Viking brothers having a peaceful discussion about who is the rightful heir to the throne, Royal Jelling Exhibition Centre, Jelling.
Josh and Lew enjoyed trying to solve this Viking's death a little bit too much. Each time you touched a weapon it made a gory sound and a projection of blood (as well as some information about the injury) appeared on the body! Scientist-Teacher-Mummy thought it was pretty awesome too!
We followed the entire Danish family tree up to Princess Mary. Unfortunately she was left out of the accompanying commentary and after sitting through centuries of history it skipped back to the start. Will we ever know what really happened?
The 10th Century Jelling Runestones are now kept behind glass to protect them from the weather and tourists. The stones show the transition between the traditional Norse paganism and beginning of Christianity in Denmark, with descriptions of Norse Gods, Danish Kings and Jesus Christ.
The other attraction in Jelling are the two large burial mounds, which now come with handy steps.
It was a bit breezy up top! Oh my beautiful hair!
Odense is famous for being the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen. The town loves him, with monuments everywhere, streets and parks and shops named after him, and a museum dedicated to him. Unfortunately, HCA wasn't so keen on the town himself, and he left as soon as he could for the bright lights of Copenhagen.
Our picturesque hotel (the First Grand Hotel) is a tourist attraction in itself and located right in the middle of town. The downside was one shared room for all. It was cosy.
Down the street we made the most of the playground before dinner.
During a lengthy wait for dinner, Ben ran the kids ragged in the laneway.
We were about to chuck it all in (seriously how long can you make a family with small children wait before everyone else decides to leave?), but thankfully we stayed. The small French bistro was worth the wait... Oh man, we've forgotten how good non-German food can be.
Many thumbs up!
After a hearty brekky of too many runny egg soldiers we headed out of town to Egeskov castle.
It was stunning!
The grounds of the castle were the best I have experienced for families, ever. Lots of playgrounds, picnic areas, a treetop climb, balance beams, horse-drawn carriage rides and beautiful gardens to run around. This place is definitely a must-see when in Denmark.
And a vintage automobile collection... Lifestyles of the rich and the famous on display here!
In fact, members of the Royal family still live here in the ACTUAL castle! In one of the rooms was an enormous, intricate dolls house. By the time it had been finished by the dedicated father, the child was no longer interested. That tends to happen when you take 20 years to complete a project. "Thanks Dad, I can give it to my children now!"
Returning to Odense we followed the official HCA trail around town. Being such big fans that we are we had dedicated 25 mins to the topic, most of which was spent running around and on the theatre. When we finally made it to the museum, it was closed. Oops!
One of his childhood homes. "Is anyone there? Can we go in?" "No and no, let's get dinner".
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