Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Ah Copenhagen, What a town!





It was my first time to Denmark, actually I lie, my second. I had emailed my mother while there saying how much at home I weirdly felt there and how familiar it felt, she told me I has already been there as a baby and she and I had walked the streets and gardens before! Spooky! Copenhagen is a truly beautiful small but rich city, rich in so many ways. Like many a Stylist, I have a love of Danish design so for me it truly was like being a kid in a candy store. As you may have noticed my blog entries have been to a minimum lately, but I am glad to say I have so much to write about, particularly Denmark and Germany to follow..stay with me!   


Thanks to the super talented photographer Ditte Isager www.ditteisager.com who is incidentally Danish and owns one of the cutest apartments in Copenhagen (of which I had seen pictures previously), I had a list long of places to visit and visit them we did. One of the areas where Ditte’s apartment is actually located is an area called Christianshavn.

Christianshavn is an artificial island neighborhood; it was founded in the early 17th century by Christian IV as part of his extension of the fortifications of Copenhagen. Originally it was laid out as an independent privileged merchant's town with inspiration from Dutch cities but it was soon incorporated into Copenhagen proper. Dominated by canals, it is the part of Copenhagen with the most nautical atmosphere and who doesn’t love a bit of nautical! The thing that struck me predominantly was the color palette of that particular area in the buildings that lined the streets, so many slightly dusty tones of saffron yellow, tomato red, dutch blue, powder grays, sorbet greens and all with just the right amount of patina, You could not have asked for a more perfect combination of colors, I was so inspired by the combinations. I also I loved the strangely out of place Eiffel bar, straight out of a 1950’s postcard and Christian's Church, a magnificent Rococo church, with its interior having a crisp icy feel paired with a dash of gold trimming.

Christianshavn developed a bohemian reputation in the 1970s and it is now a fashionable, diverse and lively part of the city with its own distinctive personality, However nearby "Freetown" Christiania, is another world, Half expecting a Danish Janis Joplin or Jimi Hendrix to pop their head around a corner, The area is seen as an independent community in an area of abandoned military, barracks, It seems to appear as a "city within the city". An old hippy town that has seen better days, A little scary really, I hopped back to the magical world of Christianshavn in a flash, It’s much more my cup of weed! Thanks Ditte for the introduction, I am indebted!

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