Zend_Date is made to be simple, while in fact...it isn't

I just want to do this simple thing: get a unix timestamp from the past, with the time value set to 00:00:00.
Obviously I'm doing it the wrong way, because I get a fatal error:
Quote:
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Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Zend_Date_Exception' with message 'Unable to parse the date format string 'EEEE'en' 'den' d:'e' MMMM yyyy' at letter 'n''
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PHP Code:
$date = Zend_Date::now();
$date = $date->getDate(); // this line causes the error
$date->subDay(2);
$unix = $date->getTimestamp();
Please help me.