Denmark's Kentucky: An Ode to Hans Christian Andersen

So in my last post I forgot about a recent trip I took with Cousin A to the town of Odense, Denmark and to the site of a old viking fortress.


For those of you who don't know, which is anyone who hasn't spent time in Denmark (which is pretty much all of you), Denmark consists of a series of Islands and a large main peninsula connected to Germany.  The island that I live on, and where the capital city of Copenhagen is located, is called Sjælland.  Next to it, connected by a Storebæltsbroen bridge, is the island of Fyn. Then there is the 'mainland' of Jutland....but that doesn't really matter to my story. If you're a visual learner, here is a map.

The Storebæltsbroen bridge is actually the 3rd longest bridge in the world has a total length of 22,277 ft.  To give you an idea, the Golden Gate bridge has a total length of a mere 8,981 ft. 


Yeah, it's kind of big.

This is where we stopped in the middle of Storebæltsbroen on our way back to Sjælland. That's less than half of it.  I think the bridge might have actually been one of my favorite things about the trip. It was so big after a while we had a hard time figuring out if we were still on it our not; even if you looked down all you could see was water and with a slight fog you couldn't even see land before or behind you. It was definitely a surreal experience.

So A and I decided to go explore the town of Odense, the 3rd largest city in all of Denmark, and the biggest town in Fyn.  Before we left, I plugged 'Odense' into Google translate hoping for help pronouncing this very frustrating Danish name (in Danish, 'd's can be silent, or sound kind of like 'l's, or pretty much any other ridiculous sound they want it to make). Google's English translation of Odense?  Kentucky. I don't think I really need to say anything else about that.

Now, if you're wondering "Is Odense is known for anything?" it is.  One thing, and one thing only.  Or one person I should say.  This person is very near and dear to all Danish hearts and they take a lot of pride in the fact that he comes from Denmark.

You guessed it, Odense was the childhood home of the one and old Hans Christian Andersen.

Author of such works as the Emperor's New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling, and the Little Mermaid.  He also happens to be one of Denmark's few claims to fame (others things they're proud of  include LEGOs and beer).

So, if you can imagine, that our primary form of entertainment--which was a Lonely Planet guide walking tour--had a theme.

We started off at the house that H. C. Andersen grew up in. In was also a museum. We didn't go in.

Then, we moved on passed a few churches to H.C. Andersen Fairy Tale Park.

It was pretty darn Fairy Tale-esque.  And Complete with a statue of H. C. himself, which was adorned with a wreathe  in celebration of his birthday.

After that we walked through a bunch of ridiculously cute streets, full of multi-colored houses and H. C. Andersen named shops.  And H. C. Andersen statues, such as this one of the Tin Solider.

Even the Raddison Odesene got in on the theme.  Here I am gettin to know the famous author. He wasn't very reciprocative of my affections, though.

Naturally, our walking tour ended (or maybe began....because I think we did the whole thing backwards) at the house H. C. was born in, and the H. C. Andersen museum, that closed about 15 minutes before we got there (maybe we should have spent less time molesting statues...). Anyway, H. C.'s house was on the cutest friggen street I've ever seen in my life. His house is, I think, the closest yellow one on the left.

In case of confusion it did have a plaque.

Oh and of course, H. C themed cross walk signs.

And that was Odense! In all it's H. C. Anderson pride and glory!  I was going to write about Vikings in this post as well, but there were so many pictures here that I think I'll save that for another post on another day when it's not as beautiful and sunny out as it is right now!

Ve ses!

Leanderthal