Denmark 9: Finishing up with the city of Odense- Hans Christian Anderson museum and finally getting to try smørrebrød

  I spoke to my parents last night.  My father made a comment that irritated me.  It irritated me because he was right.  He said that he had read all of my blog entries this trip and it looked a lot like what he had seen when he had been to Europe.  Don't get me wrong.  I am still getting enjoyment from this trip, but I am not doing the things I most enjoy.  I most enjoy remote, small towns, seeing wildlife, seeing beautiful landscapes, and hiking.  Cities end up feeling very samey, and you end up often stuck going to museum after museum.  There is nothing wrong with this, but it has only further reiterated to myself that I planned this trip wrong.  When he arrived at our bed and breakfast in remote Denmark today, Miles was super excited with our hotel and we had an incredible hike that gave me the rush of excitement that I have been missing.  I also hate that I have been posting with picture dumps, of just what I had seen in the last museum.

  Back in Aarhus, as I was going to pick up my car, I noticed a huge Ukrainian flag waving over the city.

  Last night I was messaging back and forth with the woman that I met up with for burgers in Copenhagen.  She explained that it is generally not allowed to fly foreign flags in Denmark, but for this month, they are allowed to fly the Ukraine flag.  

  Two days ago we had a scheduled appointment to see the Hans Christian Anderson House at 3:00.  We left, first to visit the local farmer's market, which runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  It was disappointingly small.  A few trucks and maybe 4-5 more stands.

  Less than a five minute walk beyond the market was the HCA House.  It wasn't a house at all though.  it was an oddly shaped museum.  We were greeted by a young man that was at least 6'5.  I checked for stilts but there weren't any.  He explained that the ticket was also good for the HCA child's house, in another part of town, but it would close at 4:00, and we would not have time to reach it after this.  Challenge accepted!

  We were both given a cell phone to hang around our necks and headphones.  There was one route through the museum, and whenever we would stand on a microphone sticker on the floor, the headphones would deliver us information.  The information was delivered in the form of a story, delivered by someone with enthusiasm and flair.  I found it immensely entertaining.  HCA had an arch nemesis that would put him down, he never had luck with romance, and he was a huge egotist.  A fascinating and eccentric person.

Street leading to the museum.

  We left at 3:40 and made it to the Childhood Museum.  This three roomed farce of a museum claims to be where HCA grew up.  The large first room was, I believe, a gift shop.  It was also where the woman checked tickets.  The next 2 tiny rooms had nothing of interest and then you were unceremoniously dropped into the backyard, which has a garden.  The site states that there isn't even any conclusive proof that he ever lived there.  It was free with the ticket I already had, yet I was tempted to ask for those few moments of my life back!

  The next, and last day in Odense, was another simple one.  We visited the Danmarks Jembanemuseum, mostly because we had nothing else to do, and kids entered free.  Neither of us are train enthusiasts.  That being said, the sheer amount of trains on display was pretty cool to see.

  Not far from the museum, we walked past Odense Castle and a theater with some neat drawings on the front.

A cool castle outside the real train station.

The "castle."

  I deposited Miles at the hotel, to do schoolwork.  He had no interest in trying smørrebrød.  I went to Konrads, right up the street, which had smørrebrød without the usual pork or beef toppings.  I ordered one with egg and avocado, and another with chicken salad and asparagus.

  At first, I tried to eat it with my hands.  This proved to be messy.  So, I asked the young woman at the table next to me how the Danish approach this half sandwich.  She suggested a fork and knife.  We both agreed that smørrebrød is used as a ploy by the government to make tourists stand out in an obvious manner and look like fools.  We spoke a bit about Denmark and travel in general.  She suggested visiting the Faroe Islands.  I suggested going to Denmark.  She is the second person to suggest the Faroe Islands.  The problem, I explained, is that Denmark has direct flights to their territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland, but to us, we have to either first fly to Iceland or Denmark to get access.  I actually considered the Faroe Islands but Jeremy's lack of enthusiasm put that idea on the backburner.