reading ribe!

i have a lot to be thankful for today. midterms are over, it’s really starting to feel like spring, and i just got back from a really lovely weekend in ribe. ribe is denmark’s oldest town and i think it could easily pass as one of it’s most charming (although i guess i haven’t been to too many small towns at this point). it was an optional “academic adventure trip” that i signed up for through DIS and it was definitely worth it— i had a great time! the town of about 8000 lies on denmark’s west coast. although we drove literally across the entire country to get there, it took less than four hours from copenhagen. as a point of reference, when i once drove across the united states, it took ten days.

the 16 of us (14 students plus two staff) stayed in ribe’s clean, orderly and generally charming hostel. i most thoroughly enjoyed their extensive breakfast buffet, coffee vending machine (although too much cheap coffee could be dangerous!) and free souvenir chapstick! i had two lovely roommates, kerry and meredith, and we shared a terrific view of the town from our room.

on saturday morning we started bright and early with a lecture from carsten, our tour leader and a near-omnipotent history professor at dis. he teaches my history of copenhagen class— which has almost single-handedly inspired me to go into urban planning— and i was thrilled to learn that his undeniable enthusiasm for urban history and witty side comments only increased on this extracurricular trip. he is the most wise dane i’ve met so far. we were also accompanied by henriette, a wiry 50-something accountant at dis, and carter, a very disheveled old danish bus driver who chain-smoked out of his wooden pipe. my fellow dis students were all really nice and we made for a rather reserved but genuinely engaged group.

we then had two hours to wander ribe on our own before meeting up for a tour of a monastery. interesting fact: ribe used to house 14 different churches/monasteries (at this time the population was below 8000) but today only two still exist. judging from the map we were worried that two hours wouldn’t be enough time to visit all the destinations carsten suggested, but it was more than enough time. the place is tiny. i absolutely fell in love with the narrow cobblestone slipper (i think that means alleys in danish) and titled, colorful and compact half-timbered houses. each winding street led to more and more adorable homes just waiting to be put onto a postcard of traditional denmark. ribe is famous for its doors and i know why— nearly every house has an ornate, unique pattern on its door. this makes for some very interesting wandering around!

later in the afternoon we met to tour the monastery and then, the famous cathedral built around 1150! we climbed about 250 steps to stand on the top of the cathedral’s tallest tower and were presented with the most spectacular view of this dense, red-roofed maze of a town. we completely lucked out on the weather because although early march is generally rather grim and cold, the sun shone for us! going at this time of year did have some benefits— we were pretty much the only tourists in town; i’ve heard it gets packed in the summers. we got an hour-long lecture/tour on the details of the cathedral and how it compares to others across europe. carsten gave us each a nice little sketchbook and we had some time to make our own analytical sketches of the interior. i hadn’t just sat down and tried to sketch anything for quite some time— probably since i went drawing with my mom and brother when i was a kid. i loved it. clearly i had some trouble making my drawing realistic but it forced me to pay attention to each detail and it produced a personal, valuable memento. i think i’m going to keep my sketchbook on me and try drawing more of copenhagen!

our day continued with a nature walk to observe the “black sun.” this is a natural phenomenon that occurs each year as millions of tiny black starling birds take to the sky around ribe to train for their journey north in the spring. we trekked through deep mud and ran into some friendly donkeys (behind a fence) in order to see the birds. after about 20 minutes half of us left, pleased with the smallish but mystifyingly in-sync flock of birds that we saw; the other half of the group told us there were ten times that amount just a few minutes later.

today’s activities included the ribe viking museum, a national treasure chock-full of ancient artifacts. ribe was founded as a market town before the viking era, around the year 700. it was an important trading place and acted as the main port between continental europe and the north. it seems like a great place to be an archaeologist! we had a long tour of the museum, more free time (which i spent sketching chairs in the museum café…), a traditional danish lunch buffet of smorrebrod and herring, and then another brief bus ride to the east coast of denmark. we were back in copenhagen by 6 pm and were greeted by a full dose of sun. if it is that sunny at 6 pm tomorrow i will know for sure that spring is on its way!!