Eat, Drink and Be Merry! (Part 1)

"Drinking a beer is no simple task for your brain. Tasting a beer challenges and activates all your senses" author unknown

This weekend we decided to stay and explore Copenhagen. It turned out to be a series of food and drink tastings as we experimented with the culture of Copenhagen.

About 4 nights ago we went out for one of our regular family walks for a Nature Bath*. As we were exiting a beautiful park about 10 minutes walk from our place we saw a big sign that read Carlsberg. That got us thinking.... Were we 10 minutes walk from the Carlsberg Brewery? Yes we were! At that moment Saturday's plans came into fruition.

The day started with breakfast. Actually today was when we taught Etta about breakfast in bed! We told her that this is when we all just eat and hang out nicely in bed. Take out the nicely and she did pretty good with breakfast in bed. For breakfast we had a combination of two random oat packages with yogurt. One random oats with nuts and banana and the other with chocolate oats with white and dark chocolate. Then we had eggs with veggies on top of salad. I had a cup of coffee and Cam had a chai.

Muesli. The contents are unknown but we have noticed
oats, chocolate, dried banana and a variety of nuts. 



Breakfast in bed, in the living room. Our two single beds pushed together are in the living room!

Following breakfast we hung out, had a little dance party and then Etta went down for a nap. At 11:00 am we got ready and headed out the door for a nice 10 minute walk to the Carlsberg Brewery. It was pretty amazing as far as brewery's go and having happy hour at 11:00 am and 12:00 pm was also fantastic. I will let the pictures tell the story of our Carlsberg Brewery tour.



A cart they used to transport the beer by horses. They still keep the magnificent horses in the stables. Cam thought he captured a perfect picture of Etta touching the horses.... This picture is not where to be found. However families with kids can come and just visit the horses for free whenever they want. We will have to save the horse picture for another day.



They had the largest collection of unopened beers. 22,250 total. Guiness world record.



Etta not as interested because the bottles did not contain milk :)



So many beers.... Different kinds and in different languages.



Here is a bust of J.C. Jacobsen and his son Carl. Father J.C. Jacobsen started Carlsberg. He named the company after his son Carl and mountain which is Berg in the Danish language. Down the road his son started a collection under the Carlsberg name and named it after his father J.C. Jacobsen. Skål!



Etta and I are working in the laboratory trying to come up with the perfect beer. The Carlsberg laboratory worked under the idea that anything discovered in the lab was meant to be shared with everyone including rival companies. Apparently through his research in the Carlsberg Laboratory J.C. Jacobsen found the a perfect method for creating beer. This was a revolutionary discovery for beer. He shared this method with anyone who wanted to learn as he did not believe in keeping great beer making a secret. This method is still used in a lot of beers that are made today.



J.C. Jacobsen was a huge fan of the Arts. He has donated tons of money to preserve buildings in Denmark. He also loved the story of the lil mermaid. He commissioned the sculpture, the little mermaid, in Copenhagen (featured in another blog post). This one is a copy that he had made for his brewery and is situated in the sculpture/garden area of the brewery.



This is a copy of the old entrance to the brewery. I recently came across the actual entry.



Having the rest of our beer tasting in the restaurant area. Etta is a little impressed as we told her that we were going to a milkhouse instead of a brewhouse. She realized now that we tricked her so that we could enjoy the brew tour.
Anyways, jokes aside. Before tasting the beer you go to the aroma room. Here you smell different types of beers. Some smell of chocolate and caramel while others smelled of sulfur and made me gag they were so disgusting. Actually another guest was smelling it first and he gagged so of course I thought I should smell it as well.

After the Carlsberg Brewery tour we walked home for Etta`s second nap of the day. During her nap Cam researched a place to go for afternoon tea. We were looking for a place to go for dessert as Danes are big on dessert. Apparently the Dane`s consider most desserts here Danishes. At Cam's work they have had some pretty in depth conversations on what a real Danish is. Apparently the ones back home are NOT Danishes.

Anyways.. Usually I am the meticulous one about good food and drink places but Cam had the task of finding a place. I am pretty sure Cam was nervous to pick the place and that`s why he got me to approve the place before going. All I can say about the place is that Cam nailed it. It was AMAZING! It can even have Amangzing status! The place is called `La Glace`. It might be more french than danish but it has been there since 1870 which is only 3 years younger than Canada! It turned out to be a historical learning opportunity about decadent dessert. Once again I`ll let the pictures tell our tale but don't please don't read on if your on a diet...



Right when we got to La Glace there was a huge line. That's how we knew it was good. I waited in line and Cam took Etta for a walk. We were a little worried because Etta was starting to get a little fussy.



The display case with all the different cakes. Each cake is based on one of their original cakes that they made. We had two and they blew my mind. We had the 'HC Hat' which is a caramelmousse, lemon-caramel ganache with chocolate layers. We also had 'Luck You' which was meringue with caramelised and salted pumpkin seeds. Chocolate mousse, raspberry, mascarpone cheese and chocolate ganache.

Inside it was like we were in the late 1800's having afternoon tea and cake.



`Cake and Art and Love each Day Make all Troubles fade away' La Glace.
Although it was past Etta's nap she enjoyed charming
 the other customers and staff. This kept her happy till we left the café.
Just long enough for everyone to think she is an angel!

After a long day touring Copenhagen we have decided that we like it here. ALOT! Etta is enjoying the sights and the people but is starting to find us a little boring. I guess it just means I need to go out more often between naps.

*A Nature bath has nothing to do with a water. It is when you go outside to enjoy the great outdoors with all your senses. The idea is that it engaging with the outdoors and you will feel healed physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. Ideally you would want to be surrounded by completely natural surroundings. However if one opens there eyes they will see nature as soon as you open the door to your house. I always call it a Nature Bath and Cam gets annoyed because there is an initiative in Japan where they call it Forest Bathing. Unfortunately that would mean that you are unable to get the benefits of the outdoors if you were say just by the ocean for example and there was no forest around.