Ringkøbing & Skanderborg Western Denmark Study Tour

I just arrived back from a 4-day Western Denmark study tour with my International Business Core Class. The purpose of the trip was to gain first-hand insight and a better understanding of business strategies using visits to 3 companies and to experience various aspects of Danish culture outside of Copenhagen.

Wednesday September 10:

Visit to the NASDAQ OMX Nordic Exchange in Copenhagen - we were given a presentation by their Communications Manager who explained how the NASDAQ OMX Group Inc., serves as a central gateway to the Nordic and Baltic financial markets.

Outside of the stock exchange

Thursday September 11:

A: Copenhagen   B: Silkeborg Art Museum 

C: Jyske Bank A/S   D: Ringkøbing

Thursday we left Copenhagen at 9:00 via bus and head towards Jutland (the large land-mass to the west of Copenhagen). Our first stop was the Silkeborg Museum of Art in Silkeborg. The museum has a large collection of art from both Danish artists and a selection of artists from Eastern and Western-Europe. We were fed lunch in the museum cafe and then given a short tour, followed by some time to explore the museum on our own.

Artwork

Sculpture

After visiting the art museum we headed 15 minutes west to the Jyske Bank Headquarters in Silkeborg. The bank started in 1967 when 4 local banks in Central Jutland merged to gain a competitive edge within the banking sector and formed Jyske Bank. Today they operate 119 Danish branches, making it the second largest independent Danish bank. We were given a presentation and tour. In 2006, Jyske Bank introduced a complete remodel of their banks (basically made every bank look like an Apple store). They are trying to break away from the typical "boring" bank and make their banks more of an experience by incorporating a free coffee and tea area, a small library, and they eliminated the counter found at most banks and installed modular tables).

Jyske Bank

Headquarters

Awww. The Trading Floor (my dream)

Inside the branch (notice the modular banking counters)

Notice how it looks like an Apple store

After the Jyske Bank presentation and tour we got back on the bus and went to the Danhostel Ringkøbing. We had dinner as a group at the Hotel Ringkøbing, where we enjoyed a traditional danish meal: herring, shrimp, pan-fried meat balls, brie and crackers and for desert we had amazing waffle cakes.

Hotel Ringkøbing -- Dinner

Ringkøbing Harbor

Statue

Friday September 12:

A: Ringkøbing   B: Vestas Wind Systems

C: North Sea   D: Skanderborg   E: Århus Theater

We began the day by visiting Vestas Wind Systems A/S, which is the world-leader in wind power with over 20 years experience. They currently hold 23% market share and have installed more than 35,500 wind turbines in 63 countries on 5 continents. In fact, their windmills generate more than 60 million MWh of energy a year. 

A few more interesting facts:

* 1 of their windmills can produce enough energy for the lifetime of one household in 2 hours.

* Each year a Vestas windmill produces the same amount of electricity as 7,598 million barrels of oil.

* Every 4 hours, Vestas installs a new windmill

We were treated like royalty at Vestas with a presentation by their CFO, a factory tour, lunch, and given a recruitment speech (they plan on hiring 28,000 new employees in the next 5 years and are building new facilities in China, Cananda and the US (Colorado)). Overall, we had a great visit to Vestas Wind Systems.

Vestas Wind Systems, Ringkøbing

Presentation

Factory Tour

The Nacelle (Holds the turbine, generator & blades)

Standing in front of the Nacelle

Tour of a local Vestas wind farm

After touring the windfarm, we made a quick stop at the North Sea or "Vesterhavet" where we were able to dip our toes in the frigid water! We even saw the remains of barracks from the 2nd World War.

Kartik and Yours Truly

Barrack from WWII

After a great day at Vestas and the North Sea, we drove 3 hours East to the second largest city in Denmark, Århus, where we had tickets to "The Beach Boys in the Wild Wild West." And yes it was awesome! Click on the link and you'll see some video footage of the performance. Just think, beach boys meets the wild wild west with Danish humor. It was very bizarre, but so different and unique. I loved it.

Teaterkoncert!

Århus Theater

After the theater performance we headed back to Skanderborg, where we had a bondfire at the hostel. 

Skanderborg Hostel (felt like a summer camp)

The lake that the hostel was located on

Saturday September 13:

A: Skanderborg  B: Odense

C: Copenhagen

Our last day of the study tour was the cultural day, so we stopped in Odense to visit the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, who is a worldwide acclaimed poet and writer of fairytales (including the little mermaid). The city was essentially a tourist trap! 

Church where H.C. Andersen was baptized

The house where H.C. Andersen Was born

Statue of H.C. Andersen

Tour guide explaining one of the fairy tales

The Ugly Duckling -- Lunch

Typical Street

After spending the afternoon in Odense, we departed for Copenhagen. I had a great time on the study tour and definitely learned and saw a lot! This will be the same group of people that I will be traveling to London/Brussels with in 3 weeks! I am really looking forward to that trip, as it will be a week long and include many company and cultural visits.

I have classes all this week, with a morning study tour to Tivoli on Wednesday for my Creative Industries class. Then on friday I leave for the island of Bornholm for the weekend.

Brandon Takes on Denmark

So this past Thursday as I was unwinding in my room after class, I got a skype call from my good friend Brandon from Cal Poly (he is currently studying down in Barcelona, Spain). Any-who, so Brandon's first words to me were, "dude I'm flying up to Copenhagen for the weekend!" I didn't believe him at first, but as soon as he emailed me his itinerary I knew he was coming. Alex (my roommate from Cal Poly, who is also studying here in Copenhagen at Copenhagen Business School) and I met Brandon at the airport on Friday at 13:30. Unfortunately Alex could only hang out with us for about 1 hour because he had to leave on the flight to Germany for the weekend.

After taking the metro back to my flat and grabbing a quick bite to eat, I took Brandon on a walking tour of Copenhagen. We explored the streets of downtown Copenhagen, took a canal tour, and even rode some unique bikes at a small downtown festival.

Alex and Brandon at the airport

Right before the canal tour

Canal Tour (Tight Squeeze!)

The new Opera House

Bike racing downtown

After a long day of being tourists, we went out to a local club called Vega just down the street from where I live.

Vega

Vega

Vega

Saturday was a busy day too! We began the day by touring the Carlsberg Brewery, which is located in Copenhagen. The tour was pretty cool and we each got a few free samples! After the brewery tour we headed back downtown to check out Tivoli, which is an old amusement park that inspired Walt Disney to build Disneyland. The park was very cool! After Tivoli, Brandon and I went out to dinner at a great sushi restaurant called Sushi & Sticks.

Sunday was filled with a visit to Fredericksberg Park, the zoo and a small town in Copenhagen called Cristiania (where my cellphone was stolen!). Then we took the metro back to the airport, and Brandon's flight left at 17:30 for Barcelona. It was great having Brandon in town for the weekend, as we did a lot of sightseeing that I had yet to do!

Carlsberg Brewery

Entrance to the tour

Tivoli

One of the famous rides at Tivoli (pretty scary!)

Great views of the city

Brandon became a member of the Tivoli Marching Band

Sushi & Sticks: Sake Bombs!

Fredricksberg park

Outside of the zoo- looking in at the elephants!

Tomorrow (Thursday) I leave for Western Denmark on a short study tour with my International Business Program, specifically to Ringkobing and Skanderborg. In Ringkobing we will be visiting the Silkeborg Art Museum and Jyske Bank. Then in Skanderborg we will be visiting Vestas Wind Systems and dipping our toes in the North Sea! I will be back Saturday evening.

Frederiksborg Castle

So, two weekends ago I went on an excursion to Frederiksborg Castle and just now got around to uploading the pictures. We took a 1-hour bus ride to a small town called Hillerod where the castle is located. We were given a short tour of the gardens and then a long tour of the actual castle. King Christian IV began the construction of Frederiksborg Castle in 1599 and finished in 1615. The castle is built on 3 islands and was originally used by the Danish kings as their hunting lodge. Below are some of the pictures from the trip.

The Bike

Approximately 36% of Copenhageners travel to work or school on bicycle. So I said "well, when in Rome!" and I bought a bike to commute around the city and to class. Since my flat is only a few miles from campus and downtown, the bike makes sense. Every major street in Copenhagen is equipped with a bike lane (see picture below), which makes biking in the city very fast and very safe. There are even traffic lights specifically for bikes at every major intersection. DIS gave me a transportation stipend of 1014 DKK, which is about 200 USD, so I used this money to buy a used bike from a bike shop close to where I live. The bike was 950 DKK! which is about 190 USD. In four months I should be able to sell it back to the bike shop for maybe 600 DKK. Four other guys from my flat bought bikes as well, so we have been exploring the streets/getting lost for the past few days.

 

The Bike (Yes I know it's a women's bike and it has a basket!)

I'm still tying to come up with a name for her -- any suggestions?

Here you can see the bike lane.

I also have good news! I have Internet at my flat! I will definitely be able to update the blog more often and be able to use skype (my mom will surely be happy). In case you are wondering, my skype name is david.keipper and my cell phone number here in Copenhagen is: +45 30974333 (might be a little pricy!) The best way to reach me is by e-mail: keipper@gmail.com

Also, in case you are wondering who I am living with, I have included a picture of all of us from Friday night when we went to Luux. The picture is from far away, I'll work on getting a better picture.

House-mates

Today, I didn't have class but I did have a study tour to the Copenhagen Cemetery with my Danish language and culture class. We saw the graves of many famous people including Hans Christian Anderson (who wrote many fairy tales and stories). We found out that the Danes like to hang out in the cemeteries and have picnics and sun-bathe.

I was just looking at my calendar and I realized that I have a lot of trips coming up in September and October:

Sept 10-13: Short Study tour to Western Germany

Sept 19-22: Bornholm Bike Trip (A Danish island in the Baltic Sea)

Sept 25-28: Oktoberfest - Munich, Germany

Oct 11-18: London & Brussels Study Tour

Oct 19-25: Russia Trip

Oct 26 - Nov 2: Berlin, Prague & Vienna with Matt

Somehow I have to manage going to class in-between all of that, but I am definitely looking forward to coming months.