Tag Archives: sonderborghus

Sønderborghus for Children

Leave a reply

Sønderborghus has really stepped up their offerings for children in the last few months, with regular activities available for children from birth to 13 year olds. With our (now 2!) kids in tow, we tried out the age appropriate activities for them.

Baby Mandag (0-2 years)

The first Monday of the month from 9:30-12:00 is baby Monday at Sønderborghus, aimed at parents on parental leave and their child. The first half is generally a talk or activity for the parents, while for the second half we moved into the workshop for a craft activity to do with your kid (it was footprint Christmas cards when I attended) and a chat with the others.

I really enjoyed the session I went to with my then 2 week old. During my first parental leave in 2015 I found I lacked open drop-in events for parent and child, where the interest of the parent and a chat with other parents with babies of different ages (as opposed to the age stratified mother groups) were available. Good to see an opportunity for this now.

Familielørdag (2-13 years)

We went to this event with our oldest child, who’s 3. Every Saturday the workshop in the basement is open for a drop-in creative session between 10:00-13:00. Every Saturday has a theme, which you can find on the Sønderborghus website; the day we went we did paintings with tape and acrylic paints. The creative session is pre-planned and all the materials already prepared for you to just drop in with your kid and have a go, with pointers and support from the staff if needed. Once a month a bigger event with a theme such as Carnival is held.

Again, a very enjoyable time was had. It is the perfect activity especially for a wet Saturday with not much else to do. We would urge you to support this initiative of Sonderborghus to offer something different for kids. If you want to know the specific offering for a session check out the website. Both sessions cost a very fair 30 DKK for the craft supplies. Do remember to take an apron or old clothes though, unlike us!

 

Review @ Cafe’en at Sønderborghus

Leave a reply

Sønderborghus is the one of the main music venues in town. But besides music, you can also find creative workshops, and a cafe/restaurant. The cafe has been closed for a while now, but finally it reopened last month: as a creperie. We went to check it out with some friends.

Having been in the cafe in its previous reincarnation, I like what the new owners have done with the decor. The theme is very much old school, mis-matched furniture with plenty of space to roam around. And if you want a relaxed atmosphere there is also a ‘games’ area, with low sofas and table, board games and magazines.

IMG_20161110_192127

The food options are, as you would expect, crepes: 5 savoury options and 4 sweet options. Between us we tried all of the savoury and 2 of the sweet options. They all went down really well, with the favourites being the chicken and the ham. The pancakes were the perfect balance between crepe and filling. They also looked really good on the plate and, especially if ordering a menu with 2 (or even 3!) pancakes, very filling.

The service was also really good. But, and this is the main downside, only when they get around to you! On the day we visited there was one person behind the counter taking orders and making the orders. With most people taking a menu, meaning 2 crepes each, and with only 2 crepe-making stations, the service was really slow. In fact, when we arrived we were told to wait 10 minutes to even give in our order (and it took longer than that).

It is clear that the cafe’s cooking setup is not really geared for the number of tables in the cafe, even if the cafe already has probably the minimum number of tables for the space before it feels really empty. And this was on a day when the cafe was less than half full! I shudder to think of the wait if the place was busier. Admittedly, they do mention that there could be some waiting time on their website.

Final verdict? Do visit! The food was absolutely amazing. Especially for the price. We’ll definitely return. But don’t go when tight on time or really hungry, as you should expect quite a wait for the food. We’ll definitely return.

porcelain

Get creative at Sonderborghus

Leave a reply

Sonderborghus is one of the main music venues in Sonderborg, hosting a variety of well-known and lesser known Danish and international acts. We have, in fact, already mentioned them on our 99 things to do list for both jazz and rock. However, Sonderborghus offers more than just music, as I came to discover on a ‘girls night out’ with colleagues recently.

What had been a hidden secret to me until very recently is the workshops in the basement of Sonderborghus. There you can get your hands dirty with some glass work (above), pottery or even multi-material creative projects. The amazing thing is that, besides the regular courses on offer, you can also just go down on your own and work at your own pace on your own projects, while getting access to the materials you need for a minor outlay, as well as cheerful guidance from the staff.

This being before Christmas the plan of action was to populate our Christmas tree by making porcelain decorations. This is the first time Michael and I will have a Christmas tree at home which means that I had loads of work to do. With the guidance of two of my colleagues, who had already been on courses there, it was more than easy to do. We could buy the porcelain clay there (50DKK/1kg: this covered all costs, including firing of the porcelain in the kiln, shown below), we had access to a variety of shapes for making decorations, and we also had access to all the tools we needed to make our decorations.

porcelain

In total I used around 500g of porcelain (25 DKK) and made around 50 different items for our Christmas tree, some of which you can see below. Needless to say, our Christmas tree is well populated now! It is good to note that the items are not typically fired on the same day, but we were asked to go pick them up around one week later. So do keep this in mind if you want the items for a specific event.

porcelain

Other than that, the workshops is open on Tuesday and Wednesday 10-22, Thursday 13-18 and Friday 10-15. Do confirm opening hours at the Sonderborghus website, since these may change, or other events may be going on. Other than that – go ahead and enjoy yourselves. Perfect for a family outing or evening out with friends.

Sunday jazz at Sønderborghus #10/99

Leave a reply

Back in 1953 when blues and jazz were all the rave every town in Denmark had a jazz club. Sonderborg was no exception and a group of friends started what would later become Sonderborg jazzclub. As one of the few in our region the club still exists. It is one of the oldest in Denmark and organises at least one concert a month.

Piano and sax

The jazz club aims to focus on the growth layer in the Danish jazz scene and tomorrow’s stars. While they do have traditional 50s swing jazz they more often present something more edgy and contemporary.

Sønderborghus

It was my first time at Sønderborghus when Magnus Thuelund Melody Project Quintet played on a very clear, cold Sunday. There were only about twenty people in the theater hall which made it feel quite empty. However, there was a nice atmosphere, the jazz club people were very friendly and once the band started playing it was really enjoyable.

Magnus Thuelund Melody Project Quintet

The jazz concerts are usually held at Sønderborghus on Sundays at 15 and tickets are 100DKK or 80DKK for club members. Membership of the jazz club is 200DKK per term which comes with free entrance to one concert for you and a friend.

The next concert is on Sunday the 26th of February where Clara Bryld and August Rosenbaum is playing at Sønderborghus. See the website for more concerts.

Sønderborghus just released an English version of their website. Even the description of bands are now available in English. To see this click the UK flag in the top right corner of their website.

Rocking out at Sønderborghus #8/99

Leave a reply

A Spanish friend who has lived in Denmark for a couple of years mentioned that Surfact were coming to play in Sonderborg. We had not heard of them before but figured it would be fun to go check them out so we walked down to Sønderborghus and met up with Aitor and Mathias.

Arriving at Sonderborghus it looks empty as you have to walk through the doors, go upstairs and through another door to get to the concert room. We found our way but were surprised to see so few people there. There was no warm up act so Surfact took the stage and went at it.

By now there were probably no more than 40 people (including staff and the band) at the show and most of us were standing at the back. The band invited people to come closer and after a song or two the audience was really getting in the mood, singing along and head banging. It seemed like we were some of the few who did not know the lyrics.

Surfact in Sonderborg

Even though Sonderborg didn’t exactly come out in droves, the band seemed to be enjoying themselves on stage and kept us happy on the ground. Surfact played for about an hour from their more polished, current album to their older, harder songs.

After the show the band came out to the merchandise table where people could get stuff autographed and Aitor got a t-shirt with the bands signatures.

Aitor with Surfact