Tuesday 14 January 2020

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 14 January 2020 - T for castles and Danish food

Hello lovely people. We have landed in the year 2020. I hope it will be a good year for you all.

We are back in Spain now (Got home Thursday night) after a lovely relaxing stay at my mother's in Holland and an uneventful journey back.

I haven't sent any postcards for more than 3 weeks so I haven't received any either. But here are a couple that were lying on my desk from before we left.
The first one comes from Germany and it is a castle. A 'Schloss' the German's say and it is Schloss Gifhorn. (In Lower Saxony, east of Hannover)
Gifhorn Castle is a castle in Gifhorn, Germany, built between 1525 and 1581 in the Weser Renaissance style. The castle was fortified until 1790 with moats, ramparts and bastions and was never captured. Wikipedia



The second one is from Taiwan. (Obviously)

As you can see it doesn't say where this is. It looks like a crater... 
But the stamps are beautiful. I imagine these are jade frogs. 
Jade Seal, Han dynasty (NT$8): This seal was originally part of a Han dynasty jade sword. It was only later that this piece of the sword was embedded in a copper square to serve as a seal stamp. A jade in-the-round carving of a bear serves as the handle of the stamp. Originally milky white, the jade has turned brown with age.

One of the lovely things about Christmas are the Christmas wishes from friends and family. When we came home I collected the mail from my postbox and there were quite a few cards (we left more than a week before Xmas). One of them was a hand made card from Caty in Almería. Isn't it gorgeous? Thank you so much Caty! I love it. I'm just sorry I didn't get it until this week.
 One of my presents was a scandinavian cookbook. My cousin had probably heard me rave over the food in Denmark and got me this book. It is quite a hefty book, but we managed to get it in the suitcase without being over-weight, so i am looking forward to making things out of the book.
 Talking of food, when we came home on Thursday night, having been away for 3 weeks, there was no food in the house. There had been a power cut and the freezer had defrosted so we didn't have anything to eat. So we just went to our nearest bar for a nice meal. Hubby is enjoying grilled 'secreto' (pork meat) with a baked potato smothered in aioli. 
 I had 'chicharra' (also grilled pork meat, but a different cut) and of course a glas of Ribera del Duero (red wine).
 As this is my post for Elizabeth and Bleubeard's T-Party, This glass of wine is my qualifier.

You might know we are enthusiastic recyclers and while we were in Holland, we had a daily trip to the cash-back machine to get the deposit back from the bottles.
The bottles get placed in the round opening on the left. Crates go in the bottom. The machine calculates how much you are owed and asks if you want a ticket or if you want to donate to charity. We chose the ticket, which we would cash in at the till. Brilliant idea. I wish they had that system in Spain.

I think I'll leave it at that.


13 comments:

  1. Your meals look delicious, and the wine is the perfect drink with it. It sounds like a fun way to deal with your power outage. Happy T Day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. so sorry you had a power outage while you were gone-hoping you did not lose allot of fun in your freezer. I have never seen a recycling machine like that and gives you back money too-that's is pretty nice and would keep people recycling I would think.
    Lovely meal and I am of drink a glass of red wine tonight-while watching a hockey game Happy T wishes Kathy

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad you enjoyed a wonderful trip! And what wonderful mail to come home to. Too bad about losing the food in the fridge:(. Wonderful looking meals, and why not go out anyway? You get home and are tired. Happy T day!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gifhorn is some 30 km from my home! And yet.. I´ve never been there.
    Oh, cute frogs!

    Oh, my goodness, bad luck with the freezer! Reminds me I need to defrost ours - it sure would make a huge mess...
    But a good excuse to dine out :-)

    Oh-hohoho. No. I hate those recycling machines (and I already have 6 bottles to go in here). Our automats are S.L.O.W.
    So darn slow. Or full. Or there is a queue.
    I use water from the tap, but Hubby needs to have the darn bottles.

    I leave it like that, too ;-)
    Happy T-day.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Glad you had a good time in Holland, but sorry to hear about the freezer, not a good surprise. But your meal at the restaurant looked great. All the shops here have those machines for bottle deposits, so it's no novelty for us, but a regular part of shopping. Lovely postcards, too. Have a good week, happy T Day, hugs, Valerie

    ReplyDelete
  6. My sincere apologies. As your host, I knew I had to show up for T, but it took everything I had to climb out of bed. I am running a fever of 101.8 F (38.8 C). I appreciate you sharing your drink with us this T Tuesday. Too bad about the freezer, but at least it is still functional. Good for you for recycling, too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sounds like you had a fantastic trip, but it is always so nice to be back home.......until you find the power outage and defrosted freezer!
    Love the smiles on you two!
    Happy T-day

    ReplyDelete
  8. It was a shame you got home to your freezer food being ruined, but the photos of the meal you had out looked delicious. It sounds a great idea to be able to return bottles and get some money off at the till. Something that should be thought about in all our countries.
    The post cards looked lovely as well.
    Happy T day wishes Lisca.
    Yvonne xx

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am interested in how you will read the recipes in that cookbook? Is there an English version or do you read Danish? I hope you share some of your cooking with us. My grandparents were from Sweden and I grew up eating a lot of Scandinavian food so that's why it is of interest to me. And sorry to hear about your freezer also. But better to start fresh and not get sick. I agree. Happy T day Lisca. Hugs-Erika

    ReplyDelete
  10. Lovely postcards and stamps. Your food looked delicious. Happy T-Day!

    ReplyDelete
  11. The frog stamps are really special. I hope you didn't have to throw out too much food. What a shame. That recycling machine is brilliant! I wish we had them here too.

    Happy T-day! Eileen xx

    ReplyDelete
  12. That castle is beautiful Lisca! I like your postcards and the stamps are magnificent. I had never seen a frog like that. I'm glad you like my Christmas card. What a pity that the food from the freezer was lost while you were away, you can still claim the damages to the electric company(calculate how much what you had in the freezer). Also wish this cash-back machine were here in Spain.
    The secrets are very good is true. Good wine ! Happy T-day!
    Wish you have a nice Thursday,
    Big hugs, Caty

    ReplyDelete
  13. Always nice coming home to happy mail. So sorry your freezer went on the fritz. Looks like you and your hubby took things in stride. You meals look delicious. We have that kind of bottle recycler here. Though the store where it's located gives you the choice of getting cash or getting a merchandise credit to use when shopping. Happy T Day

    ReplyDelete