{"id":702,"date":"2012-09-29T12:12:57","date_gmt":"2012-09-29T12:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=702"},"modified":"2012-09-30T08:04:03","modified_gmt":"2012-09-30T08:04:03","slug":"den-gamle-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2012\/09\/29\/den-gamle-by\/","title":{"rendered":"Den Gamle By"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the midst of \u00c5rhus a rare gem awaits the watchful tourist: Den Gamle By<\/a> <\/strong>(The Old Town), an open air museum consisting of an entire Danish k\u00f8bstad<\/strong> (market town) as it surely must have been a century or two ago. It is, literally, a town within the town. Here the inhabitants live in bindingsv\u00e6rkshus\/e<\/strong> (half-timbered house\/s), fetch their water in the br\u00f8nd<\/strong> (well), and get their consumer goods brought by hestevogn\/e<\/strong> (horse-drawn carriages)\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Agnete (front) and her colleague are busy preparing food in the grocer\u2019s kitchen.<\/p><\/div>\n

I was lucky enough to get a chat with a local k\u00f8kkenpige <\/strong>(kitchen maid). As I entered the k\u00f8bmandsg\u00e5rd<\/strong> (grocer\u2019s house) where Agnete and her colleague were preparing pandekage\/r<\/strong> (pancakes) in the k\u00f8kken<\/strong> (kitchen), I felt like stepping 150 years back in time\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Who\u2019re you and what are you doing here in The Old Town?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My name\u2019s Agnete and I\u2019m serving as a maid here at the grocer\u2019s. I don\u2019t know why you\u2019re saying \u201dThe Old Town\u201d, we just call it K\u00f8bstaden or Aarhus! But very well. We\u2019re 18 persons living here, so there\u2019s always something to do! You work from early morn till late eve preparing food.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your colleague doing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

She\u2019s baking pancakes at the stove. The k\u00f8bmand<\/strong> (grocer) gets his eftermiddagskaffe<\/strong> (afternoon coffee) at 3 o\u2019 clock, and he needs his pancakes! Alas, eating sweet food is a true luxury here in 1864. Sugar is terribly expensive.<\/p>\n

You said 1864<\/em>?!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, we\u2019ve got Det Herrens \u00c5r\u00a0<\/strong> (The Lord\u2019s Year) 1864. These are bad times for Denmark, as you surely know. There\u2019s a war going on against Prussia.<\/p>\n

All right\u2026 How many people are there here in \u2026 K\u00f8bstaden?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me see\u2026 In a town of this size, I\u2019d guess we are about 700 souls.<\/p>\n

Including animals?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t mention them, but of course we\u2019ve got a lof of k\u00f8er<\/strong> (cows), and some\u00a0hest\/e<\/strong> (horses) for transport. There are also a small number of h\u00f8ns<\/strong> (fowls). But you\u2019re not allowed to keep gris\/e<\/strong> (pig\/s) anymore, that was outlawed a few years ago.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think it must have been the smell. The poor creatures get the remnants of the bryg <\/strong>(brew), you know.<\/p>\n

So, you\u2019re brewing your own beer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, everybody\u2019s drinking beer. You cannot drink the water, that will make you ill. We don\u2019t know exactly why.<\/p>\n

You can tell your readers that the beer we drink won\u2019t make you fuld<\/strong> (drunk)\u2026 The brewer brews several times on the same mash, and in the end it\u2019s very close to boiled water. We drink the third brew.<\/p>\n

There are indeed people here in K\u00f8bstaden<\/strong> who\u2019ve never tasted water! G\u00e5rdskarlen<\/strong> (the farmhand) once tried after a late evening out in the town, and he was ill in bed during a whole week! He was quite intoxicated. And just look at the well at torvet<\/strong> (the square), there are dead rats and everything. It does not taste good.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read on tomorrow<\/a>!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

In the midst of \u00c5rhus a rare gem awaits the watchful tourist: Den Gamle By (The Old Town), an open air museum consisting of an entire Danish k\u00f8bstad (market town) as it surely must have been a century or two ago. It is, literally, a town within the town. Here the inhabitants live in bindingsv\u00e6rkshus\/e…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[251380,1897,238026,1928,251383,251379,7547],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-251380","tag-animals","tag-arhus","tag-beer","tag-bindingsvaerkshus","tag-den-gamle-by","tag-prussia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t