Getting back into Copenhagen from our day trip to Aarhus on Thursday, we went to visit Bagsvaerd, a church in a suburb of the larger city. The interior of the church glows, as almost every surface, from walls and ceiling to carpet, is white. Soft interior light is provided by lines of bare light bulbs, and the curvy ceiling diffusely reflects the sunlight along its coils.

On Friday, we visited Grundtvigs Kirke, a gigantic monolith of a modern Gothic cathedral, that looks from the front like it could have popped straight out of Gotham City in a Batman comic. The church, as well as an apartment and office complex was built in the late 1920s. We then hiked out to the beach to see Arken, a contemporary art museum. As the art was a little too 'fetishist' for my taste, I only took a brief turn through the museum before heading out to take a gander at the beach. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing pretty hard, so hanging out on the beach was made pretty miserable by the rather violent showers of flying sand that kept getting kicked up.

That evening, several of us went to go see the famous Little Mermaid statue on the Copenhagen waterfront. The statue is somewhat smaller than I thought it would be - it's about life-size in scale. It sits on a rock, looking out to sea. (sadly, or humorously, depending on how you look at it, she looks forlornly at the industrial factories across the water, not terribly fairytale-ish.) Apparently, in 1964 the head of the statue was sawed off and stolen years ago, and while the theft was treated with as much priority as an actual murder case, the head was never found, so a new one was made and re-attached to the statue. (she undergoes frequent vandalism, and has had her head removed twice, plus a failed attempt, her arm sawed off, as well as frequently being doused in paint.

On Saturday we had a free day to complete our town center projects, and Sunday we presented them to the group after a visit to another Copenhagen architectural firm. Our last day of the Scandinavian leg of the tour, we all got ready to head our separate ways for our off-week, leaving early Monday morning.