This year we decided to celebrate 31 years of marriage in the fairytale town of Odense. It is also known as fairytale town because this is where the famous Hans Christian Andersen comes from. The yellow house in the above photo is where Hans Christian Andersen was born. You know Hans Christian Andersen from such great classics as The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, The Princess and the Pea, The Snow Queen, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Emperor's New Clothes and many others - 168 fairytales in all. Just behind the yellow house is the brand new HC Andersen museum. So new, as a matter of fact, that I was disappointed to see that it was not yet open. I was sure that I read or heard from someone that it was open. It was one of my main reasons for going to Odense. When I went to the museum later on our first day, there it was completely fenced off. The following day it was also still fenced off but a section of the fence was removed with a sign saying that the museum was "Soft Open". Meaning you could walk in because the building was completed but the exhibitions were not yet completed nor was the garden. It's going to be a huge beautiful garden and I have decided that I will go again next late spring when the new plants and flowers are in place and in bloom. The garden is going to be huge with walkways and paths probably a fountain or two with figures from some of the fairytales.
I'm not sure why. but it was very difficult to get a nice room in town. Most of the nicer hotels were fully booked. The new Odin hotel I wanted to stay in was fully booked. In some hotels it was possible to get 2 nights but it required two single rooms. I contacted the hotel directly and was able to get the last double room available. Luckily for us it was a handicap room. Maybe that's why it was available? Very large and very nice.
Here is the link to the hotel if you are curious about it and there are several pix on the site by clicking on the tiny left/right arrows under the main pix on the site.
The day we arrived, Jens' sister, Gitte and her husband Carlo drove into town to meet us for cake and coffee. We had invited them to lunch and dinner but they had other engagements for the day. So Jens and I went on to have lunch on our own and then we would meet Gitte and Carlo afterwards for cake and coffee.
We didn't know the city at all. The place across the street from the hotel looked really cute but it was full. So we walked 5 minutes into town and came to a another cute place called Restaurant Bacchus. French food. Very tasty.
Jens always puts too much food in his mouth. We ordered Croque Monsieur. A typical French ham and cheese sandwich. It was really good.
After lunch, Gitte and Carlo finally arrived to town. They live only 1 hour from Odense. We live 2 hours from Odense.
Unfortunately they hit traffic and that made their short drive much longer than they had planned on. I was so excited to see them that I actually forgot to take a few photos and the camera was hanging over my shoulder. After cake and coffee we strolled through town to take a look and discover the town.
Odense is the 3rd largest city in the country with 178,000 inhabitants. You know the Viking god Odin - right? According to Google, the name Odense is derived from Odins Vé, meaning "Odin's Sanctuary". The area was know as a sanctuary for worshippers of the Nordic god, Odin.
OK so after our little stroll through town, Gitte and Carlo with their pooch drove back home and Jens and I took a long nap back in the hotel. When we got up, we went across the street to get dinner at Restaurant Gørntrov (Restaurant Green Square). This was where we were planning on having lunch when we arrived but all the tables, as I mentioned at the start of this story, were full at lunch time. We wanted to eat dinner in the hotel restaurant but all the tables there, were completely booked too. So our choice of restaurants for lunch became our restaurant for dinner. Here are a few pix of our dinner.
Wienerschnitzel - a typical Danish dish of pounded flat, calf inner thigh. Always served with lemon, anchovies and horseradish. Side dish is always peas and potatoes.
After dinner, Jens and I went back to the hotel room. Very convenient to just walk back across the street. It was also late in the evening. After a little break at the hotel room, I went out for a walk to take a few pix in the evening. I also had a nice Whatsapp chat with my sister in California as I was walking the few streets near the hotel. Jeanette is always telling me to: get to the point! But there is no point. That why it's called chat. Here are a few pix from that evening.
Crazy - the hotel had so many guest which made it was necessary to book a time-frame for breakfast. Breakfast was very nice with lots to choose from. After breakfast, Jens and I went for a stroll through the nearby park which is along the river. It was such a beautiful park.
After our walk through the park, we headed back towards the hotel. We came across a little place that was serving coffee, wine and breads. We ordered 2 black coffees and 2 very tasty croissants. Surprisingly it was very warm so we snagged a table in the shade of a large tree on the square. Next to the table is a statue of The Steadfast Tinman.
We are nearly back to the hotel. When Jens settled into his napping position, I went to the train museum. I have been there once before many years ago with Jens and his parents. It was very interesting so I wanted to go again. It was a short walk from the hotel.
This is a rather unusual figure. Most likely based on a fairytale. The building in the background is the central train station. The train museum is just on the other side. Google Maps want you to walk around the station but it makes more sense to just cut right through it - which I did.
I took a zillion photos from the train museum but I will entertain you with just a few of them. If you want to see the others, you can check them out on my Shutterfly site.
That's Hans Christian Andersen. And this is what he says:
Then there are the coaches for royalty. And you see how they develop over the years.
The above photo is a print on fabric. The bridge is an amazing monstrosity. This is the bridge we take to get to the other side of Denmark. It crosses the main passage way between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. However, most cruise lines take a different route which passes the Copenhagen harbor. Cars and trucks cross the bridge but trains go under ground under the sea. The below photo shows a model of a train in a tunnel. There are 2 tunnels. One for each direction. The gold spot in the above photo is supposed to be green grass. It's a natural island that has been extended to allow the trains to enter/exit the tunnel. The low lying bridge (or west bridge) is for both automobiles and trains. Very fascinating for me.
If you are into bridges, it is quite interesting. It's actually 2 bridges. An east bridge (the suspension half) and a west bridge. The suspension bridge was almost the longest in the word but due to delays, it was 2nd longest at the time of opening. The east bridge is just over 4 miles long (6.8 km) and the west bridge is just a few feet/meters shorter. For all kinds of information on it, you just have to google Great Belt Bridge or Storebæltsbroen.
I have lots more from the museum on my
Shutterfly site. And I just know you can hardly wait to see all the other photos.
After a couple of hours at the museum, I made my way back to the hotel. I walked the long way and snapped several photos of the town. Here are a few and again, you can see the entire collection
on my Shutterfly site.
Above and below - this is why it was not always possible to take Jens with me and why he didn't always have fun going along. The entire country is very wheelchair
un-friendly.
Above - our hotel on the left.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon. Our big celebration meal was on Sunday. We decided upon 2 steak houses and then chose the one with the highest score. We went to
MASH located on the big Albani Square. It was a very nice evening.
The following day, Monday 23rd of August, is the official anniversary day. It was funny to see that Sunday morning, the hotel restaurant was over packed and we waited in line to get in. On Monday, it was like a ghost town. Because it was so empty, we were able to get a table near a window and from our table, we were able to look directly down one of the small cobblestone streets. At the end of this particular street, we could see HC Andersen's house. It made for a very nice good-bye.
Good-bye Cromwell Hotel. Good-bye Hans Christian Andersen. Good-bye Odense. See you next Spring.
We drove home. Short drive but soooooooooo boring. When we got home, I need to stretch my legs and get some movement. I was surprised at myself for feeling this way. I have been walking all over Odense but I was sitting in the car for only 2 hours. When we got home I unpacked, and then quickly hopped on my bike and took a ride to Copenhill to climb the 95meter high path to the top of the building.
Click this link to see a 30 sec. video and be sure to read the first 3 sentences that will explain it all. Here is the view from that day. You can see the bridge to Sweden on the left and the control tower on the far side of the airport.
(The control tower is the little black spot just over the horizon on the middle-right-hand side of the photo)
When I returned, we rolled on down the street to a
neighborhood café for dinner on our "official" day. I wasn't about to cook just because we had pricy steak yesterday. Jens ordered a Noah burger and I ordered the best fish and chips I ever had.
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