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.