Christmas Beer, Fredericksberg and Hubertusjagt

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Last Friday the football team I support, QPR, was on Sky Sports in the UK. I had seen an advert for the Old English Pub somewhere and saw that they showed the UK football matches. So off I went to find the bar. Friday night was also Christmas Beer night. Each year on the last Friday of October the breweries launch their Christmas beer. The beer is slightly darker and has a warm spice flavour, so I’m told. There was fake snow in some parts of the main street and people wearing blue Santa hats. Apparently Tuborg is the one that started it and it’s their promotional campaign and then some of the other breweries, like Carlsberg, have got in on the act. There I was in the very crowded bar, with my diet Coke, which cost 40kr (£5), and having to look up at the screens which were quite high up. I was the only one looking at the screen and then I noticed another person who also looked like he was admiring the ceiling. Turned out he was a Newcastle fan and was watching the match for academic reasons. At 9pm the Christmas beer was officially launched and the bar got really crowded. Especially when the Tuborg promoters came in. At half time I decided to head to another bar as it wasn’t getting very comfortable. The bar I went to was O’Learys at the Main station. It’s a place that’s trying to be an Irish bar in Boston, America. The game was also on Danish channel, Canal 9, so I asked them to change the big screen which was showing Germany v Honduras. Nobody batted an eyelid when the barmaid did. The diet Coke here was 35kr, a bargain! Unfortunately it was a loss for QPR but I did get to see lots of Danish people get quite excited about a marketing campaign and vans delivering beer.

Saturday I decided to go an visit the area of Fredericksberg. The metro stops outside the shopping centre, which isn’t that big. Had a walk around with my camera and went down some of the residential streets. Lots and lots of apartments with some houses. Seems like quite a nice area with lots of restaurants (mainly Italian) and what I would call ‘practical’ shops. A bit different to where I live in the centre with clothes and tourist shops. Fredericksberg is where the zoo is and also a park. I looked round a little bit of the park but then it started to get dark so my photos weren’t coming out very well. Will head back there at some point during the day another time.

Sunday was photowalking day at the Hubertusjagt, which is the Hubertus hunt. It took place at Eremitagesletten park at Klampenborg. Met at the station at 9am and then walked through the park. The hunt route was across parts of the park but we decided to watch the first round at one of the jumps going down a hill. When we got there, not many people were around but after the hunt started 10am a load of people walked up the road from the starting point to our spot. It was really, really cold so had to put my gloves on, which aren’t the best things to be wearing when trying to take photos. I felt as though I was in England with the upper class.

The hunt works with two front riders which are the ‘fox’ and then the rest of the riders chase them. There was also a pony hunt who followed the same routes as the bigger horses. After we had seen the riders do the jumps we walked down towards
Eremitageslottet . It’s called a castle but it’s a slightly large house. Near here was the water jump but there were so many people I couldn’t even see it. Therefore we went to the finish to get some pictures of the riders coming down the straight. This part of the race goes through the golf course and spotted that kids were playing on the greens. Bet the greenkeeper was having a fit! The presentations for the winners were made at the ‘castle’ and I think some of the Royal Family were there. As we walked back to the station the riders came past on their way to the pub were the hunt had started. They looked very regal with the cans of beer they were swigging and cigarettes they were smoking. Was a good day out but was very cold when I got back to my apartment so stayed on the sofa under my duvet!

Some pictures I took of the hunter are of the hunt are HERE and you can find the photos of the group I went with HERE

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