The Old Town - Den Gamle By

Aarhus, Denmark is a special city in its own right - but inside the city exists an incredible open-air museum that showcases historical buildings collected from around the country in the setting of a functional town with merchants, carpenters, the mayor, and townsfolk. It first opened in 1914 with the Mayor's house and has since grown to encompass time periods from the 1600's to 2014! The buildings are moved into place, brick by brick, and then restored to their past functions.

A peaceful morning before the town comes to life

The town is divided into periods of time. You can enter many of the buildings and explore. I first wandered the most modern street and admired the sunlit view from the kitchen of a family with two children in 2014. I watched an authentic television program from that time period in the living room. 

Time periods are clustered together in the town - 
Note the conveniently labeled streets

The 1945-1974 street also houses the "Aarhus Story" - billed as a 1200-year journey through the city's history, from Medieval times to modernity. It helps set the stage for the time periods explored more thoroughly in this unique museum. The map you receive at entry also guides you through the different time periods and provides more information about each place.

Map of Den Gamle By from their website

At the end of the top street (near the windmill in the map) I entered the Mintmaster's Mansion focused on the life of the Mintmaster's family there in the 18th century. The building history is from 1683 to 2009 when it was moved to the museum, and there are meticulous displays in the attic on how they restored or recreated different time periods - from stairway railings to wallpaper to painted ceilings. It is an homage to all the restorationists that devoted years to honoring both the bones and the frills of this historical building.

The wig room in the mansion

Painted birds on a ceiling in the mansion

My favorite parts of Den Gamle By were the craftsmen/women displaying their talents. I was lucky on the day I visited as there are not always active crafters on site. I was able to watch the blacksmith forge a drawer handle, using period tools and a hand-operated bellows for the coal fire.

A young blacksmith at work

I also watched a carpenter using a wood lathe to make a classic 2-sided cookie cutter.

Carpenter using a treadle operated wood lathe

And then hand-finishing the cookie cutters

And I listened to the tile worker explained how he sourced old tiles (e.g. 160 years old) to replace even older damaged tiles for the roofs of the buildings in the museum.

All the damaged tiles get replaced by "newer" tiles high up on the roof!

The museum employs folks (and also has volunteers) that have stories to tell visitors about their jobs and life during the time period. This is a kitchen maid from the merchant's house in 1865. She was sweeping the kitchen and offered me warm porridge she had made that morning!

The Merchant's kitchen maid in 1865

One of the fun stories from that day was in the soap shop from 1927. I met the granddaughter of the original owner of the shop she was now volunteering in! She had spent much time with her grandmother in the shop. And you can still buy lemon soap and more here now.

The granddaughter (right) grew up in this soap store

 
I spent four hours in the Old Town and could have spent longer! For gardeners, there are a variety of gardens to explore plus the town is right next to the botanic garden. For builders and engineers there are displays on different joints used in construction. For historians, you can learn about how the guilds worked in medieval times and how Denmark's legislation on human rights evolved over time. It's a museum that offers more than just a simple walk through time.

Some of the hipper transportation

Some of the older buildings

And if, after all that, you need a nap - maybe you can displace this poor man from his pull-out bed and catch a few well-earned zzz's. His snoring was quite believable!

A great design for a hide-away bed!

Passion for Pewter

After a wonderful month here, today is our last full day in Malaysia. I spent the morning reveling in my passion for pewter at the Royal Selangor Visitor Center in Kuala Lumpur.

Yong Koon was a young man when he sailed from China to tin-rich Malaysia in 1885 to join his brothers and work as a pewter smith. His legacy, which his family still runs, is certainly a successful business!

Image of the founder from the entry to the visitor center

Image of early placer mining of tin

Tin mining is similar to panning for gold - and large dredges were introduced by 1913 when Malaysia was already producing over half of the world's tin.

Early pewter designs, including animals, were used for money. You can even snap the "coins" off the money tree and then return the stem and branches to get new coins attached as needed!

Pewter money animals and a coin tree

Yong Koon and his children crafted beautiful pewter products for ceremonial use and home use. This melon teapot created by Yong Koon saved a man's life during WWII when the man reached down to pick it up off the floor just as shrapnel flew over his head.

The "Lucky Pot" made by Yong Koon

A free guided tour goes through the history and then showcases the production method of the pewter products - from poured molds to polishing.

Molten pewter is poured into the molds

The molds cool quickly and tiny alligator money pops out

The production line is huge with many people working!

This is half of the production line!

Polishing the pieces on the production line

Today, products from Royal Selangor are sold all over the world in some of the most exclusive stores.

This beautiful self-sealing tea canister sells for $400

Besides the small and elegant, they have created some large objects including a model of the Petronas Twin Towers.

Model pewter Petronas Towers - begins on the floor below me!

They celebrated their 100th birthday in 1985 by creating a Guinness World Record pewter tankard.

Ready for almost 2,800 liters of beer?

They also hold two different classes for people interested in trying their hand at pewter-smithing. I took the easier "School of Hard Knocks" class where only one other student and I hammered away at our flat circles to create small bowls.

My classmate and I in the "School of Hard Knocks"

When we passed our class we received a certificate and the bowl we created as a reward. My classmate had a wonderful family that also cheered me on!

The successful students and their support crew

I had a lot of fun and learned many things about pewter at the Royal Selangor experience!

The Teddy Bear Museum

On our last morning on Penang Island, I took the bus to the Teddyville Museum, hosted by the DoubleTree Resort between George Town and Batu Ferringhi. As you may have guessed, this museum is all about Teddy Bears - but it also tells the history of Penang using Teddy Bears as the characters in a large number of well-done dioramas!

This 1905 bear is the oldest in the museum

The museum has many Steiff brand toy bears from Germany. Richard Steiff designed and sold his bears beginning in 1902. Meanwhile, Teddy Roosevelt inspired American Morris Michtom to make a small, stuffed bear cub to put in his candy shop window, after Roosevelt refused to shoot a small bear cub while on a hunt in 1902. Thus the "Teddy" bear was born and has since proliferated around the world.

Francis Light established George Town in 1786

Francis Light was a British sailor and explorer who established George Town as a trading hub/port in 1786. He leased Penang Island from the local Sultan to establish the first British settlement in Southeast Asia for the East India Company. Fun note: Francis was the father of Colonel William Light who later founded the City of Adelaide in South Australia in 1836. They are now Sister Cities.

Diorama showing the multiethnic active port city of George Town

The museum has so many dioramas I can only show a few of my favorites! If you read my post on the Thaipusam Festival this scene will make a lot more sense! The Waterfall temple depicted is the largest temple dedicated to Lord Murugon outside of India and thousands of devotees climb the 511 steps up to this temple during the festival and outside that time as well.

Thaipusam Festival in George Town

We also experienced both Chinese New Year and the beginning of Ramadan when we were in Malaysia. I love this country scene of the local Malay (mostly Muslim) celebrating with their families in their ancestral homes.

The Kampung House is a wooden village house elevated on stilts

Some of the diorama's have larger bears enacting important roles in Malaysian life. I'm not sure if Khalid from Mypintu Plate would welcome the comparison, but this is a hard-working bear cooking Malay food!

Cooking Malay street food for the other bears!

And here is a woman bear creating a Batik. Compare this diorama to the photo I took earlier of a real woman creating a batik in the Penang Batik Factory!

Woman hand-painting a batik cloth

Speaking of fashion, did you know that Jimmy Choo began his shoe apprenticeship at 11 years old under his father in Penang in 1959! Of course the Teddyville Museum commemorated that with its own Jimmy Choo bear.

I don't think Jimmy Choo would appreciate these shoes!

The Teddyville Museum has many more dioramas and darling displays - and then the gift shop has D.I.Y. dress-up for your mini-bears. Reminds me so much of our daughter and her friends and their very adventurous stuffed animals!

"Piggylet" and her friends would have loved to shop here!

I have a soft spot for Teddy Bears as I loved my mother's bear from her youth during my own youth. My mom's name was Theodora, but she went by "Teddy". I've been thinking of her pretty constantly as I write this post. Below is one last Teddy photo from the 3D Museum in the Oriental Village on Langkawi Island.

Feeling loved by the giant bear at the 3D Museum!

Malaysian Cooking Class

I took a delightful and tasty Malaysian cooking class before we left George Town. I wrote to Khalid at Mypintu Plate and he responded with an offer to join a class. Unknown to me until I arrived, I was his only student that day so I got all his attention! As he wrote in his description "The dishes taught are of Malay, Chinese, Indian and others influence reflecting Penang's diverse ethnicity and multi-cultural tradition."

It turned out we were making (and eating) three dishes!

Khalid is the wonderful cooking instructor at Mypintu Plate!

First up, under Khalid's great instructions, we made Malaysia's national dish -  Nasi Lemak. This is a coconut flavored-rice with sambal, a chili-based sauce/paste originating in maritime SE Asia. There are a variety of complimentary foods that go with the rice to create an easy and well-balanced meal. It is frequently wrapped in banana leaves so it can be sold as a quick and healthy street food.

Khalid's brilliant organization and preparation for cooking!

I am an indifferent (and sometimes hostile) cook. I love to eat and I enjoy baking - but I have never felt competent at making meals. With Khalid's tutelage I really enjoyed making these foods! He taught me and then quizzed me on the ingredients so I'd know what I was using at each step - though you can see he had prepared a lot of the foods in advance.

Mortar and pestle to grind the ingredients for the Sambal

While we could have used a blender, I decided to try the mortar and pestle to grind the ingredients for the sambal - there are a lot of ingredients and some didn't like smashing easily. Sigh. Khalid was patient with my decision to do it the hard way and we eventually got a wonderful sambal after some patient cooking to meld the flavors together.

We made the coconut flavored rice in a rice cooker - which I had never used before. It was such delicious rice! We made the sambal and the accoutrements for the meal while the rice cooked.

Then we put it all together. So yummy!

Nasi Lemak and accoutrements!

Second, using some of the sambal we made for the Nasi Lemak, we made an award-winning dish called Rendang. This dish won the CNN Readers Choice Best Food in the World Award in 2011! I believe it! I hope I have the patience (and can find the ingredients) to make it again...

The ingredients for Rendang except for the chilled chicken pieces

Rendang, the World's Most Delicious Food!

Rendang required a lot of ingredients, especially when you added in the ingredients for the sambal included in the recipe. But it really was an exceptional blending of wonderful flavors.

Our last dish was a quick stir fry Char Kway Teow (locally called CKT) which is a fried flat rice noodle cooked in soy sauce and seafood at high heat.

Ready to make some CKT!

One of Khalid's friends came over as we were making the CKT and waited while we finished the quick recipe and ate the yummy result.

Char Kway Teow

Khalid was generous to let me take some of each meal home to Darrell in our trusty leftover container.

Darrell's lucky dinner!

Then Khalid's friend took a photo of us at his front door - Mypintu means door in Malaysian!

Khalid and I handcuffed to the door

I'm sure Khalid would welcome you to his door for his wonderful cooking classes! You get wonderful conversation along with cooking lessons and eating the unique food! He took almost all the photos I included in this post, and sent them to me, along with his Malaysian Recipe book, after the class. I highly recommend a class and conversation with Khalid!

The Chinese Clan Jetties

The old town of George Town, Malaysia was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008 for the variety of architectural styles from both East and West influences. The diversity of religious temples and churches from many religions is also legion.

My favorite styles, forgoing elegance and frills, are the Chinese Clan Jetties. Immigrant Chinese from the 1880's on were landing at the waterfront and assisting in loading and unloading cargo on the jetties. Simple housing built on the jetties (to avoid taxes from building on land) evolved into each clan having a unique jetty with diversified work.

Two of the original nine jetties were destroyed during urbanization, but having UNESCO status and increased tourism has helped save the other seven jetties. The information comes from signs in front of each jetty.

Ong Jetty - was never a residential jetty - it is now just a long pier at the beginning of the series of residential jetties.

Lim Jetty - Was once a large settlement but was destroyed by the Japanese in 1941. The homes were slowly rebuilt.

Home with fishing equipment at end of Lim Jetty

Chew Jetty - The largest and most touristed jetty is now lined with shops, food stalls, and homes.

Fun art on the side of a Chew Jetty residence/shop

Tan Jetty - The ancestors of this clan were fisherman and oyster harvesters from a coastal village in China. This is one of the most scenic jetties.

Tan Jetty has a scenic long tail into the bay

Lee Jetty - The ancestors of Lee Jetty came from impoverished villages. The ferry terminal is now at the site of the original jetty so it was moved in the 1960's to its present location.

Lee Jetty had decorative arches and newer homes

New Jetty - Also called Mixed Jetty because it is home to people of various backgrounds and clans. Many people moved here from other jetties when this one was built in 1960.

New Jetty had neat houses with small alters on the wall next to each door

Yeoh Jetty - The ancestors of Yeoh Jetty made a living by transporting goods ashore. The jetty was bombed during WW2 and many of the residents never returned.

View of the Floating Chinese Temple from Yeoh Jetty

It was very fun seeing all these jetties and gaining a better understanding of their history. If you are intrigued, you can read much more in Wikipedia!