Where the heart lies ... by invitation

I've been an infrequent participant in the monthly international blog party that I was kindly invited to join last year. Work and other stuff tends to get in the way of blogging, zut alors.  But this month's theme was not only a breeze but a pleasure to contribute to: "Your home town ... whether it be where you live now and consider home or where you grew up". 

For some of us, defining 'home town' is tricky. Cape Town is neither where I was born/grew up, nor where I live now. But I tend to agree with Karin at La Pouyette (whose post on the Périgord which she now considers home you should see here) that 'in the end I'm at home wherever my heart is'. And a large tract of my heart is here, for reasons which, since it's late in the day, I will express with few words and probably far too many images ...

Cape Town is where two oceans meet (the Atlantic and the Indian), at the tip of Africa ...

on either side of a series of breathtaking mountain ranges ...

and lush valleys with vineyards ...

Boschendal (top) and Groot Constantia (bottom) wine estates


It's a place where eating out becomes a feast for all the senses ...

Babylonstoren farm & Babel restaurant, above

on a vineyard terrace 

Uitsig wine estate (top), Delaire estate & restaurant (4 bottom pics)


in a forest under the mountain

Gardener's Cottage restaurant, Montebello, Newlands


or a cobbled patio in the old quarter of town 

All above pics in & around Cape Quarter, Waterkant, and La Petite Tarte coffee shop


A place of enterprise, creative spirit and hope

Greenmarket Square, Cape Town city centre, weekend market (above & below)


a landscape of colour

 landscape of contrasts 

Imizamo Yethu township, Hout Bay 

wild nature and nature's art of wild imaginings

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens with Zimbabwean Mambo stone sculptures (top collage); wood-carvings by Right Mukare at Montebello Design Studios, Newlands (bottom collage)

gardens that flower and flourish year-round

Montebello, Newlands


vibrant sounds and celebrations

Cape Town's V&A Waterfront (above collages)

All photos taken May 2011 on my last trip to Cape Town. Happy to say that I will be there next month to enjoy all these places and more.

And as a footnote, I've been fascinated to discover, from scanning the other contributors to this international post, that not only has the town I currently live in been featured here, but also Cape Town by another blogger here (who has similar difficulties restraining her enthusiasm for this amazing city!)

Danish Design, Then and Now

Legendary Danish design - think clean lines, bold colours and shapes, natural materials, functional beauty - is in evidence everywhere you go in Copenhagen ... from the Arne Jacobsen chairs in the airport arrivals hall, through hotels, shops and restaurants.

For shopping, Illums Bolighus, on Amagertorv 10, was Scandi-designer heaven in one store - three floors of modern and classical design in stunning layouts. I could have spent a day on each floor, so absorbed in fantasy house-design that I forgot to take a single photo.

Products from Illums Bolighus online store: www.illumsbolighus.dk


Were I to make a modest personal contribution to the Danish economy (ahem), these Danish designers would be high on my wish-list ...

1.  A piece of jewellery from Georg Jensen, whose iconic silver designs in organic shapes need no introduction. Perhaps a pair of moonlight grape earrings in silver with amethyst drops ... 

2.  An item of clothing from Malene Birger (of Day Birger & Mikkelsen) or, more affordably, perhaps a bright red coat from Bitte Kai Rand to lend a shot of colour to one's spring wardrobe after winter's monochromes ...

(and take a look here at Nordicbliss, for shots of Bitte's home in Denmark, which have me in a state of deep house-envy). 

3.  A pair of Ilse Jacobsen's trademark lace-up vulcanised rubber boots (these are coveted items by women in London for facing the rain in style combined with warm, functional Scandinavian practicality) ...

Image sources: ilse-jacobsen.com, mushoe.blogspot.com


4.  A stylish notebook from Ordning & Reda in bright, bold colours ...

www.ordning-reda.com

(though technically Swedish in origin, O&R are now owned by Bodum, so I  consider them Danish!)

I wondered where it all began, if one could find traces of this distinctive style in earlier times. We set off to explore the homes of the Danish royal family (the Danes, incidentally, are proud to claim that their kingdom is the oldest in Europe). At Amalienborg, the four adjacent Rococo palaces and Frederik's church loomed hazily in fine mist and icy drizzle, the square almost empty of people ...

This is where the queen and her family actually live, though the absence of a flag suggested she was sensibly absent at this time of year, probably somewhere warmer. I loved the guards in their bearskin hats, smart greatcoats and bright blue trousers. Inside and out, these palaces were all understated, clean elegance, with the splashes of bright red that seem to pop up in old and new Denmark ... 

Below, the dome of Frederik's church, modelled after St Peter's in Rome, from the outside and in ...

Rosenborg castle was entirely different in style, rich colours in the landscapes and interiors. This was originally the summer palace, out in the country, though is now surrounded by Copenhagen city.

It still stands in the grounds of the beautiful Kongens Have park gardens, which in summer is a popular place for picnics ...

... and in winter had its own kind of beauty with bare trees and frozen lake.

The interior was all opulence, ornate gold and gilt, chandeliers, portraits and tapestries ...

Tapestry detail

Photo credit note: Most of these interior detail pics, including the jewellery below, were taken by Younger Daughter (aka Bella^TM ), with my nifty little Canon Ixus.

Tiny in actual size, this elephant pendant is part of the jewellery collection.

Shiny gold and bold reds again in all these royal symbols ... 

And it's a long way indeed from these ornate thrones, guarded by three life-sized golden lions, to the simple clean shapes of the Arne Jacobsen Egg or Ant chair ...

www.designmuseum.org

A different sort of throne, the royal loo was a reminder that even kings and queens lacked conveniences we take for granted. Though look at the gorgeous tile design they gazed upon!

Photo credit: Bella


and in order not to end on a lavatorial note, a final view of lovely Copenhagen across the gardens from Rosenborg palace ...

PS: Re my thoughts in the previous post on spoken Danish, a comment from Judith led me to look up the pronunciation of  (a berry dessert). Go here and click on the pronunciation to find out just how difficult it might be to learn to speak Danish well!

Cool Copenhagen

I paid a visit to this lovely lady last week ...

... mostly because, thanks to some borderline-obsessive Danish TV-drama viewing over the past year (The Killing and, more recently the brilliant Borgen), Copenhagen has started to feel something like my virtual home and the sounds of Danish as familiar as a mother-tongue. I have learned to say yes, no, fine, thank-you, sorry, as well as swear quite fluently in Danish.

As it happened the latter skill proved unnecessary, since the Danes were all so perfectly nice and friendly, for helvede and for fanden ... and the former words never got an airing either, as it turns out the Danes speak English rather better than the English.

This is Nyhavn, the colourful port - a pedestrian area lined with restaurants and cafes with outdoor tables, the brightly painted buildings once the mansions of Copenhagen's wealthy citizens. Hans Christian Andersen lived and wrote here most of his life.

The boats, grounded in ice last week, were a reminder that Copenhagen goes back to the Viking era of traders-and-raiders and kings with completely marvellous names like Sweyn Forkbeard, Harald Bluetooth and Sigrid the Haughty. 

There were no traces of warlike behaviour in these congenial citizens enjoying the sunshine on a freezing winter day ...

Stretching inland from the sea, the canal of Nyhavn ends in Kongens Nytorv (the King's Square) ...

Yes, that's the French flag - their embassy occupies this prime bit of real estate in the fantastic Thott Palace.

... and the downtown shopping district beyond ...

Hanging out at the Storkspringvandet. (That means 'stork fountain', illustrating that so many Danish words are tantalisingly close to English, yet sound completely different spoken - the pronunciation, for fanden! Where do the syllables go?)

Copenhagen has been repeatedly voted amongst the top few cities for quality of life, is recognised as one of the most environmentally friendly cities in the world, voted 'coolest city' in Europe and city with the happiest people! It also has more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other city in Scandinavia and is home to the 'best restaurant in the world' (Noma has topped the Restaurant magazine list for the last two years). Not too shabby for a little country.

Flower sellers on a square (the prices not quite as frightening as they appear: roughly 9 Danish kroner to £1)

Our restaurant ventures were rather closer to the 'cheap & cheerful' end of the range than the Michelin end, but no less appealing. Our very first stop, as we ventured down the road from our hotel in need of lunch, was a fortuitous find: the outside, with a bicycle and old wooden crate propped up against a zinc table was irresistible ... 

... and the inside even better. Told & Snaps turned out to be an authentic Danish smørrebrød (open sandwich of rye bread with various fabulous toppings) restaurant. On a week-day lunchtime it was bustling and busy (a good sign), with a clientele that was exclusively, apart from us, local (another good sign). Shrimps from Greenland and a cold beer, a local brew, really hit the spot and made us feel positively Danish already, despite being fresh off the plane.

Told & Snaps, Toldbodgade 2 1253 København 

(Note the photo of Crown Prince Frederik and his Australian wife, Princess Mary on the wall of Told & Snaps above. Images of the queen and her family are in evidence everywhere in Copenhagen, and it seems that the Danes genuinely like their royals, who generally seem to behave like mensch themselves).

More smørrebrød (and excellent Danish beer - this is after all the home of Carlsberg) was to be had at Cafe Europa, in a square in the heart of Strøget, the fashionable shopping centre of Copenhagen, where you can watch the world go by through huge picture windows ...

Cafe Europa, 1 Amagertorv, Copenhagen

Danish pastries are more than a cliché in Copenhagen: every second shop seems to be a bakery, and in the streets your senses are assailed with delicious smells of fresh pastries from open stalls. At the stylish, friendly Cafe Royal you could indulge (and we did, going back for more) in ruinously good cake served (like this chocolate cake dusted with the royal family's crest) on classic blue Royal Copenhagen china, from their flagship shop which is right next door ...

Café Royal, Amagertorv 6.

At night, despite being mid-winter, outside tables are not stripped and stacked up, but dressed for dinner ...

warm blankets draped over the chairs ...

I loved how the minus 5 degrees C temperatures did not stop people gathering outdoors (below for warming Irish coffees after dinner) ...

... though everything conspired to drawing one inside ...

'Burning love' was on offer here, on an outside menu board, and a burning fire within ...

The cosy interior of Heering (Nyhavn 15), dates back to the 16th century.

Back to the iconic image of Copenhagen, den lille havfrue, aka the little mermaid, who apparently does not feel the cold, surrounded by remnants of snow ... Poor dear, she's been vandalised, had her head cut off twice, an arm severed and been knocked off her pedestal by explosives, yet she still manages to look so serene ...

and though that sea may look like it's moving, it was frozen solid ...