Karen Blixen Museum - A Day Surrounded In Beauty

 

Karen Blixen Museum

A Day Surrounded In Beauty

To see beautiful flowers and lots of books, two things Karen Blixen loved, is about a 30 minute train ride from Copenhagen. After getting off the train at the Rungstead Kyst train station, it is about a 20 minute walk through town and lovely lavender fields to the Karen Blixen Museum. Her 40 acre property, off of the stunning coastline of Rungsted, is a bird sanctuary. Her love of nature can be seen in her home and throughout every view of this amazing place. 

Rungstedlund is the charming, historic home of Karen Blixen. She is one of Denmark’s famous authors. One of her first books, Out of Africa, became an Academy Award winning film. She was born at Rungstedlund in 1885 and died there in 1962.

Her home has been turned into a museum. A chance for us to peek in and see how and where she lived.For as grand as the property is outside, inside is a charming eclectic home. When you walk in, the first thing you see is a cute gift shop to the left and a lovely cafe to the right. Look straight ahead and you can see the beginning of the many acres that make up this bird sanctuary. After walking through the cafe, the official tour begins in the next room. Here we see huge posters sharing the biography of Karen’s life. It is in this room we can see original copies of Karen’s books, put in the order she wrote them. There is something truly remarkable about seeing these great works of Karen while standing in her home. These same rooms she lived in and worked in. Throughout the museum many life sized photos of Karen fill the rooms. These pictures help to tell the adventurous story of her life. Once we leave this room we have to put slippers on over our shoes so we don’t damage the floors. We start our tour upstairs where her bedroom is and walk through each room, many things in the rooms left as she left them. Her vibrant personality and attention to detail can be seen in each room. 

Karen Blixen had a great passion for art, music, and literature. Not only is she an author, she was an avid reader. She read everything from religious books to fairytales. Her love of literature is seen when you enter the library. The library is filled wall to wall with books. Since they are behind glass covered bookcases, we do get to touch them, however there are some second-hand copies on the desk that we can look through. That was pretty amazing to do, it’s like you are touching history. These books have been around for years and now I have had a chance to see them up close. 

Karen brought the outside in her home with flowers from her garden everywhere. Making flower arrangements was like painting for Karen, each one was carefully done and told a story. Karen created these beautiful arrangements for all her guests. This tradition continues today. As we enter the museum as guests of Karen, we get to see beautiful flower arrangements in every room. We not only get to enjoy these arrangements inside, when we walk outside we can see the beautiful flowers we saw inside in their natural habitat. It is truly breathtaking to walk outside and see a field of green with colorful flowers throughout. The Bird Sanctuary is beautiful and peaceful to walk through. There are some places you can sit quietly and just enjoy the beauty of nature. We walk through, some alone, some in small groups. Everyone makes their way around the land at their own pace. Finally making our way to Karen’s grave. Her grave is simple and humble compared to the dramatic and adventurous life she lived. She is resting in nature under the 300 year old beech tree on the land that she loved, the land she has shared with us all to enjoy.