This is hvidtøl, or Juleøl (Christmas Beer) from Kongens Bryghus (The Kings Brewhouse). It is one of the most delicious beers I’ve tasted, and it has less alcohol than a light beer. I think I’m going to enjoy a lot of the Juleøl that will come out in the next couple of months. :)
I should add this to my wishlist for my birthday. It’s only 802.000DKK! :)
Gas prices around the world
This is a very good example of why Americans shouldn’t be bitching about their petrol prices.
Interesting to see the Netherlands at the top of this list, considering Shell Oil is a Dutch company.
Carlsberg. This and the main competitor Tuborg actually come out of the same brewery.
This is a large fadøl (draught beer) which measures 750ml (or 75cl). The metric system is used a lot more here. We’d never measure anything in Australia in centilitres or decilitres, but it happens quite a lot in Denmark.
Pharmacy Animals
I’ve noticed a lot of “apotek” or pharmacies are called “Løve Apotek” or similar, even when they aren’t in the same city, or owned by the same people. This sparked my interest to investigate further, and I found the below on http://www.apotekerforeningen.dk/ (Pharmacist’s Union):
Many of the older pharmacists have animal names, such as lion, swan or dolphin. We can not give any clear explanation, but there are some plausible theories. In the Middle Ages urban houses were given names to identify them. At that time, house numbers were not used as they became common in the late 1700’s. As many people could not read, it was not very useful to write the house name in letters, so a characteristic figure such as an animal was displayed so one could identify the building. From this the tradition was started to give pharmacists a distinctive name and symbol.
Another possible explanation may be that some neighborhoods had animal names, such as Leo Quarter. So it was natural for local businesses to choose the name of the neighborhood.
One other explanation was that pharmacists linked animal names symbolically, as this played a big role in the past in Christianity, alchemy and astrology. The lion was thus used as a name because it radiated power and was an image of vitality. The swan was an image of wisdom, peace and dignity. The deer was the symbol of the ‘spring of life’ and parts of its body were attributed to strong healing powers. The eagle was a symbol of Christ’s ascension and the victory of light over the powers of darkness. The elephant was simply an interesting eye-catcher because of its size and appearance.
In Denmark, there was a total of 45 lion and swan pharmacies in 1998.
I love some of the sculptures you can find in different towns. This one is from Aabenraa.
(By the way, for a native English speaker, Aabenraa is one of the hardest town names in Denmark to pronounce properly.)
This stone was erected by Harold Bluetooth during the viking age.
Now some little hip hop retard has spray painted “Gelwane” (= Jibberish ) on it.
Stone has pores.The stone has stood there since 965 AD and now it might be ruined forever.
The hope of the Danish National Museum is that the cold might have slowed down the chemical processes in the paint.
The National Museum will have a crisis meeting the 22 of February to discuss the restauration.
Danish, Norwiegian and Swedish experts are working on finding the least abrasive method of removing the paint since it was discovered.
