Snow and cold-weather biking

Unlike the last two winters we've experienced in Denmark (which have been two of the coldest, snowiest winters on record), this has been a fairly mild winter. It's only snowed a few times this season, and only the first January snow stuck. However, we woke up this morning to this beautiful sight! You may of heard about the cold snap that has hit most of Europe: over 180 people have died from the cold, and places as far south as Barcelona have had snow this past week! Here in Denmark, the temperatures have been pretty cool, between -5 to -7 Celsius (the high teens to mid-20s in Fahrenheit), but the sun has been out and it hadn't snowed until this morning.

The bright sunlight allowed me to get a slightly better picture of our paint color in the readying/music room. Here in the nook, you can see the light blue color. Unfortunately, we won't be actually using this room until the spring. This room is extremely cold, even though all of the windows are double-paned. In fact, the room is so cold that there was ice on the inside of the windows the day I took this photo! There are two heaters in the room, but it's pretty expensive to run the heat in so many rooms.

The cold weather has also affected our biking. We do not yet have a key to the basement bike room, so our bikes has to stay outside. Last Monday, when the weather was about -7 Celsius/-20 Fahrenheit, we suited up in the morning make our regular 7 mile ride to work (suiting up means thick socks, heavy-duty long johns, a sweater, high quality water- and wind-proof jackets and pants, scarfs, thick hats, and thick mittens... it's a bit bulky). We tried to turn the lights on on the bike, but the cold had killed them, or at least prevented them from turning on. We then mounted the bike, only to realize that the seats, which has sat outside soaking the most recent snow, were literally frozen solid. We then noticed that our gears were frozen and we were stuck in just one very low gear! We somehow managed to make the ride (our gears started working after mile 3), but between the gears and frozen seats, it was a painful and extremely cold ride. Needless to say, we've been taking the bus ever since!

On a last note, Bobby discovered a large scratch in the lining of our new oven! We took this photo to the store, and they agreed to replace it. So we now have yet another new oven! It is the same model as the the original one we purchased.