For our anniversary, my husband and I visited this amazing church in Aarhus. It is called Aarhus Domkirke; in English this means Aarhus Cathedral. Aarhus is right on the coast in Denmark, in the region of Jutland. To give you an idea, because I didn't know this, Copenhagen is in the part of Denmark called Zealand, which is where we are staying during our trip out here. To get to Jutland, it was necessary to take a ferry. That was an amazing experience in and of itself, particularly for this landlocked Colorado native. I'm sure for many people, riding a ferry is not exactly a noteworthy experience. Nobody else on the ship seemed to think so, or at least I didn't hear them exclaiming as audibly as I was over the incredible experience of traveling over the water in such a huge ship at such a high speed. I couldn't believe how many cars it transported, or the fact that it contained both restaurant and a coffee shop, several lounges, and if all that weren't enough, even a room filled with toys for children, thus Clementine, to play in. Yes, another anniversary with the baby in tow. Believe me, I am more than used to this by now- I think we have had very few anniversary celebrations without the littlest Davenport coming along in arms. There are plenty of years ahead where there will be no babies to need me. This makes me both happy and sad.
Now to talk about the cathedral. Let me start by saying that I have been in a number of ancient churches and buildings. Not a huge number, no, but I have visited a few to have seen some grand architecture. I have visited Westminster Abbey. That was an incredible experience. Being in a building that size, let alone a church, and discovering the gravestones of hundreds of names of people I was familiar with in history, and having recently seen Prince William and Catherine's wedding on television taking place there- it was mind boggling. By mind boggling, I had the sensation of feeling like I wasn't nearly smart or educated enough to fully appreciate the historical significance of the building I was in. To sum up my ignorance of such things, I am more familiar with the image of Elton John singing "Good-bye England's Rose" at Princess Diana's funeral that was held there than I am with many other older, likely more significant historical aspects of the building. That's okay- I have the rest of my life still to learn more about Westminster Abbey.
Anyway, I wondered if compared to visiting Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral (I haven't had the opportunity to go inside, but have walked around its perimeter), a few castles in Denmark and Sweden, touring both Washington D.C. and Williamsburg, Virginia, and even visiting the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City (again, only from the outside as we are not Mormon and thus were not permitted inside), whether Aarhus Cathedral would stand out in any special way.
Which leads me to say, as you may expect (considering I'm writing a bog post about it), that, in short, yes, it was stunning and unique in its own right. Walking through the church was a breathtaking experience. I am annoyed that I couldn't get better pictures of it, or capture the feeling of hearing organ music fill the gargantuan hall, or describe the cool, clean feeling of the white, white walls decorated with Scandinavian art that went over our heads to form a dome of a ceiling. I was amazed that some of the art, carved into stone, was so worn down and smooth that it was difficult to make out the original picture. Forgive me for the ineloquent, inept description of, "Some of the artwork looked like something Indiana Jones would discover in an ancient tomb!"
Other elements appeared much newer, including an elaborately carved pulpit that stood in the middle of the room, or a thoroughly modern, seemingly brand new, trendy looking pipe organ, which leads me to now talk about the main pipe organ, one of the outstanding features of the church, and that originally dates back to 1730. Yes, that pipe organ is older than the country I come from.
It was the organ music that really made the church stand out to me. In the first minutes we walked in, I commented to Ben that the seemed to have an odd recording of organ music, because the same musical phrase kept being repeated every few moments. He laughed at me and pointed up into the balcony, where the organ was. The organ itself was blocked from view by the railing, however the hundreds and hundreds of pipes (okay, now I'm looking on Wikipedia because I'm curious; it says 89 voices? Does that mean pipes? If so, then "tens and tens") that reached dozens of feet up to the ceiling, in various sizes, naturally were visible. He told me, "I think somebody is giving an organ lesson up there."
Alright, wait a second, wow. Can you imagine telling someone, when asked what you do for a living, "Yes, I give organ lessons in Aarhus Cathedral, the tallest and largest church in Denmark, on the largest organ in Denmark. Here's my card." Yeah. That would be so awesome.
After he said it, I strained to see better and saw a teacher instructing his student, who was playing on an instrument the size of a house.
So, yes, actually, that was live music we were hearing, and it filled the hall in such a way as to rival an entire orchestra. And, for me, as a mom who has sat through a LOT of piano lessons and practice, hearing the lesson proceed while we continued to tour the church was indescribable. Nevertheless, let me attempt to describe it. Listening to the little fragments of music begin to be pieced together, and played in ever increasing increments, by someone who was obviously an incredibly skilled organist, but was getting further instruction from someone who was most certainly a master, inside a church that was an ancient architectural masterpiece, was better than hearing the piece performed to perfection at a concert. It was one of the more amazing experiences of my life. I don't know if I should be embarrassed to admit it or not, but my eyes even began to tear up. I'm not a big crier, though I become more and more prone to getting choked up over things the older I get. This was one of those unexpected things.
Anyway, as we left the building, I told my husband, "I don't think I've ever gotten so emotional over a building before."
He told me, on our 17th wedding anniversary, "I always feel that way when I visit a building like that." 17 years of marriage and I learned something I never knew about him before. Fancy that.
