya
Sigirya Fortress or the Lion Rock is an amazing attraction that attracts quiet a few visitors, both foreign and Sri Lankan. The fortress is built on the top of a rock that raises approximately 200 meters above the surrounding plain. It’s built around 455 AD by King Kashyapa. Think about climbing the rock by using only footsteps carved into the rock and probably some scaffolding in order to carry bricks an other materials to the building site at the top. Later staircases have been applied. of course we couldn’t see the view from the fortress to the plain. And did not expect to be able to view the fortress from…
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Cooking Class in Kandy
One way to get into a country’s culture is to learn about their foods. What ingredients is used, how are they used and are there any special handling of the food. Of course you can learn a bit by asking at the restaurant where you are eating. But a much more intense and thorough way is to join a cooking class. Many places cooking classes are offered by restaurants, in Kandy we found “Best Kandy Kitchen” which is not a restaurant. It’s a Sri Lankan family who provides cooking classes in their home. Before starting cooking it was like home, you need to go shopping. We went with the host…
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Dambula Cave Temple
There is something special large structures and sculptures, especially when they are created in times before mechanized aids were applied. It’s simply amazing that cultures before ours also were capable of creating massive installations. The 5 temple caves in Dambulla is no exception from, even though the caves them selves were created by nature, the murals and all the statues were man made. Entrance to the caves is places ~160 meters above the surrounding area, where the parking lot and ticket boot is located. Going up on a stone and concrete stairs, mostly it’s with even steps. But some steps are not well maintained and can be slippery when raining.…
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Wilpattu National Park
This is the biggest and oldest of the Sri Lankan National parks. This means lesser congestion of safari vehicles than is reported from Yale. The morning we entered the park I counted 15 cars in line for entry – when the park opened at 06:15. To enter the park you need to hire a licensed vehicle with a driver. We hired a Toyota Hilux with 6 seats mounted on the cargo bed and a metal canopy – it also had tarpaulin sides to roll down in event of heavy rain – but if it’s done you can’t see much. You shouldn’t expect the driver to be English speaking, he might…
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Deer in Danish Winter
Most of the winters in Denmark isn’t powdered with white dunes of snow. Temperature wise they then to move en the area just above freezing, but whit a lot of rain and heavy clouds. The combination is rather damp and unpleasant, bu we have to live with and so does the animals around us – unless the are hibernating, but few are. So most just adapts. Here I spotted a few deer in the nearby Dyrehaven.
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Winter in the Forrest
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Street art in Buenos Aires
Traveled to Argentina in November 2022 among other to experience another tour around to see street art in Buenos Aires. Street art is every where in the city, of course more in some areas than others. Some of the time we just watched it while walking along the streets. But we also went on an official tour with BA Street Art They are active in getting more official recognition to the street art and in commissioning pieces to more walls in the city.
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Spring has arrived
As expected from looking at the calendar, it’s spring. But now you can see it clearly in the garden and nature
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Street Art in Barcelona
Like any other big city Barcelona has a scene for Street Art. I went with the local street art tour for a walk through the “El Raval” neighborhood, starting at the Museum of Modern Art Barcelona and ending the tour at the “Jardin de tres Xemeneies”. A nice 2 hours walk accompanied by a guide with insights into the local street art scene and access to a hidden gem of a closed city park. But some of the pictures here is not from that tour but can be found in the Barrio Gothico Painted in relation to the marking of that it is 50th years since PP died Stencils and…
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A designed neighborhood
From the 1930’ies the government in Denmark wanted to encourage people to lead a healthy life, this included being physical active and getting into the nature. So they commissioned a beach park to be constructed north of Copenhagen. The Danish architect Arne Jacobsen was handed the task to create the beach park Bellevue. Afterwards the municipality put him in charge of developing the surroundings further, so he designed residential building and a theater. Today the area and the buildings are considered cultural heritage. Bellavista where every apartment has a view towards the sea The area also needed a gas station, so you could fill up on the way to and…
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Sea lions and Elephants
Peninsula Valdes will provide you with a whole plethora of animals to watch – variations along the year on species and locations occurs. In November it seems like everybody are in place. From Puerto Piramides you have easy access to the roads on the peninsula, however it’s primarily gravel roads so driving slowly is mandatory both for comfort and safety. Some animals can actually be reached by foot from Piramides as there are Sea lion colonies just a few kilometers south west of the city. The water around the colony at Punta Piramides was crystal clear when I visited. Allowing to see the Sea lions and birds both above and…
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Birds on Peninsula Valdes
Birds are found every where, some are very similar all over the world. Think you can find the house sparrow at any place on the globe, but other species are specific to the local area. Visiting Peninsula Valdes has given me the opportunity to see birds that I’m not familiar with. A new bird to me was the Southern Giant Petrel. A rather big bird that seems to be liberal about what to eat. At fist glance i was convinced that i had spotted a Laurus Marinus or Great Black bag gull, but the Kelp gull living on the southern hemisphere looks very similar, but it is a different specie.…
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Whale watching
To me whales have always been exotic animals, I cannot reach the and see them during my daily life. Sometimes with a good portion of luck I can see their smaller cousins the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) in Danish coastal waters, but bigger whales are very rarely visitors to Danish sea. So getting to a place like Peninsula Valdes where real big whales sometimes can be spotted from the coast or from a boat is amazing. So we got us places on a boat that could take us out into the Golfo Nuevo, where female and cubs of the Southern Right Whale should be spending the late spring in November.…
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Peninsula Valdez, walking along the beach
My trip to Argentina have taken me to Peninsula Valdez, which is located at the Atlantic coast of Argentina around 42 degrees south and 64 degrees west of Greenwich. So in the middle of November the time of year is at late spring. This means weather can be a little cold but also nice & warm and rather hot, in our 4 days at the peninsula we experienced all. The main attraction for Peninsula Valdez is it’s wildlife and especially the whales. I took a stroll along the beach on the first morning. Starting out about high tide, where everything was covered with water, and the beach was narrow –…
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Buenos Aires – Jardin Botánico Carlos Thays
When visiting big cities you from time to time might need a break from all the noise and crowds. Parks are often such a place you’ll need, here I have found a suggestion for a little quiet moment that also provides entertainment if you like sculptures and plants. The botanical garden in BA provides a collection of flowers and plants – which is the standard feature – but also a series of sculptures. Most of the sculptures are copies of classic artwork, but here copied by Argentinian artists, similar to what can be found around Europe where collections of cast plaster copies of statues are found. The day I visited…
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Red Deer in Jægersborg Deerpark
I took a hike through the deerpark e few days back. As always in September and October it’s amazing to see how the otherwise peacefully Red Deer males turn crazy. You can hear their loud roar around the area, and if they happen to meet each other it can end with a fight.
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Summer in the garden
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4 seconds
Have you ever wondered what will happen in you life in the next 4 seconds? I have often evaluated what will happen – or more often what would I like to happen – to me within the next 1/2 year or so. But honestly the next few seconds, between rarely and never had I thought what will I be then… Saturday 2022-07-16 I was at an Redbull Cliff dive event. Young men jumps of the roof of the Royal Danish Opera into Copenhagen harbor – 27 meters below – women climb 5 meter down before jumping. According to the information the male jumpers spend a little more than 3 seconds…
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Meet the new deer
Again this year, June means that the red deer in Dyrehaven presents their new off-spring. Took a hike through the area and was happy to see some of the new born deer, they are a bit shaky when walking and running about. Then suddenly they – like any other young mammal – gets tired and must have a nap. They just lie down and almost disappear in the tall grass, but the older deer walks around them eating and resting. All pictures was taking with my Nikon D850 fitted on a Tamron 150-600 mm G1 lens. Setting have been 350-600 mm for the images shown here, aperture f/8 with 1/400…
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Getting close to spring
I have tried to take a close look on what is coming forth in the spring.
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Elsinore
You have probably heard about Elsinore, but not as a town with an interesting old town with funny small details to enjoy. Most know the city from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but the other is absolutely worth to spend time on – if you happen to visit the city and want to see something other than the castle.
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A newer part of Copenhagen
Copenhagen have been expanding with new areas over the last 20-30 years. Such an area is of course the harbor that was being needed less and less after gods moved from smaller ships to large container ships. So old warehouses and industrial building have been removed and replaced with accommodation for new citizens. I took a walk on a beautiful sunny spring Saturday to have a look. The part I visited was the southern part of the harbor (Sydhavnen) where new islets have been build with houses placed neighboring the canals, so the bottom flats have direct access to the water – just a few steps down. On the eastern…
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No doubt, it’s spring
Did a hike through a nearby forest – Jægersborg Hegn north of Copenhagen – and got some proof that spring is here.
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Spring is hesitating?
The calendar has shown spring for a month now, some days have been warm and sunny. But some days the morning are cold and frosty, yesterday it even snowed a little, is spring hesitating this year?
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Winter is ending
Measured by the calendar last day of winter is the coming Monday, Tuesday will be spring. Today’s bright sky allow the sun to shine and provide a warming feeling. I was convinced, spring will be here soon. But winter still have a little grip, can smear some frost and ice on the ground, puddles and lakes. Hit a few moments by the rays of the sun, the ice melts. So be out early to document the last days of winter.
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Malik, the Storm
The worst storm in Denmark in 5 years was named Malik. It ended up being classified as a category 2 storm, big media fuss and closed traffic services all over the country. In many other places around the world a category 2 storm would hardly raise an eyebrow. But OK, as you see the worst since October 2016. We don’t have a nature around us that presents many extremes. The highest hill (don’t have mountains) is almost 180.5 meters high, the deepest spot in our seas are 130-140 meters deep, we only have moderate temperatures compared to other places. Coldest measured temperature is -31.2 Celsius, bloody cold but not compared…
