Flødeboller

One of my Danish colleagues from work has been teaching me a Danish tongue twister.

"Fem flade flødeboller på et fladt flødebolle fad"

Which means in English:

"Five flat cream puffs on a flat dish cream puff"

Well I have been practicing this Danish phrase for over a week and have it down pretty well. I can not say it too fast but at least my pronunciation is pretty good. 

But this whole time I have been wondering how do these flat cream puffs look and taste like. So when I saw in the Lidl grocery ad that flødeboller were on sale I just had to buy some. These flat cream puffs are pretty good. It taste like a marshmallow cream covered with a bit of chocolate. The bottom taste like a wafer. Over all they are not that bad.



Here are some pictures for you.

 

 

The Church of our Lady

I first want to apologize to all my friends and family for not posting for over a month and a half. Over Christmas (C) my boyfriend was visiting me for two weeks.  Then I returned home to the States for ten days to handle some personal matters.  Once I returned from the States I was throw back into the mix of things including taking at course on bioinformatic computer programing.  But now that things have calmed down and I have got up with my work I am posting.

So while (E) was staying with me in Denmark (in the month of November) we spent the weekend in Copenhagen. After spending over three hours at the National museum we decided to go a church close by since it was starting to get dark. We went to Copenhagen's Cathedral - The Church of Our Lady. This post will mostly be pictures since I took so many. =)

The tower is 60 m high and houses the four church bells that weigh over 4 tons and is the largest bell in Denmark. The smallest bell in the tower is the oldest bell in the country, dating from 1490.

The building length is 83 m (272 feet) and the width is 33 m (108 feet). The nave is 60 m (197 feet) long and over 25 m (82 feet) from floor to ceiling. With all galleries open, the church can seat more than 1100 people.

The famous Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen was assigned to decorate the interior of the Cathedral by creating the sculptures of Christ and the twelve Apostles together with the font.

A closer view near the alter, they were preparing for 5 o'clock mass so the lights near the pews were turned on.

A full view of the church with all the lights on.

The statue of Christ above the altar captures the attention and creates a peaceful atmosphere for the entire church with its gentle welcoming gesture. In front of the altar is the beautiful baptismal font made of Italian marble and shaped like a guardian angel that holds the font. The font and the rest of the marble works in the church was Bertel Thorvaldsen's personal gift to the church. 

 The twelve apostles are placed in the nave and each statue represents a symbol that is associated with each apostle.

The great Cathedral organ with 87 stops and 5 manuals and pedal, was inaugurated on Easter Sunday 9 April 1995, with a choir organ added in 2002. The entire organ unit is build by the world’s oldest organ-builders Marcussen & Son, who are based in south Denmark.

 Near the entrance of the church where is this beautiful spot to light candles.

 So I paid the 4 kroner (about 75 cents) to light a candle in honor of my friends and family in the States. 

The candle I light is in the middle of the heart in the sand.



This place was truly magnificent, the detail in the statues, in the wall art, on the alter. To truly take in the beauty of The Church of Our Lady you have to come a see it yourself.

Thank you all for your love and support. I will try to do better about posting on my blog. =)

Traditional Danish Christmas Dinner

I had a chance to have a traditional Danish Christmas Dinner,  I took pictures of the all the food so that everyone can see what I had for dinner.  The host of the dinner was a past employee of the facility and she has a huge house enough room for all of 20 people.

A beautiful center piece

In Denmark it is tradition to drink "schnapps" -- which is a really stiff alcoholic drink. They are put in these very small cute glasses.  I had one and lets just say -- that one drink is all I had.  It tasted good but it was a very strong drink.

The first course of dinner was fish. We had fried fish fillets with something similar to a tartar sauce called remoulade.. Two different types of pickled herring, one type was mild with just vinegar and onions; the other type was spicy with curry.  The pickled herring is placed on rye bread, with onions and sauce.  I tried the mild type on rye bread and sauce, it was not that bad, kind of like a type of sushi.  Then there was also smoked salmon, which was served on white bread with red onions, capers, and dill sauce.  I tried everything expect the spicy pickled curry.

The next course was meat, we had pork and beef meatballs, with roast pork, and liver pâté with bacon and mushrooms. There was the fixings: cooked red cabbage, and canned beats.

The last course was cheese, grapes, cookies and traditional Danish Christmas dessert. By this time I am so full!! But I really wanted to have some dessert. The dessert is called Ris à l’amande with cherry sauce, which is basically rice pudding with cream, vanilla and silvered almonds and then topped with warm cherry sauce.  Oh it so good!!!  People were telling me that it a tradition to put one whole almond in a large bowl of Ris à l’amande, and the person that found the whole almond got a prize. And that some people would actually find the almond but hind it under their tongue so that people had to continue eating the Ris à l’amande with cherry sauce until it was gone.

 

Dinner was great and I was so full when I left.  It was a great night and I had a lot of fun. 

 Merry Christmas to all my friends and family!!

National Museum of Denmark

I was quite surprised when I woke up on Nov 21, that my feet or my legs did not hurt, considering how much (E) and I walked the day before. Since we had such a hard time on the train to Copenhagen the day before, we agreed to try to get on a early train so that we can see everything we wanted to see. Plus now we knew exactly where we want to go; since we got off at the wrong station and then went to the wrong museum.

We arrived at the museum right when they opened at 10am, and we started to work our way through, this place was huge!! We did not even see all the exhibits after walking in the National Museum for 3 hours!!

This a few pictures with detailed descriptions, I took about 50 pictures but I not posting all of them.  Just all the cool ones.  

The subject of this altarpiece is Judgement Day. Above the Trinity is enthroned; in the centre Christ is depicted as the Judge presiding over the saved, who are lifted up to Heaven, and the damned, who are being cast down into Hell. Inthe foreground the donor of the altarpiece, King Christian II (1513-1523), is kneeling, together with his 13 year-old-queen, Elisabeth. The portraits of the royal couple were altered, when the altarpience was still quite new. X-ray photos reveal that they were originally looking at each other, and that the King's head was uncovered. The altarpience was made in the Flemish style ca. 1514-1515.  St. Mary's Church, Elsinore

The Gunhild cross

Carved in walrus ivory. The front of the cross once carried the  figure of Christ. Symbolised on the front of the upright: Life and Death,  on the cross-piece: the Old and New Testaments (the Synagogue and the Church). On the back: Christ enthroned on the rainbow, and Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom.  In the roundelterminals of the cross-piece: the Blessed and the Damned.  According to the inscription the cross is carved by Liutger for Helen,  also call Gunhild, the king's daughter. The name Gunhild is repeated in runes.  She may have been the daughter of Svend Grathe. The cross belonged to Sphine Brahe in 1646.

The Clausholm bed

Bed from ca 1650, oak, carved by Peder Jensen Kolding. Served as a symbolic bridal bed at wedding within the nobility. Decorated with biblical scenes: on the footboard, the Annunciation; on the  headboard, the Adoration of the Shepherds - suitable subjects for a  bridal bed. The headboard depicts the virtues Charity and Justice, the footboard depicts Hope and Faith, originally flanked by the Apostles Peter and Paul. The four Evangelists carry the canopy, which originally hadan inscription from the Song of Solomon, about a bride's longing for her lover. On the top of the canopy Christ with his banner of victory. All the textiles are new. The bed was purchased from a farm in Eastern Jylland in 1842, but it originates from the manor of Clausholm.

Painting of a nobleman's children from ca. 1620. The children are dressed like small adults. The painting probably come from Nakkebølle Manor on Fyn.

Chest with carvings in Renaissance style, ca 1620. On the front the four virtues Faith, Hope, Charity, and Peace are depicted, together with a poem: "Where Faith is in mind/where Hope does win/where Charity's within/there Peace you'll find." The chest comes from East Jylland, where it was probably made.

These marble lions, purchased in Marseille, stood in the grounds of Fredensborg Palace from 1764. Later they flanked the main entrance to the palace. The construction of Fredensborg Palace began in 1720, theyear Denmark declared peace in the Great Northern War. Frederik IV's country seat was called Fredensborg, which means palace of peace, to
commemorate the end of the conflict.

The lurs - the wind instruments of the Bronze Age - were masterpieces of casting. They were created between between 1200 BC and 700 BC. The oldest lurs are shaped like ox-horns. Soon the tube became curved and the ornamental disc at the top grew larger, becoming a sun symbol. Deep booming  notes surged from the disc as if the magical sound was coming from the sun symbol itself. After the lurs had been used in sacred rituals, they were sacrificed in pairs in bogs. In rock carvings one sees men with horned helmets blowing lurs. 

This stone was placed as a tombstone, this is what was carved on the tombstone: "Asråd and Hildvig (or Hildulv?) raised this stone in memory of Frede, their kinsman (?). And he was then bafainkuaiRa (the terror of men?); and he died in Svitjod (Sweden) and was fursifrikisiapi (the foremost of Frigge's host?); and then: all vikings."

Christmas in Tivoli

On November 20th, after (E) and I saw all we could see in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum we walked over the Tivoli.  Even though my feet so much from standing and walking I was really looking forward to seeing Tivoli.  I was told by many people at work that Tivoli is the place to go to for Christmas. After seeing the place I understand why. Tivoli truly was a Christmas light wonderland.

Originally on the 20th we enter the Tivoli gardens in one of the side entrances and you can tell when you walk in this place was going to be amazing.  When you enter you go down a small flight of stairs and you see all these amazing lights and Christmas shoppes.

Side entrance, with shops and Chrismtas light everywhere. The ball of lights on the top left was in the shape of snow flakes.

shops and walk way, notice all the tress have lights on them

These lights were everywhere and some were in different colors. 

 *The following day Nov 21st, (E) and I came across the main entrance of Tivoli and we took a few pictures since were in the area.  The main entrance is quite nice, however (E) and I were disappointed that a few of the sign lights were not light.  You would think with Christmas one of their busiest time - they would have all the lights lite up.

Once inside Tivoli gardens our amazement did not end. We come across the Tivoli Hotel which one of the focal points. It is hard to describe so I will let the pictures do all the talking. But I must mention that if you want to book a hotel room or a reservation at the hotel restaurant you have to schedule it almost a year in advance and be willing to shell out a lot of money.

All over the Tivoli Gardens there were many different types of tree wit lights and other decorations.

 

Also in the Tilvoli Gardens, there are many different rides. This includes roller coasters, swings and a beautiful carousel.

There was also a very unique Chinese area, with a cool lite up dragon and building. I found out later that there is a Chinese restuarant inside the building.

In Tivoli there is also a play house, they were showing Mama Mia! when (E) and I were there. But the way they lite it up it was great.

Another really neat thing about Tilvoli is that every walk way had unique lights above it.

In Tivoli there 80 different restaurants or snack shops, plus a whole bunch of gift shops.  If you come to Copenhagen you have to come by Tivoli Gardens.