Pupletts in Sweden: October 2015

Expensive Cheese and the shoehorn - culinary adventures in Sweden

As we start to fit in and get our feet on the ground, we find that we want to start to do a bit better than vegemite sandwiches and basic dinners. What we really want is some nice cheese. The first shop we visited, we picked up some Edam. It was pretty expensive (about $20 a kg) and wasn't too bad, but what we wanted was the finest of the cheesy comestables - Cheddar. There were a few blocks in the fridge isle of our local ICA but they were about 120sek a kg ($20). We were tempted, but then Kristine saw something glowing blackly like the depths of night in the deli counter. It was a black waxed cheddar - Black Bomber by name. The price tag showed 29.99kr per kg (about $5). We made our way to the counter and the lady at the deli sliced off a few slices with a golden (well metal) cheese slicer, handing them over like they had been grown by yak-tending monks in the Himalayas.

It was awesome! We could hardly believe that this awesome tasty cheese was only 29.99sek for a kg, but hey, who understands these crazy Swedes. We asked for half of the block that she had - about a kg. She double checked and that should have raised a flag but we were shopping in Sweden and self sufficient and feeling invincible. When she cut off a big chunk she wrapped it, carefully tagged it and handed it to Kris, who chucked it in the trolley. We'd gone about five steps when I checked the price on our 900grams of Black Bomber - 299.99sek ($50)! Arrgh! I told Kris and she rushed back to check. The poor deli lady explained that the price tag didn't say kg it said hg which was 100g, so the price was 30sek/100g not per kilo. She did offer, quite nicely, to take some back, but we smiled politely, emptied our wallets onto the counter and carefully placed the cheese in the trolley like a baby in a stroller.

Black Bomber

Our next culinary experiment came that night as we served traditional Swedish kottbullar or meat balls. While I helped prepare dinner by sitting at the table playing on my iPad (hey someone has to do it), I heard Kristine say "I hope this isn't a shoehorn.." Of course I turned around to see her serving the mashed potato using one of the odd utensils we found in the kitchen drawer. It worked perfectly, but I still think it was a shoehorn - see the pic below and make up your own mind:

Our day in Copenhagen (part 2) (Keir)

After leaving the Christianborg Palace, we joined CanalTours for a boat trip through the habour and canals of Copenhagen, seeing some of the sights.

Setting out - the boats were very long and flat so they could go under the many low bridges

The new Opera House - it has a Maple centre in the shape of a heart

Opera House with maple centre visible

The dome of Amalienborg Palace

A better shot of the dome.

The spire of the Church of Our Saviour - Christian IV ordered this built for Chistianshavn and it was finished in 1682.

A wider shot of the spire

This is part of the Copenhagen Royal Library, known as "The Black Diamond/Den Sorte Diamant"

A glass dome artwork

Facade on a canalside building

These next few shots show the spire on the top of the old Stock Exchange, it is made from the tails of four dragons twisted together.

This is the front of CF Tietgen's house. He was the director of the privatbanken fron 1857-1897 and was prominent in alot of business ventures for Denmark.

One of the ships on the canal

The tour went under lots of low bridges. At one point Kris reached up to touch the roof and Tomas turned around and said "No touching the bridges! Its the rules.." Sure enough it was. Bad Kris

A replica of the Statue of David outside the Danish Royal Cast Collection - Langelinie Promenade.

An old crane - formally used to lift the mast sections from boats and ships

The reception area for foreign dignitaries.

Wider shot of the reception area

Holmen (The Islet). This was the site of the former Naval Base - Cannon salutes are fired from the Batteriet Sixtus for special occassions.

Copenhagen's Little Mermaid - made in recognition of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale. It has had its head stolen twice.

Decorative Roof

One of the many bridges

Once the harbour tour finished, we did a bit of wandering, and found this goose:

(the white one, not the one in the Onka's jacket).
The 'Nordic Goose' was created entirely from recycled buckets

Next we headed to the Tycho Brahe Planetarium but we didnt have time for the 3D movie and the displays were a bit of a letdown. So we headed for our final destination - Tivoli Gardens Amusement park. The park was created in 1843 and was apparently the basis for some of Walt Disney's ideas for Disneyland. It houses several rollercoasters and rides, including the Wooden Roller Coaster from 1914, which still has a brakeman on board the train. We didnt pay for a ride card as it was already getting late, so we just explored the park, which was themed up for Halloween.

The big Palace - This was lit up by hundreds of small lights

The winner and runner-up of the biggest pumpkin competition

One of the main streets in Halloween Theme

The Tivoli gates and massive hanging pumpkin

One of the main dislays - but everything was covered cobweb, spiders and pumpkins

One of the main walks

Well we had to come all the way to Denmark, but we did finally find something with Kristine's name on it... now to find mine somewhere..

The big lake in the middle of the Gardens, including the pirate ship

The Tivoli Pirate ship

The two jackolanterns looking out from the Tivoli Hotel

We left Tivoli around 6pm and caught the bus back to the Copenhagen airport and then the train back to Malmo. By the time we grabbed some quick take away for dinner we were all very tired. The kids slept in until after 7am the next day and I got up around 9am.

We're definately going to have to return to Copenhagen another time to visit more of the attractions and maybe try some Tivoli rides.

Our Day in Copenhagen (Keir)

28-Oct-15
Today was Kristine's birthday, so we decided to make a family day of it and go on a tour of Copenhagen. It was 300sek (about $50) for us all the catch the train from Malmo to Copenhagen across the bridge (return). We also got a Copenhagen Card, which was a little pricy, but gave us free public transport in Copenhagen and free access to a stack of attractions.

Our first stop was Den Bla Planet, which is a new attraction and the largest Aquarium in the Northern Hemisphere:

On our way

The centre looks pretty high tech, being made of loops of metal frames and panels. It is sea-cooled and insulated to try to make it more eco-friendly.

Inside, it was divided into three wings: The Ocean, the Northern Seas and Lakes and the Amazon/Rivers.

It was pretty awesome and had a huge selection of fish as well as a couple of Sea Otters and a massive full wall aquarium that you could walk through via a glass tunnel.

Cameron has a close encounter with a shark - well this one was a model

A Lionfish

Super-photographer in the glass tunnel

The Amazon - waterfall into the pirahna tank

Looking around outside - the white marks on the horizon are a wind farm near the bridge between Denmark and Sweden

Which fish are you? Our kids checking to see how they measure up

You can't go past a good Dumbo-Blaeksprutten. All exhibits were in Danish, Swedish and English

Looking down into the Amazon water exhibit - you can view from above or below

Butterflies in the Amazon/Rainforest exhibit

A school of Piranha - Kris wanted to video this as her screensaver

A snapping turtle - this guy was big!

Looking into the big wall tank

Kristine's favourite - a Japanese Pinecone fish. I wonder how it got its name

My favourite - these sea snakes anchored themselves in burrows and then swayed like sea-grass

The puffins getting ready to jump

And underwater..

A gif of the wall aquarium

Once we were finished here we decided to head into the centre of Copenhagen and check out the Christianborg Palace.

The Palace has a pretty long history - it was the site of several castles (Absalon's Castle - 1167, and Copenhagen Castle 1300s) before the first Christianborg Palace was built in the 1700s. It burnt down in 1794 due to a build up in pipes behind a heating stove and 70 people were killed as well as countless treasures lost. They then built Amelienborg Palace as a temporary home, while the Palace was rebuilt. It was started in 1803 and finished in 1828 by King Frederick VII. The monachy decided to remain living at Amelienborg Palace and the Palace was used for entertaining. In 1884 the Palace yet again caught fire, possiby due to another backed up pipe. This time they had installed firewalls, firebreaks and hydrants but there were so many secret passages that the fire brigade couldnt get it under control. The fire is believed to have started under the Great Hall and the Palace Guards refused to allow the firemen into the Hall as the floor had just been polished. Eventually they realised that the Palace was lost so they blew up the passage between the Palace and Hansen's Chapel to save the attached church. This time there was only one casualty and most of the treasures were saved.

A contest was held to see who would design the third Christianborg and this was won by Thorvald Jorgensen and the Palace was built from 1907-1928. During the construction the builders came across the ruins of Absalon's Castle and Copenhagen's Castle and these ruins were made part of a tour in 1924.