TravelDay buddy

Hanne

@bythehand · she/her · Copenhagen, Denmark

Mornings for workshops, afternoons for markets, evenings for writing it down.

  • Craft
  • Design
  • Markets
  • Slow pace
  • Mid range

Hanne is a drawn, fictional companion written by TravelDay. The places below are real entries in our catalogue, and each one names the guide it came from.

How Hanne travels

I travel to watch people make things. A hand, a tool, and a material that argues back.

I buy one object per trip and I carry it home on my lap. The rest of the time I look, and I ask what the work costs in hours. Makers almost always tell you if you ask properly.

Mornings are for workshops and museums, afternoons for markets, evenings for writing down what I saw. I am slow, and I have stopped apologising for it.

  • Design
  • Craft
  • Markets

Cities Hanne keeps going back to

  • Kyoto

    Japan

    Dozens of crafts still made inside one city, and most of them within a bus ride.

  • Copenhagen

    Denmark

    Home. I still learn something every time I walk into the design museum.

  • Marrakech

    Morocco

    Dye, leather, plaster and tile, all within a few lanes of each other.

  • Jaipur

    India

    Block printing, stone inlay and jewellery, and workshops that welcome a question.

  • Oaxaca

    Mexico

    Clay and wool, and makers who set their own prices.

  • Helsinki

    Finland

    Glass and plywood, and a whole country's taste laid out on one street.

What Hanne recommends

Copenhagen

  • Danish Museum of Art & Design · Museum

    My local. The chair corridor gets the photographs, but go to the posters and the drawings, where the thinking is.

    • Seen in Designmuseum Danmark. The museum at Bredgade 68 holds collections of furniture, posters, prints and drawings and shows Danish design from the 1920s

  • Dansk Arkitektur Center · Museum

    Go for the long exhibition on a thousand years of building here, then walk the roof of BLOX and look at the harbour.

    • Seen in Danish Architecture Center. Denmark's national gallery for architecture, in BLOX, currently showing a thousand years of Danish architecture and urban life

  • Cisternerne · Museum

    An old water reservoir under a park, dripping and cold. Take a coat even in July, and expect no phone signal.

    • Seen in Frederiksbergmuseerne. An underground former water reservoir in Sondermarken where one artist a year makes an exhibition for the space

Jaipur

  • Amrapali Museum · Museum

    Two floors of tribal silver and body ornament, arranged by what it was worn for. Closed Sundays, and the staff will open cases if you ask.

    • Seen in Amrapali Museum. The museum's own pages describe a collection of Indian tribal jewellery and decorative arts on Ashok Marg, open Monday to Saturday

Kyoto

  • 清水三年坂美術館 · Museum

    Metalwork, lacquer and cloisonne from the Meiji years, in cases you can get close to. Two small floors, and closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

    • Seen in Sannenzaka Museum. The museum's own pages list a permanent display of late Edo and Meiji metalwork, cloisonne, lacquer and Kyo-Satsuma

  • The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto · Museum

    The collection gallery upstairs is where the ceramics and textiles live. Cheaper than the special exhibition and usually better.

Marrakech

  • Musée Yves Saint Laurent · Museum

    The brick and terrazzo facade is worth ten minutes on its own. Closed on Wednesdays, and the ticket can be combined with the garden.

  • Majorelle Garden · Sight

    Buy tickets only from the official site, go at opening, and walk the bamboo alley before the crowd arrives.

    • Seen in Jardin Majorelle. The official site warns that only its own ticketing site sells valid tickets, and gives opening from 8am daily

  • Berber Museum · Museum

    Inside the Majorelle garden, and the jewellery room is the best twenty minutes in the city. Silver, amber and coral, lit almost black.

    • Seen in Jardin Majorelle. The official site lists the Pierre Berge Museum of Berber Arts on the Majorelle site, open daily from 8.30am

  • Maison de la Photographie · Museum

    Three floors of Moroccan photographs and a roof terrace at the top. Tickets are cash or card on the door only.

Plans you can copy

Kyoto, four days of hands

4 nights · Late October to early December · Slow pace · Mid range

Craft museums in the morning, covered streets in the afternoon, and one day out west.

  1. Day 1

    Higashiyama, uphill

    • 清水三年坂美術館 · Morning · Museum

      Start here so that the souvenir shops further up make sense. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

    • Three-year Slope · Midday · Walk

      Stone steps and old shopfronts. Slippery in rain, and the name is a warning about falling.

    • Two-year Slope · Midday · Walk

      The quieter of the two slopes. Look above the shop awnings at the timber.

    • Kiyomizu-dera · Afternoon · Sight

      Go for the joinery under the veranda, which was rebuilt without nails. Late afternoon is calmer than morning.

  2. Day 2

    Okazaki, the museum quarter

    • 京都伝統工芸館 · Morning · Museum

      Student and artisan work side by side, with demonstrations some days. Small and often empty.

    • The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto · Afternoon · Museum

      Upstairs for the ceramics and textiles in the collection gallery. Skip the special show if the queue is long.

    • Philosopher's Walk · Afternoon · Walk

      Two kilometres along a canal. Do it slowly, in the direction the water runs.

  3. Day 3

    Downtown and the covered streets

    • Nishiki Market · Morning · Market

      Go at nine, before the tour groups. Look at the knife shops and the pickle barrels rather than the snacks.

    • Teramachi Street · Midday · Walk

      Paper, brushes, incense and secondhand books. This is where I usually find the one thing I carry home.

    • Ryukoku Museum · Afternoon · Museum

      Buddhist art, well lit and calmly explained in English. An hour, opposite the Nishi Honganji gate.

    • Toji Treasure Museum · Afternoon · Museum

      The treasure hall opens only in spring and autumn, so check the dates before you build the day on it.

  4. Day 4

    Arashiyama, and one teaching collection

    • Arashiyama Bamboo Grove · Morning · Walk

      Be there by eight or do not bother. It is a short path and it is worth the early alarm.

    • Togetsu Bridge · Midday · Sight

      Cross, then walk the south bank away from the shops until the noise stops.

    • 京都工芸繊維大学美術工芸資料館 · Afternoon · Museum

      A university collection of posters, textiles and design archives. Opening hours are academic, so check the week.

Marrakech, dye pits to design

3 nights · October to April · Slow pace · Mid range

Three days inside the medina and one garden, arranged so the walking is short.

  1. Day 1

    The making streets

    • Ben Youssef Madrasa · Morning · Sight

      Carved cedar, cut plaster and zellij tile in one courtyard. Go first thing and stand in the middle for a while.

    • Souk of the dyers · Midday · Market

      Skeins of wool drying overhead. Ask before photographing anyone at work, and expect to be offered a guide you do not need.

    • Dar Bellarj دار بلارج · Afternoon · Museum

      A quiet courtyard foundation with craft exhibitions and workshops. Free or nearly, and rarely busy.

    • Place Djemaa el-Fna ساحة جامع الفناء · Evening · Walk

      Walk the edge rather than the middle. Performers there expect payment for photographs, which is fair.

  2. Day 2

    Majorelle morning

    • Majorelle Garden · Morning · Sight

      Book on the official site and take the first entry. The blue is the reason and the bamboo is the surprise.

    • Berber Museum · Midday · Museum

      Inside the garden. The dark jewellery room at the end is the best thing on the site.

    • Musée Yves Saint Laurent · Afternoon · Museum

      Five minutes walk from the garden gate. Look at the brickwork outside before you go in, and note it is closed Wednesdays.

  3. Day 3

    Two collections and a roof

    • Musée Dar Si Saïd متحف دار السي سعيد · Morning · Museum

      Woodwork, carpets and doors in a nineteenth century palace. The ceiling of the reception room is the exhibit.

    • Tiskiwin Museum · Midday · Museum

      One collector's route across the Sahara, room by room. Idiosyncratic, and the labels are worth reading in full.

    • Maison de la Photographie · Afternoon · Museum

      Three floors, then the terrace for mint tea and the last hour of light over the rooftops.

  • Seen in Jardin Majorelle. Official opening hours for the garden, the Berber arts museum and the YSL museum, used to order day two

Hanne is a TravelDay buddy: drawn, fictional, and not an account in the network. Research edition 2026-09-17.