Product from NZ, random product, and recycling products

I was super excited to notice a product from New Zealand in a shop, even though I've never seen these actually in New Zealand. Its amazing how patriotic one feels when absent from homeland!

Speaking of product, I'd heard the Danes were big on 'Svinekod', and sure enough we see huge freezers and a wide range of pork products everywhere we go. In fact we were in a shopping mall the other day and there in the middle of the clothes and lingerie area was a freezer full of it! 'Random' we think, but perhaps not so the Danes. We haven't shopped enough to know if this is normal or not.

So onto recycling. We have been told that Denmark recycles 97% of its waste, with only 3% going into landfill which, while impressive, falls short compared to Sweden who now recycle 100% of their waste! I haven't looked into the rest of Scandinavia but here 'recycling' is everywhere. 

We have a big poster plastered on the kitchen cupboards, and clear house rules proclaiming that everyone is responsible for sorting their household waste into four piles; food, plastics, paper, and incineration, with fines if it's proven we haven't done so. We get supplied with special paper bags for the food waste and bins for the other types, and have to take these down "at a minimum once a week" to the bin area that decorates our courtyard, so that the collective waste can be taken to its recycling center.

There are bins everywhere! We also discovered that these little ones we saw in the neighbouring complex, are not so little...wow!

More snow, more sunshine, the gym, and visitors!

Crazy weather everywhere. Yesterday it snowed. Today the sun shone.

 Today Barry went to his first cross fit class ever and it just about killed him. In fact he couldn't finish it. I had already done a 'booty' class and was already done so just watched. And took photos. Guess which one is Baz... The gym is pretty well equipped and is run by students on a volunteer basis. Its $60 for the semester so pretty good value. The student coaches seem to know what they are doing, and run classes every day. There's yoga and stretching but also acro yoga - a kind of acrobatic one which we haven't tried yet. There is also the booty class, and 'Abs' and crossfit and also 'athletic' and 'insane'.  Then on top of all that they do football, volleyball, badminton, basketball, and a bunch of dance classes; latin, zumba and whatever 'lady fusion' is. So far the booty and abs and now the cross fit have done me in and I haven't yet had the energy to try the rest but in time...

And in other news, we have four confirmed visits this year. My darling friend Lynnie is coming over end of April for a month, catching up with me for a couple of weeks and her other bestie in the UK. Barry's Uncle and Aunt from Aussie are coming to Europe in May and staying a couple of months so we are planning to meet them over in Ireland. In June, my sister Susan and Jeremy are coming to Italy and the plan is to spend a couple of weeks mountain biking with Jeremy before shopping, cafe-ing, and sightseeing with Susan in Vienna (being a school teacher she is limited to two weeks). And then, in November, another sister Bernie and niece, Kelly are coming over to visit the UK, Paris, and Denmark. 

So very exciting times ahead!!!!

A new favourite cafe

Not McDonalds, though we discovered there is one in Horsens when we went for a ride in the weekend and found it at the top of a hill. Yes, Horsens actually has some slightly uphill areas slanting up from the sea. In fact the northern part of Horsens is the second highest point in Denmark at 172.54 m above sea level when the height of one of the Bronze Age burial mounds built on the top of the hill is included.
Conveniently, there was a nice big Bronze chair waiting for me to have a rest on. Clearly I will have to work to regain my fitness in time for a mountain bike trip with my brother in law in June!

We were on our way to the old prision which they have now turned into a Museum and more importantly, an events venue where the likes of Metalica and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers have held concerts, and when we got there discovered the cutest cafe. Good coffee, great food, and very 'hygge'. Nice!

Horsens on a good day

Like Wellington, its quite lovely...

Sunrise

Looking down on our block again.

This was a zoom in from the same point where the picture above was taken.

Hairdressers galore

Its about 3km from our flat to the town centre. We noticed a LOT of hairdressers so today I took my camera along for the walk. We counted 24 places. Crazy...

Horses, salads, and a cat

Lots of words in Danish are similar to English such as the name Horsens which refers to horses (and headlands apparently). So it’s not surprising that the city crest is of a horse and is everywhere; on buildings, bus stops, manholes, rubbish bins. It’s quite nice I think.

We were pleasantly woken to sunshine on Saturday. One thing better than snow, is sunshine and snow! The snow sparkles and the sun on the face is lovely. We took the bikes to town where the main shopping precinct becomes a market place full of stalls and people in the weekends. There are bike stands everywhere including, as we were to discover, air pump stations! Sweet!

Early on a sunny day in winter

Barry leaving the air station with nicely pumped up tyres

 The Danish signature dish, aside from the delectable pastries, are open salad sandwiches. There are salad bars everywhere and the VIA university cafeteria is no different. Food in general seems to be on par with New Zealand but at the university, it’s much cheaper for the students (and me) – coffee is $3 and the enormous salads and open sandwiches are $5.

Yesterday I went for a big walk around the headlands. The houses next to the water are huge. It’s hard to imagine that it gets warm enough for sunbathing, but photos on the internet prove it does. Along the way there were clusters of little batches – or ‘summer houses’, another big thing in Denmark. They reminded me of the boulder Bay walk in Christchurch.

Roll on summer!

Yesterday I also met the first cat I’ve seen in Denmark – other than one in a cage on a train. Dogs are everywhere but not cats. Maybe they are all staying inside for the winter. This fella wasn’t though, and he was lovely and very friendly. 

A Friendly ginger Tom