Day 172 - Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek / National Museum / BOARD GAME NIGHT

Hello friends. As promised, we will now recap Michael's final day of København fun.

Michael and I first took a trip to the National Museum of Denmark. It is always free and gives visitors a nice look at Danish history. I particularly enjoy the first floor - blogged about earlier - covering early Danish history from stone to bronze to iron age. It felt like I was playing Civilization!

Our Danish friend Lasse wants me to go here with him. At least I think that's the place. He described it as a three age educational experiment - choose stone, bronze, or iron age and live there for up to a month! Worst. Vacation. Ever.

As opposed to our last visit, this time - with Emily now joining us - we ventured up to the 2nd and 3rd floors. These floors cover Danish history from the end of the iron age up to today. There was a section on Danish toys and shockingly, no LEGO.

At this point, I was regrettably getting a little museum-ed out. It doesn't help that the museum's upper levels are built as some sort of maze designed to keep patrons in. Like some sort of...casino. I walked around for far too long through the same rooms trying to find an exit. Sadly, there were no drinks or gaming tables or other distractions to make my confusion less taxing.

Once we made it out of the National Museum, it was on to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. It is free on Sundays. The atrium / garden alone makes it well worth checking out.

The museum also houses a very nice collection of antiquities, Danish art, and other paintings / sculpture / etc collected over the years by J.C. Jacobsen. One of the more interesting exhibits was The Ishøj Prince, which displays a recently discovered iron age burial site complete with Roman relics including two nearly-complete Roman circus beakers. The beakers in this case were painted with nautical themes. I think that one involved dolphins.

The other traveling exhibition was Degas' Method, covering a wide range of works attempting to show how / why Degas became, well, Degas. Great exhibit but soooo much text. Collin's brain was nearing overload and as such, Emily and I went home while Michael was left to soak in more culture on his own.

Then it was time to eat hamburgers. And play board games.

If you didn't already know this about me, I have always loved gaming of all shapes and sizes. My excellent German friend Christoph has, through the years, introduced me to great games like this, this, and this. Because I can't resist, that last game has cards like this.

Yes, that guy on the top left is wearing a colander on his head. And yes, that colander says "born to chill". And yes, that guy on the bottom left is definitely Dave Grohl.

This night was about a new game. Village. I find that - most of all - I really enjoy the variety of play style in these games. So many of these really strange games have game play that is, sadly, very difficult to describe. In other words, you need to play them.

Anyway, Village is weird. And fun. And addictive. The basic concept is this; each player has a "family" with many members that can perform different tasks on the game-board. Each task costs hours and / or resources. There are many different areas of tasks - the workshop, travel, the church, the council, etc. As "time" moves on, members of the "family" die off and new generations are born. There are a million different things to do / ways to play. I repeat, this game is fun.

Michael dominated, winning both games of Carcassone and, IIRC, the only game of Village. Fun times were had by all.

And that wraps it up. Thanks for visiting København Michael! We hope you had fun.