An interesting surprising trip, by Ángela Rodríguez Fernández.

AN INTERESTING SURPRISING TRIPSome students belonging to 4th year ESO at IES Catabois travelled to Copenhagen, in Denmark, and to yGothenburg and Kungsbacka, in Sweden, last October in order to take part in the learning, teaching and training activities organised in Kungsbacka as part of the Erasmus + project What's New on the News?
They visited many places and saw a lot of important buildings and monuments. In Denmark, they saw coloured houses, some streets with channels, boats, a tower called Rundetaarn and a lot of people riding bikes.
The coloured houses were amazing because all of them had a different colour.

 

There were some streets with channels and boats floating on the water. Some were big and others were small and some were for tourists and others were private. There were water taxis and swans in the channels, too.
The Rundetaarn Tower  was very high. You can go up to see the skyline of the city of Copenhagen, the towers of the churches, the high buildings, a big bridge in the distance and the traditional buildings which give the city its unique character. It will be described more deeply at the bottom.

 
   








In Copenhagen most people ride bikes. They use cars much less than we do. Mostly, they use public transport, which is very well organised, and bicycles.
In Sweden, the Erasmus + students visited Gothenburg, and they were in the harbour where there were some historic and important ships as well as the Opera House. They also visited some important and historic buildings and monuments with a guide who explained and told them about all of them. The guide explained as well that although the shipyards were an important industrial part of the city years ago, their decay started when other countries started building ships at a lower cost until they completely disappeared.

They saw the "Skansen Kronan", which is a tower adorned with a large crown on its tops. It is located at the top of a small hill in the Haga district. The visitors enjoyed the splendid views it displays of all Gothenburg. They were surprised by a church called "Oscar Fredrick". It was a very beautiful high church with typical Swedish architecture.

 

Oscar Fredrick church above.

The Skansen Kronan on the left.

View  towards the harbour on the right.
  
 

Haga is the most ancient and traditional quarter in Gothenburg. It's full of small shops selling souvenirs, antiquities and all kind of sweet delicacies which attract the visitor with their smell, appearance and taste. A typical cake is the Kanelbullar (with a great taste of cinamon), which the travelleres tried and loved.

 

 

In another place in Sweden (Tanum), the Erasmus students went to a restaurant next to the sea and they went for a walk in a port. The sea was really cold and there were houses on it.
It was a curious trip because there were a lot of things that you can't find in Spain.

THE RUNDETAARN OR THE ROUND TOWER  (COPENHAGEN)

The 17th century tower and observatory Rundetaarn, or the round tower, is the oldest observatory in Europe still working. It's a beautiful round tower made of stone and located in the very centre of Copenhagen.

Denmark was quite famous for its astronomical achievements thanks to the astronomer Tycho Brahe. When he died in 1601, the King wished to continue Brahe's research, and thus the round tower was built under reign of Christian IV. It was finished in 1642, the same year Galileo Galilei died in Italy. The Trinitatis Chuch which was completed shortly after the tower in 1656 was attached directly to the Round Tower. In Europe the intermingling of science and religion was quite uncommon at this time.  This fact shows how progressive Denmark was during the mid 17th century. 

The Trinitatis complex (the tower, the church and the library) was constructed as a place for scholars to study the heavens in the observatory, and to pray to the heavens in the church.The observatory is still used by amateur astronomers and by many visitors. The observatory is encircled by an outdoor platform from which you have a magnificent view of the old part of Copenhagen.

To get there you need to walk up the spiral walk, which is 268,5 meters long at the outer wall and only 85,5 meters long close to the core of the building. This means that you walk around 209 meters to get to top even though the tower is only 36 meters tall.

Photograph fonts:http://top10.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Rundtaarn.jpg
http://www.rundetaarn.dk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/foto_1_hjemmeside-160x110.jpg

The tower from inside
This walk also leads to the library hall, which once housed the entire book collection of the university. The famous Danish writer H.C. Andersen used to visit the library and he found inspiration for his work here. Today the hall serves as the framework for exhibitions of art, culture, history and science.

The Round Tower has a unique architectural feature to Europe.  The tower has an enormous spiral walkway to its top. The walkway is 210 meters long and it is wide enough to accommodate a car. In fact there have been quite a few cars to drive to the top of the tower. The first car to drive to the top was a German Beaufort in 1902. 

 

The Round Tower was actually designed to allow horse drawn carriages to ride to the top of the tower. Why anyone would need their carriage to ride to the top of a tower is anyone’s guess.  While visiting King Frederik IV in the Danish Capital in 1714, Peter the Great of Russia rode his horse to the top of the Round Tower.  Every spring there is a unicycle race to the top of the tower and back down to the bottom.

Floating glass floor

As a new attraction you can now see the tower's core by standing on a glass floor,hovering 25 metres above the ground. The glass is more than 50 mm thick and can carry up to 900 kg per square meter.

                

The most impressive feature of the Round Tower is that in the evenings from mid-October until mid-March the public is welcome to come and view the stars and planets through the observatory’s powerful telescope.  Also during the summer months the public is welcome to come and have a look at the sun the observatory’s telescope.  There are very few places in the world where members of the public can have the opportunity to view the wonders of space through a professional astronomer grade telescope.  

Fonts used to write the article:
http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/the-round-tower-gdk410741
http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/the-round-tower-gdk410741
http://www.danishnet.com/travel-denmark/round-tower-rundetarn-copenhagen-astronomy/