Weekends - gotta love them

We decided to start our weekend early. It was freezing (for a change) on Friday, so we wrapped ourselves up in plenty of wool before driving up to Jægersborg Dyrehave for a walk. When we arrived at the Raadvad gate it was already dusk and the icy wind was blowing in from the nearby coastline. (Okay, it's Denmark, the coastline is always near by.) It would just have to be a short walk, we decided, and at a brisk pace.

It was worth it. The forest rangers had spread out winter feed along the road, and some hundred deer were in the middle of dinner when we interrupted them. The red deer are so big they don't much care about a couple of curious two-legged observers, but the fallow deer moved away and the little sika deer of course sprinted off (only to stop 15 metres away and wait for us to leave).

We drove home and thawed out with some hot lasagna.

On Saturday we went out for brunch at Toldboden restaurant. Wauw. We thought the menu looked good on paper, but it was so much better in real life. And expansive, to say the least! Hot dishes on the counter included traditional Danish liver paté, tiny fish cakes, sausages, spare ribs, vegetable pie and French toast with homemade syrup. The juice bar offered 3 different kinds of juice, I don't even know how many kinds of tea and coffee they had - I just ordered my much needed caffè latte and explored the rest of the brunch menu.

4 different kinds of bread, 6 types of cake and pastries, 5 kinds of homemade jam and apple butter. 7 organic Danish cheeses, 4 types of salad (one of which was seafood), and of course yoghurt with muesli and more of that homemade apple syrup that was also offered for the French toast. If this reads like "The Twelve Days of Christmas" to you, you're not far off. I felt like humming "and a partridge in a pear tree" to myself as we helped ourselves to a little bit of everything. I'm sure I forgot something. It was all delicious.

Toldboden is climate friendly and uses local produce - no need to import ham from Parma and syrup from Canada when you can get something just as delicious right here. I say again: Wauw. We will be coming back.

After that strenuous ordeal we walked through the city to Kongens Have. The park is charming even when there's not a single leaf on the trees. We found our way to Latinerkvarteret and a second-hand record shop, then to Vesterbro and a tea salon that sells great homeroasted coffee beans.

Oh, and what do you know, then we were right next to a Paradis ice cream shop and we just had room for a little free ice cream. Again: Wauw. We had actually forgotten how amazing their ice cream is. The mint-lime sorbet is a new favourite, it was an explosion of taste. Good thing the ice cream season is now kicked off!

I love weekends.