It's Fairytale Tuesday

If you have been following my blog then you are quite aware that I am now taking one day a week off of visiting Jens in the nursing home.  I was trying to make Tuesdays the free day but sometimes it has to be a different day because of different kinds of appointments either for me or for Jens.  Anywhoo...... today is November 16th but I will be posting this blog as if it was Tuesday October 14.  The day that I took the train to Odense.

From door to door, it's just a little more than
1½ hours by train.

I always book the quite coupé because
old men are like that.

I tried to look back and take a video of the very 

large bridge.  Unfortunately it was too foggy.  

At the time of the bridge being built, it was going 

to be the worlds largest bridge.  

But it took too long and some other

bridge over took the title.  Still, it is one of the most

fascinating bridges in the world.  The automobiles 

and trucks cross the bridge over the water 

but the train goes under water.  

Then they all meet on a little island.

From the island, going west, all the modes of 

transport share a low lying bridge.  

Click this link to see 

more of the bridge from Google Images.

I turned 67 years old as of Tuesday, October 14th, 2025.  I was able to get my very first pensionist discount on the train to Odense (say: O'-then-suh).  I wanted to see the new Hans Christian Anderson Museum - which opened 5 years ago when Jens and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary - but though it was open back then, it was basically only the souvenir shop that was open.  The installations were not yet installed and they were still planting the trees and bushes in the garden.

Fast forward 5 years and here I am again in Odense to see the museum.  I got a slow start because I am now an old man so what's the rush?  When I got to the train station, I just moseyed around a bit.  I did a bit of picture taking too.  Then once I walked up the stairs from the platform into the actual station, I sat down and enjoyed a nice coffee and bread roll.  Eventually I got up, walked out of the station, and made my way to the Museum.

Doesn't this old locomotive just make you want to

start to sing: Charlie says, Love my Good n Plenty.

Charlie says, Really rings the bell.

Charlies says, Love my Good n Plenty,

Cuz there is no other candy that I love so well.

Inside the train station.

I think this is going to be a short reading blog but lots of videos. I farted around a lot between the train station and the museum.  It was around 1:00 in the afternoon when I finally got to the museum.  Here are a few pix from just out in front of the station.  It's a short walk to the museum from the train station.

A bizarre statue of old men peeing?  
Well, I hate to say it, but I can relate.

Very strange - lots of very little figures on
top of the large figures.

This is a statue in front of a street car, in front of

a train station.  On the other side of the train

station is the amazing train museum.  

This town is full of beautiful old buildings.

Just a random house gable
with a painting of 
H C Andersen.

There was a sign out front of the museum saying: City tour at 2:00.  Dang.  Now what?  I did all the fooling around that I wanted to do but now I needed to fool around a bit more so that I could go on the walking city tour.  I spent an hour in the garden which was really fancy and then the tour began at 2 o'clock.  

It was quite a fascinating garden.
You don't have to pay to go in as it is completely
open to pass thru any time, day or night.
Think of a private park open to the public 24 / 7.

I didn't know the city tour was going to be a Hans Christian Anderson tour.  I didn't know theater was going to be involved.  So it turned out to be quiet a treat.  Very cute.  The tour was about H C Andersen's family life in Odense.  Yes, Hans Christian Anderson was born in Odense. And of course the museum was all about his life which was quite lively.  Very lively, actually.  HCA really knew how to live life to the fullest.

This is the house where H C Andersen was born.
It's part of the museum.  The way you get inside is
thru the garden to the front doors of the museum.  

This is the street that the house is on.

You can see it all the way at the end.

This is the front door of the house.

The sign for the tour said to meet here.

The whole set up 

of the tour came as

quiet of a surprise for me.

Here now are several videos of the tour.  It was of course in Danish and it's all about the fairytales that Hans Christian Andersen wrote.  For you non Danish speaking viewers, turn down the sound and enjoy the amazing architecture of old town Odense. 

Just a few snapshots now from inside of the museum.

Life size - he was very tall.

185 cm / 6' 1"

This was one of the last rooms in the museum.

After a very busy tour through the town and museum, it was time to eat some traditional dinner at the old Kro.   I went to the one you saw in the video where the old man and old woman are kissing.  It was built in 1633.

• Historical Significance: The origins of the Danish kro system date back to a 13th-century royal decree by King Erik Klipping, who mandated the establishment of inns at regular intervals (approximately every 20 km, a day's journey by horse-drawn carriage) to provide safe lodging for travelers. Many kroer still operate in historic buildings, some dating back several centuries.

And this is just a small part of the inside.

After dinner, I made my way back to the train station to go back home to Copenhagen.  But earlier in the day when I arrived in Odense, in the train station, there was this bar and I new that I wanted to stop here and have a good-bye beer.

Happy bithday to me.  

Tillykke med fødselsdagen to me.

It's Tower Tuesday

If you have been following a few of my recent posts, then you know I am trying to take 1 day a week off from the nursing home and have a little "me" time.  I have been wanting to see The Forest Tower  for a long time and I finally decided to do it today.  I really didn't want to go alone but..........  And then I remembered that Lyuboslav was in town.  So I called Lars and Nasko and asked if the 3 of them would like to go to The Forest Tower.  It turned out that Lars had to work but Nasko and his nephew Lyuboslav, whom is visiting from Bulgaria, were able to make it.  So the 3 of us piled into my car and off we go.  In just under 1 hour, 70½ km /44 mi, we are there.  And it was way more than I was expecting.  Even the restroom was exciting - as far as interior design goes. I had several phots of the restroom but I must have accidently flushed them.

Between the 3 of us, we must have snapped 400 photos.  Here are a few of them.

This is the entrance. 

 You buy your ticket at the ticket booth in the parking lot 

and then you scan it at the turnstile.

Just 12 steps from the start, you are directed to

cross this bridge.  It is surprisingly high.  Or maybe

I should say that surprising low is a small stream flowing.

We are towards the end of summer and having a

dry spell.  By the looks of it, it is more of a gushing

stream when the snow melts.

This is amazing. The trail to the tower

is a wooden boardwalk, raised above

the forest floor.

And it's one way path 

with lots of twists and turns, 

ups and downs, 

and a cute tunnel now and then.

There are even a few loop-de-doos.

Nasko whips out his GPS because we are not

sure which way to go.

Then all hell breaks loose when we hit a cross in the road.

-

Eventually, we see that we are about to approach the tower.

We're getting closer.

-

After a long hike through the woods, 

I take a little break and lean back

to admire the wild construction 

before making the big climb.

It's completely crazy.

Like something a kid wound design 

in 4th grade art class.

We are all so excited and 

now looking forward to the big climb.

That's me in there just getting started.

Come take a walk to the top

along with us.

Check out this video.

When we get to the top, we discover all kinds of 

distance markers.

I have 7 more of these but you get the idea.

Think of a major destination and there was a little

tag showing how many kilometers away it is.

The only one I couldn't find was Los Angeles :-(

It's 8,950 kilometers away, but you probably already knew that.

And there was info about how high up we were.  

Not very - because Denmark is mostly flat.

We were so lucky.  We arrived kind of late to the parking lot but it was perfect timing because when we left Copenhagen, it was cold and cloudy.  It looked like it was going to rain.  After we got out of the car and bought our tickets, (thank you Nasko) I insisted we first get a coffee and danish.  Almost like clock-work, as soon as we were ready to start our journey, the clouds started breaking up.  I thought it was kind of odd that we didn't see anyone else making the trip to the tower.  There were plenty of tourist eating lunch while we were just starting our morning coffee.  We eventually did see a few tourist at the tower and what luck; as we were hiking up, lots of people were coming down.  When we got to the top, the last few tourist were leaving and the 3 of us had the top of the tower to ourselves.  It was so exciting and fun.  And the sun was really giving us all it could.  It was wonderful.

I'm to the top first.  Nasko and Lyuboslav were calculating every corner ;-) on the way up.

Yes, the higher we climbed, the windier it got.

And now we are all at the top and completely wowed by 

the structure and the view.

Now it's getting to be late afternoon.

The wind is really picking up.

And we have pretty much taken 

1000 photos and videos from the top.

So we easily and gently make our way 

back down to the base.

Once we get to the bottom, we come to a big info/history sign.

This will probably bore you but it's very interesting for me.

The plinths are molded at the foundation.

The temporary inner tower's first 15 meter is mounted.
The temporary inner tower stabilizes the diagrid and the
platform works as a workstation for the craftsmen.

The first elements are fixed at the plinths
and are stabilized by the temporary inner tower. 
The tower's elements are now 15 meters high
and weigh between 5 and 6 tons.

The elements of the middle section are mounted by cranes.
The welding should not be exposed to rain and wind and the
small "treehouses" at the sides are cabins the welders can work in.

The welding is taking place at the platforms.
The welder to the left is working for within
one of the "treehouse" cabins.

The temporary inner tower has a height of
45 meters and the first elements of the upper
section have been lifted and mounted.

The temporary inner tower has been dismantled and the
outer construction/Diagrid is standing on its own.
In the first third of The Forest Tower,
there have been ramps mounted. 
The ramps in the lower part have been
lifted by a crane within the center of the tower.

A ramp element weighing approximately 2 tons is lifted.
The top ramp elements are being lifted from the outside
of the tower and mounted internally.

The last ramp element has been fixed and there 
is a well-deserved celebration !

And if you read all the way this far, you deserve a little celebration  yourself.