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110d

I know it's rude to brag, but that's my library.

Looking from an outer pier at Aarhus harbour, Denmark, in towards Dokk1 – Number 1 Dock. This is both the name of the dock and the name of Aarhus Main Library that was built on it about 10 years ago. The library is a huge, striking, four-storey modern geometric building right on the waterfront with picture windows and wraparound terraces and outdoor playgrounds and seating areas and community spaces. I took this photo just after sunset in icy dark. The sea is almost black, the sky dark blue with stormy clouds. To the right of the library, the city skyline including the illuminated clock faces on the cathedral spire. About to berth beside the library: the ferry from the island of Samsø that has just sailed in, lights in its windows, The library is all lit up. The lights are reflected in the seawater.

67d

Glædelig mandag. There is so much happening everywhere. Here's a postcard from #Aarhus to wish you a week that is as calm as this sunset was.

Aarhus harbour, Denmark, a freezing cold bright February twilight. An expanse of empty sea fills the lower half of the scene. It is pond-calm, lightly covered in ice, deep blue, almost black in places. An expanse of empty sky - not a bird, not a cloud - fills the upper half. It is a beautiful shade of lighter blue. Dissecting the sea and sky across the middle: the city skyline, almost in silhouette with a streak of orange behind it where the sun has just set. Warm lights glow from some building windows. We see a slim row of historic and modern buildings that jut up and down at different heights, like a wavelength. The old custom house turret and the cathederal clock tower dominate. The skyline is reflected in perfect inversion in the water.

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73d

I thought the library looked nice in the luscious blue twilight so I snapped a photo. As I did, this swan silently appeared out of nowhere. I assume it had just sailed out of a storybook in the library and that it does this every night when it thinks we're not looking.

#Libraries
#Bibliotek
#Aarhus

Looking from an outer pier at Aarhus harbour, Denmark, back across the water to the city skyline and Dokk1 - Aarhus Main Library. The library is a striking four-storey modern geometric building right on the waterfront with picture windows and terraces all around. The harbour water is like glass, lightly iced over in this freezing weather. The sea and cloudless sky are a deep luscious blue in the twilight this Winter day. The city buildings and the library are illuminated - although the bright lights blurry and unfocused in this snapshot, I confess. Just as I was taking the photo, a big white swan appeared out of apparently nowhere. Suddenly it was just there, sailing silently and slowly and regally. It glows bright white against the deep blue seawater just in front of us, shining alone in the otherwise empty harbour water.

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74d

Glædelig mandag. Just sending you a postcard from #Aarhus, just to say that I hope this week treats you well.

Aerial view of Aarhus, Denmark, from the café garden on the rooftop of Salling department store. Wooden panels from the walkways up here are decorated with twinkly white lights. We’re 30 metres up, at sunset, a late Winter afternoon, looking across the city. Aarhus Domkirke, the cathedral dominates, with its red brick and copper-green turrets and spires, 93m long and with a 96m clock tower. Beyond, we see light-grey sea, Aarhus bay, and a cluster of modern buildings in the mixed-use Aarhus Ø docklands quarter. They have eclectic geometric shapes and heights, many are white and they glow in the setting sun. The sky is cloudless, light blue and thickly streaked with sunset pink. A high clear bright moon has risen.

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81d

Glædelig mandag. Yes it is Monday, but it is also the ‘Winter holiday’ here in Denmark. Our 'half-term’, when many people are off for the week. Here’s a postcard from #Aarhus to wish you a good day, a good week and – if you’re on holidays this week - god vinterferie.

The promenade, mid-city, Aarhus harbour, Denmark, a slightly snowy dawn a few weeks ago. You can't see it, but we are standing on the community basketball and football pitch that's surrounded by netting and wooden benches. We're looking through a gap between them. The bench is covered in white snow that borders the bottom of the scene in horizontal lines. The netting above is dark with big loops, framing the upper half of the scene at a cocked angle. The sky is purple-blue with a vivid orange flash on the horizon where the sun is about to rise up from behind the opposite dock. The dock is in silhouette, dominated by a 75 metre angular crane rising into the sky like a gigantic robot giraffe.

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88d

Happy First Monday Not In January! Glædelig mandag. Just sending you a postcard from #Aarhus to wish you a good day and a good week.

Aarhus harbour after dark during festival week at the start of September. We are standing on the promenade in front of the library, where the Samsø island ferry docks. It’s for bikes and pedestrians only. There’s no ferry right now, just the white railings of the gangway, all lit up in a criss-cross of vertical and horizontal lines. Beyond, the harbour water is calm and black below a black night sky. Across the water, historic and modern buildings are all lit up, many in rainbow colours. There is a big variation in shapes and heights, giving the illuminated skyline a sense of a wavelength. The lit-up buildings are reflected in the pond-still sea. It’s a poor, blurry, grainy, messy snapshot that no self-respecting tourist board would put on an actual postcard, but there’s party light and colour and a sense of civic festiveness, I think.

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95d

I woke up and not only was it Monday, but it was still January. Oh well. Glædelig mandag anyway. Here's a postcard from #Aarhus to wish you a good day and a good week.

A December morning, not long before sunrise, water’s edge, mid-city Aarhus, Denmark. The sky is cloudless dark blue with orange on the horizon line.The sea is calm dark blue with orange reflectiobns. On the opposite piers, silhouettes of buildings and cranes in different shapes and heights. Sailing by the port opening, a gigantic cruise ship, one of those that has room for about 5000 guests. Dots of warm yellow light glow from windows in the ship and in dockland buildings. Just where we’re standing, festive lights twinkle from decorations on the stern of a boat anchored to our right and wrapped around the promenade railings. From this perspective, the railing lights criss-cross the whole bottom half of the scene and the giant ship is sailing across them.

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102d

Glædelig mandag. Today is Monday. There is a lot going on in the world. Here's a postcard from #Aarhus to wish you an uninteresting week in which nothing eventful or surprising or consequential happens.

Aerial view of Aarhus, Denmark, from the café garden on the rooftop of Salling department store. We’re 30 metres up, mid-city, looking east towards the harbour, late afternoon, a January sunset. Tall grasses on the roof frame the bottom and left of the scene. Beyond them, city roofs and landmarks including the cathedral spire, giant industrial cranes at the harbour, and tall oblong and triangular apartment blocks. The sky is cloudless and a lovely bluey-purple colour with a streak of orange-pink on the horizon line. The moon has risen, unusually bright and clear, high, the only object in the sky.

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109d

The second Monday of January feels even more Mondayish than the first Monday of January, somehow. Glædelig mandag, nevertheless. Here's a postcard from #Aarhus to wish you a good day and a good week.

Sunrise over the harbour, Aarhus, Denmark. A few weeks ago. The sky is light grey and white with dark grey clouds. There's a stripe of sunrise orange behind the skyline of dark buildings, cranes and a greenhouse dome on the opposite piers. The sea ripples, metal-blue. At our feet, bordering the bottom of the scene, a little mound of rocks at the edge of the promenade. Growing up from a crack between them: a little hardy plant with green leaves and tiny, pretty yellow flowers. Delicate in appearance, yet thriving in freezing cold and stone, facing open sea.

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116d

Monday. In a week with no festivities and five working days. Oh well. Glædelig mandag. Here's a postcard from #Aarhus to wish you a good day and a good week.

Aarhus harbour, mid-afternoon, january a year ago, just before sunset. The sky is cloudless and pastel blue with a strip of pink along the horizon. The pink is reflected in the calm sea. Beyond, to the left of the port opening, geometric skyscraper buildings - an oblong, a triangle, a clock tower - glow gold in the setting sunlight. On the industrial dock opposite, a 75 m blue harbour crane and warehouses including one whose facade is painted with a line-drawing portrait a man. Beside that, a facade painted in the colours of the Ukrainian flag. To our left, foreground, we can just see the prow of the a local sightseeting steamer, Helene of Aarhus. It is white with a red trim and festive lights twinkle on her mast. The surface of the sea right in front of us, stretching metres out from the water’s edge, is covered in a thin layer of ice. The ice has cracks in it that give the effect of a jigsaw puzzle of paving slabs.

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120d

If you think my New Year's Resolution was to stop taking yet another photo of the same harbour yet again, then you have another toot coming.

#Aarhus

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130d

‘Twas the Monday before Christmas. Glædelig mandag. Here's a Christmas card from #Aarhus to wish you a good day and a good week and a glædelig jul.

Taken in a snowstorm last December, a view of a snow-covered pier at the harbour, mid-city, Aarhus, Denmark. Falling snowflakes blur in streaks from a grey, snow-filled sky. In front of us, an expanse of grey-white snow with just a few footprints in it. To the right, a snowy slope with straggly tall grasses poking up through the snow. Rising beyond in the distance, barely visible through the fog of snow, the shapes of an oblong and a triangular building, misty and grey, like ghost buildings. To the left, a clump of bushy evergreen trees. Their branches are trimmed in snow, as if they’re auditioning for a part in a Christmas card. Everything is muted, almost monochrome. Except, in the middle, we see the city’s name spelled out in separate, giant, vivid red block letters, each about 3 metres high. A A R H U S. This is the Aarhus city sign that greets visitors arriving by sea. Not to be outdone by mere trees, each letter is Christmasly edged in snow too.

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137d

My neighbour's dog is wearing antlers, my boss is wearing a Santy hat, my colleague is wearing a jumper with Christmas tree lights and it's the last Monday at the office this year. But you're not fooling me, Monday. I see you. I recognise you. You're still Monday. Anyway. Glædelig mandag. Here's a postcard from #Aarhus to wish you a good day and a good week.

Standing on an outer edge of a pier at the harbour in Aarhus, Denmark, looking back towards the city skyline. It’s a freezing day, last December, noon, but there’s hardly any light. Everything seems monochrome. The sky is a blob of grey. The seawater is black black black cold black. It slices a dark triangle through the scene, stopping at a point where it meets the bright white snow on the pier to the right. There isn’t a person, boat or bird in sight. Beyond, the city skyline with picturesque historic buildings, dominated by the snow-covered cathedral spire and the snow-covered turrets on the old customs house. The older buildings are redbrick, a slight tinge of colour among all the black and grey and white, but muted by the falling snow. The skyline looks sort of sepia, as if this were an old photo of the city.

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144d

And suddenly it was Monday again, again. Glædelig mandag. Here's a postcard from #Aarhus to wish you a good day and a good week.

Mid-afternoon, the sun is just setting, we're shivering on an outer pier looking back across the freezing cold black-grey harbour water to the city skyline here in Aarhus, Denmark. There's a long line of historic and modern buildings on the coast road, many with yellow lights just come on in their windows as the sky darkens. There's an icy sheen on the water. Just sailing by, a local sightseeing paddle-wheel boat, white and red, decked in Christmas bunting and lights. Reflections of the white lights are twinkling around in the black water, as if the fish have a Christmas tree down there.

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151d

Glædelig mandag. Monday, again. But it’s the first Monday in December, so Monday's wearing a Christmas jumper and a Santy hat. But it's still Monday. Here's a postcard from #Aarhus to wish you a good day and a good week.

Standing inside artist Olafur Eliasson‘s ‘Your rainbow panorama', a 150m circular walkway with glass panels in a shifting rainbow of colours. It is 50 metres above the city, on the top of Aros art museum in mid-city Aarhus, Denmark. The glass colours, the time of day, the weather change the mood and hue of the 360º views across the city as you walk along. In this photo, it’s after dark, so the glass seems both transparent and black, dotted with reflections. Outside, we can see city lights – car lights, window lights, illuminated facades. Most prominent is the city hall clock tower, a symbol of the city, illuminated in green. And if you squint a bit, you can make out the twinkling lights of the city’s Christmas tree on the square outside city hall - Rådhuset. And the ice-skating rink in front of the concert hall – Musikhuset.

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158d

Glædelig mandag. Greetings, Monday. Greetings to you, as we meet another Monday. Here's a postcard from #Aarhus to send you good wishes for a good week.

Aarhus, Denmark. Mid-afternoon, shortly before sunset, freezing, snow just about to start falling, standing on an outer pier at the harbour looking across the water, back towards the city centre. Across from us, the skyline with historic and modern buildings including the cathedral spire; the old custom house turrets; yellow light in all the windows looking cosy in the dying light. To the left, the brightly lit waterfront library with the blue-and-white ferry to Samsø docked in front of it. The sky and the sea look as cold as they are – ice-cold grey. On our dock, a few centimetres in front of us, a navy-blue ship with a red deck. Its name gleams white in the dusk: AROS Århus. Aros is the old name of the city. From this perspective, the ship’s elongated low deck seems to underline the city on the far side.

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165d

Glædelig mandag. Just sending you a postcard from #Aarhus, just to say that I hope this week treats you well

Aarhus harbour after dark during festival week in September. Standing on the library terrace looking across the water to historic and modern buildings all lit up, many in rainbow colours. Just edging into view to our right, the prow of a local wooden trawler. It is covered in seaweed and barnacles; the wheelhouse is white with red and blue trim; the first letters of the boat name Jakob are seen in white. The water is black and still - the city lights and buildings are reflected, inverted, in it.

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172d

Glædelig mandag. Just sending you a postcard from #Aarhus, just to say that I hope this week treats you well.

We’re on an outer pier at Aarhus Harbour, standing under a gigantic industrial lifting mechanism that covers the width of the street, rolling on rails on either side. The metal is bright turquoise-green with railings and beams and exciting spoked wheels criss-crossing at exciting diagonals. It looks like what I would have built with my Meccano set in the 70s if I hadn’t been given a Sindy doll instead. The cloudless sky and calm sea are deep blue. The mechanism’s geometry is casting nice shadow patterns. Badly framed by me, off-centre, through the gaps in the mechanism, we see the city: the waterfront library, the coast road, the mid-city skyline including the cathedral and the former customs house with turrets and spires.

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179d

Glædelig mandag. Just sending you a postcard from #Aarhus, just to say that I hope this week treats you well.

In the gardens on top of Salling department store on the main shopping street in the centre of Aarhus. We are 30 metres above the city, looking east to the harbour and coast and open sea. Tall grasses in the roof garden frame the bottom of the image, bending in a breeze, glowing vivid green in sunlight. Beyond, the city – deep blue sea and deep blue sky, mostly clear but with low lines of fluffy white clouds low on the horizon. Between us and the sea, the city skyline, dominated by the 93-metre-high spire of the redbrick cathedral with copper-green roofs. Jutting up in different places, other landmark buildings, modern and historic. The feeling of the scene: we are peacefully a part of the city, in the heart of it, yet outside the bustle – an aerial oasis.

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186d

Glædelig mandag. Just sending you a postcard from #Aarhus, just to say that I hope this week treats you well.

Water’s edge, mid-city Aarhus. To the left, a pier lined by buildings in distinctive triangular and rectangular shapes. These include Kampanilen, a 19-storey red-brick apartment tower with a gigantic built-in glass window near the top that is an actual clock. Across the water, industrial cranes like giant’s chairs. The sky is light blue with wispy white clouds. The sea is rippling with luscious deep blues. Dotted around in the sea below cable tracks, bright white water-sport ramps. Alone on the water, in the middle, a wakeboarder. They have zoomed from the left towards where we’re standing, creating a wide wake of white foam that stops abruptly in front of us as they’ve just turned around to go back. An energetic sight.

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184d

There’s so much to be anxious about right now, so I thought you might like to know that they painted the night sky inside the bus shelter outside the Ole Rømer Observatory.

#Aarhus