copenhagen museum marathon

Yesterday I began the museum marathon with the Danish Museum of Art and Design. It was quite inspiring. I foun myself most interested in furniture and lighting, especially from the 1950's. Today most of the museums are free of charge, so I tried to start the day with the other design museum, The Danish Design Center, but its only free from 5pm to 9pm (I discover alot of little catches in this "free wednesday" deal throughout the day). So I went the Runde Taarn, a big round tower aka tourist trap, with an excellent view of the city and a really small, but very nice, exhibition hall about halfway up. They had a show on art and industrial design using recycled materials, which was just the sort of thing I was looking for. Next I found the theater museum, which I was looking forward to because I had heard they were featuring a ballet exhibit on August Bournonville, founder of the royal ballet school. It was small, and not very well put together, but the building was a beautiful old small theater, complete with velvet chairs and box seats. There was a big group of 12 year olds that showed up and after 5 minutes of getting bored with the museum they began to put on a very energetic improv ballet show. The museum attendant apologized for all the ruckus as I was leaving, but I didn't have the heart to tell her the kids were the best part. Next I tried the Jewish Museum, it has some very interesting architecture, but it didn't open til 1 (foiled again!). I went back to where my bike was parked and realized there was a museum right there, one I hadn't even intended on visiting, The Thorvaldsen Museum. I just peeked in and found myself surrounded by 100's, maybe a 1000, marble sculptures of god's, goddesses, biblical scenes, and beasts. Not to mention the building had a certain antique charm to it with murals and reliefs lining nearly every surface, and the most exquisite natural lighting. It made for some nice photos. I stopped for a snack break, then pushed on to the National Museum. Of course the best exhibit (Danish WWII photography) was not available on the "free ticket", so I wondered around the historical exhibits, just sort of going through the motions, history has never really been my thing. Next I happened upon the National Art Museum, on accident while I was trying to find the Danske Grafikeres Hus. The building was one of those great big old royal structures, which they added a modern building of glass and white onto the back, leaving the facade of the original building exposed as an interior wall (I don't remember where I ve seen this before, but somewhere on the east coast is a very similar museum.) Anyhow, I loved it. I loved the sculptures, I loved the paintings, I loved the odd film art on the top floor (which I wasn't supposed to see because I had the "free ticket"). It was a very relaxing museum experience compared to the history and archeology. So after 7 museums I am feeling a little tired, but I have a cappucino here in the Danish Design Center cafe and I must see this last exhibit. I hope someone will put me to bed if I fall over.