My stay in Arhus was great! I suppose if I wanted to be technical, I'd say my stay in Solbjerg was nice. Arhus is the second largest city in Denmark and the economic center of the Jutland. In other words, there's a fair amount of stuff to do here; however before my adventures in Arhus started, I took half a day in Odense to see the town.
Odense is a relatively small town, but the largest city on the island of Funen. It's mostly known for two things: 1) being the halfway point between the Jutland and Copenhagen and 2) being the home of Hans Christian Andersen. As Mozart is to Salzburg, H.C. Andersen is to Odense. My main objective while there was to see the H.C. Andersen Museum. The museum was very well done, and detailed his life thoroughly. The most interesting thing to me about H.C. Andersen was how many of the most famous fairy-tales were penned by him. The list is pretty astonishing and of the few stories I can recall from childhood most were written by him. Not bad for a guy who grew in complete disfunction.
Odense
After Odense I made my way to Kolding to meet up with Marlene and drive to Solbjerg. The only instructions each of us had from Thomas was to be at the train station at 4:34 pm. OK. Done deal. Now what does she look like... Marlene and I had met once in Tulsa 4 years ago, and I'm ashamed to admit I don't remember much about her appearance (and I realized that that was probably a reciprocated admission). Once at the train station, I walked around for 5 minutes or so looking for a person who had the same facial expression as...well...me. You know the face. I call it the "what am I looking for" face. After a few minutes, a girl walked in the door and after a few of the aforementioned stares at each other, I knew I had the right person.
After finding each other, we drove back to her and Thomas's house, and on the way home we even got to stop at the Danish equivalent of Wal-Mart. The neighborhood they live in is fairly new and reminds me a little bit of American suburbia. They live close to a lake which has some spectacular views. Interestingly enough the Danish government won't let people build on the shore in an effort to preserve the environment. Their house is beautiful and fits what I envision the Danish Modern motif to be. Once home, Marlene and Thomas cooked dinner (which was very good) and we sat and talked about life, family, soccer, and much more.
Day two in Arhus consisted of driving to Arhus proper and seeing the city. Before going into town, Thomas took me on a tour of the hill-country outside of town. The Queen has a summer home in the area, there's a really nice beach, dense forests, and a deer sanctuary where people can hand feed deer. They would never survive at home. After my tour, we went into town. Arhus was nice. I really liked the cafés and canal area of town. After walking around and shopping for a bit, Thomas and Marlene took me to eat a traditional Danish meal; smørrebrød. Smørrebrød for lack of a better word is an open faced sandwich. We ordered a sampler plate and I really liked the fried halibut and roast beef, but I think I could've done without the liver paste (think liver flavored cream cheese). At least I manned up and tried it though! Also with lunch we had raw halibut which was excellent. This presents a problem though, because I hate sushi, so now I'm confused about what it is about sushi that I don't like. I'm sushially confused! After lunch we drove to the north side of Arhus to see some castle ruins. The castle was built on an island and joined to land via a manmade causeway. The ruins were really neat and it was fun hiking around and exploring. The castle posed a formidable defense, but as my tour guides pointed out the castle was so well fortified that the enemy figured out if they just sieged the castle, which was easy to do since there is only one way in and out, eventually the defenders would run out of food and water. Oops! After the castle, we went back home to eat dinner. I'm glad I told Marlene I liked Thai food, because...wow! That was probably the best Thai food I've ever had. No exaggeration. Marlene is an unbelievable cook. If her legal career doesn't pan out, I hope she opens a restaurant.
Deer Park
Thomas and Marlene were great hosts. After staying with them, I'm hoping some of their hospitality rubbed off on me. I had a great time with them and the Bjerg's in Kolding. Makes it hard to leave Denmark, but more great adventures lie ahead. After Bremen I have stops scheduled in Amsterdam, Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, Luxembourg, Italy, and Paris. I'm pumped!
Go pokes! 7-1!
Until next time...
Prost!
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