Wednesday, November 10, 2010

And where can I buy a klippekort?

I have been talking about s-tog and klippekort but I forgot to mention the basics. Where do you buy you klippekort? Well either from a shop inside the station or a vending machine directly on the platform. You can also find them in some newsagents.

Other essential info: if you ask kindly (to the vendor, not the vending machine of course ...), you may manage to get a card cover, some even have a line map on them! Classy and totally essential!


Saturday, November 6, 2010

Did you klipp?

Essential when you take the bus, bus boat, train, S-Tog or subway: the right ticket.
Be careful here, you don't have to pass any door, so you may well get on a train without even thinking about tickets... (at least in a bus, the driver would stop you). Beware not to try it though, you would soon discover the 600 kr. fine the not convincing
enough "I am a tourist, I didn't know, I am sorry" excuse would get you....
For occasional travelers who do not have a monthly card, never forget to "klipp" a ticket (klippekort) in one of the yellow composter.


Above the composter, a map shows the number of areas needed for your trip. For example inside Copenhagen, you stay in the red area, so you only need a 2 klipp ticket. To go from Copenhagen to Hillerød (to see the amazing Frederiksborg castle), it goes up to nine zone (or all zones) Then, everything is modular. To do that 9 zones trip, you can make a klip on a all zone card (the cheapest option) or one on a "5 zones" + one on a 4 zones, or three on a card "three zones", etc...
When you always want to get the best price, you quickly get addicted to collecting colors!

This is clairly one of the most complicated ticketing system I have ever seen...!


Note: with the card on the right, you have to klipp once to travel with a bike. They really thought of everything ...

The advantages of these cards: they are cheaper than single tickets and can travel in a party (multiply the number of klipp by the number of passengers). Bon voyage!


See this page for 2010 prices (in Danish)

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

The S-Tog

Here in Sjælland, it's hard to avoid taking the "S-Tog" (S-train, but that does the S stand for? Super-fast?), A sort of equivalent to the Paris RER.
Equivalent, but careful though: the level of service is not the same! Here the traveler has the right to a nicely designed seat, the position of the train on the line appears, and everything is quite clean. Besides the trains are rarely crowded, extra trains are added during peak hours (lines "+"). It changes from the Paris trains ..
An extra help for people who usually do not know where to get off (I know quite a few who can't figure it out), red and black display in each car gives you the list of the upcoming station and a dotted line indicates in real time the remaining time before the next station!
There are 6 lines, each with its associated color and initial (A to H, but no line D and G, why? not sure...).


More infos about the stog (for Danish speakers) : DSB website




Friday, October 29, 2010

Snack and pølser

What do people eat on the go in Denmark? Pancakes? Kebabs? Well, sure but that is not the most typical option, which is pølser (hot dogs). How can you cook this monument of Danish cuisine yourself?
Well, very complex indeed ;-) You will need:
- Sausages
- Hot-dog rolls
- Danish style mustard not too strong and a little sweet
- Ketchup
- Grilled onions (can be bought already prepared, it's easier and it smells so bad when you cook it yourself, they are very strong those Danish!)
- Slices of pickled gherkins, "Russian" style
- Optional: chopped fresh onion. Sorry, we did not have any for the photo!
Preparation: Heat the sausage (possibly also the bread), open the bread lengthwise and place the sausage inside (and everything else...)
You will say: "Okay, but everything will fall when you eat it!". Well yes! That is the funny part!
Bon appétit!




Monday, October 25, 2010

Candles, candles...


Candles are a big part of everyday life in Denmark. This is especially true at this time of the year that once we get home I start by lighting up the dozen (at least) of candles stanging on my window ledges. In design shops, the choice of candles and candle holders is endless ... You can also spots huge candles or lanterns in the streets, they are used to frame the entrance to shops and restaurants. Big oil lamps as well, which is sometimes a little dangerous for the tourist wearing long coats! In our first flat (rented furnished), there was 5 candle holders and a bag of 100 candles (the biggest bag I have seen in a shop so far had not less than 500 candles in it), that explains a bit how important this is to the basic Danish survival kit.






Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Pølsehorn

Well, I have two ways to start this message.
The first: here is a typical Danish recipe that is very suitable for children!
The second: as I am a real sucking cook, I am only cooking when it is level 0 cooking (remember the cake for dummies!)
The recipe of the day: pølsehorn!
Ignredients:
- a specially tailored and precut pølsehorn dough
- a few sausages


Open the package, flaten the dough on a clean surface, wet the edges of the dough. All the recipe magic is in the way you'll manage to wrap the sausage in the dough as a croissant ...

You can also try the ketchup alternative (more messy) or the cheese one (more calories).


Bake as indicated on the dough packaging. The hardest part is to wait until the cooking is done...

And voila! Within minutes, you managed to cook a typical meal Danish (1)that will delight children (even some adults!) (2) that nearly any cooking beginner can manage!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Blog action day: water

Why the "Water" theme for Blog Action day 2010?

Right now, almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. That’s one in eight of us who are subject to preventable disease and even death because of something that many of us take for granted.

Access to clean water is not just a human rights issue. It’s an environmental issue. An animal welfare issue. A sustainability issue. Water is a global issue, and it affects all of us.

Bottled Water: Even though people in the US have access to clean water from their taps, they drink an average of 200 bottles of water per person each year. Over 17 million barrels of oil are needed to manufacture those water bottles, 86 percent of which will never be recycled.

Here in Denmark, I have stop using bottled water and bought a "Drikkedunk" for a while now. You can find them in a lot of shops, including pharmacies, and they come in different colours. The plastic they use is free for toxic elements, of course probably not all of them, but at least I don't feel responsible for creating hundred of kilos of extra trash every year.

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