Odense

We decided, since I am on holiday for a week to make a stop between Kolding and Copenhagen (or København) as it is known here so we made it onto the island of Fyn where we find Odense, the third largest city in Denmark. I suspect that there's a pretty decent chance that you have not heard of Fyn or maybe even Odense. Both new names to me.

Before we could investigate the offerings of Odense we had to find a laundrette because we were running out of garmets that passed the sniff test with confidence. We stuffed the laundry bag with the smelly stuff and headed out by bike to the local laundry.


It was just like the advert on the telly as we stripped down to our smalls and chucked everything into the machines! We popped upstairs to the supermarket and bought a snack then waited for the machines to work their magic. Soon the job was done, the clothes were clean and smelling great and it was back on the bikes to get the stuff back to the motorhome.

Now it turns out that Odense is the birthplace and former home of Hans Christian Andersen. Ahah, you have definitely heard of him. Well he lived right here from 1805 - 1875. In this very house.




The town celebrates him well and we visited his former home and the fairytale castle. When we arrived at his home there was a little sign on the door that said åben but nothing else. Danish is not our strongest language suit but we pooled our knowledge and figured it probably meant open. There was no price list and not being a couple who love spending money to see stuff we decided to at least go in. That way we could say we were in his house even if we ended up walking out saying, "we're not paying that". Anyway once inside a nice lady asked what we wanted. Now, call me dim if you will, but I thought that it was pretty obvious what we wanted but nevertheless I ventured to suggest that since this was a museum we might like to look around. Tragically she said that she was closing in seven minutes and there was time to purchase an entry ticket but little else. Phew! Saved by a few minutes. 

We wandered around the town centre looking at the shops and taking pictures of big churchy things and a rather odd looking statue.

Oceania

Since I have a slightly more time on my hands I decided to research the statue for you. I am sorry if this has robbed you of doing your own research but I know for a fact that not all of you look up to see what all of the big churchy things actually are and since this is in fact a statue I thought I might help. By the way, is it still a statue if the thing is lying down? Anyway it is apparently called Oceania and it is by Svend Wiig Hansen (1922–1997), a renowned Danish sculptor. Note that it is relatively modern. It represents (so they say) a sea goddess where the gender is purposely ambiguous. Personally I think it is hideous however that is the thing about art. People pay small fortunes for "paintings" similar to those that Nicola's kindergarten kids reproduce every day. Anyway the added bonus of me looking up the sculpture details is that I also discovered that it is situated outside the town hall so that big churchy thing behind the statue in this image is the Odense town hall.


There were plenty other big churchy buildings to choose from but I thought that this one was particularly big and churchy. I think this one actually IS a church but I'll leave you to do your own research.


We walked through the park where we saw the Fairytale Castle. It was a little less spectacular than perhaps we had envisioned but it was a castle nonetheless. As previously intimated our Danish is somewhat limited but it seemed to us that there was a production in progress where the local kids from the audience seemed to be invited to be part of the cast. One by one they disappeared behind the fairytale castle only to emerge a little later in a costume, or that part of the costume which vaguely fitted, to give their all to their role.
Casting director and subsequent star of the show recruiting his team
During our walk up the street and I found a bottle of wine that seemed to me to be the perfect fit. Sheila was less enthusiastic about it and so I was forced to give it the miss. I was allowed at least to get a photo with it.


We walked though the park and noticed several groups of presumably Danish people playing a presumably Danish game which I think is called "chuck the blocks of wood at the other blocks of wood". It probably has a proper name in Danish but I bet you any amount of money that the proper name does not describe the object of the game as well as mine does. We watched for a little time but it was not at all apparent who was in the lead or how points were scored. There was no obvious cheering or high fiving going on so all in all rather sedate.

People playing "chuck the wooden blocks at the other wooden blocks"
Tomorrow we are heading to København. See you there.

D, S and MJ


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