Sunday, December 30, 2012

waving my hat and shouting "hurrah!"

today we took a train to the island of fyn, just west and slightly south of us, about an hour and ten minutes away.  our destination was the city of odense, which is the birthplace and childhood home of hans christian andersen.  

yesterday we had no toys for the train, so today william made sure to pack some... 

and on our way home he asked why we had no books, so if we do another adventure, we will have books with us too.  but this morning it was very much a rush to get out the door in time.

when we got to town we found a place to eat.  we tried following rick steve's suggestion and eating at the hans christian andersen museum's cafe, but it was closed for the holidays, recent past and near future, and so we walked across the street to the ugly duckling restaurant and ate a very danish lunch of open-faced sandwiches on rye among other things.



henry loved the salt shaker...

william kept himself entertained after eating by making letters with his fingers...


outside, back in the burley, henry obliges me by posing for the camera with his new hat from his grandparents...


for just as long as it takes him to pull it off...


we head to the museum, which is built around the house it was supposed hans christian andersen was born in (though nobody, including him, ever knew for sure).  his parents were extremely poor and did not have a place of their own when he was born.


h.c...

the museum was really quite nice.  very well done.  and i was not alone in finding him to be such an interesting person. you may want to read a bit about him below...
















i made them stand next to him...


he would make little paper cuttings and create picture books for his friends' children...

some photos of the museum...


william took this shot...














if you found yourself inspired, you could create your own paper cuttings.  i snuck one up onto the wall behind them before we left... 


taking a break from his own paper cuttings...


if i recall, this fairy tale isn't quite as benevolent as a nice big dog carrying a sleeping girl on his back...


at one point greg and i found ourselves sitting on a bench with too much light behind us for a good picture, but we took one anyway...


his hat...


back out on the street... tree done up in the christmas fashion with lamp pole...  


the inspired traffic signals...


just off the main pedestrian street... a little alleyway, all done up...


and lastly william showing off his new winter suit from his grandparents...

we made it home by eight, but somehow it is already 12:30, so, as per usual, this is a tired me saying goodnight.  goodnight! 

1 comment:

nina said...

Oh, that was lovely!

Yes, there was this other song -- "there once was an ugly duckling... and all those birds in so many words said QUACK, get out of town!" But the movie is typical old school. You'll see what I mean.! :)

You have many gems in this post, but I am especially grinning at one that speaks to me. When my older girl was just ready to turn three, we took her to England for the summer - her dad had work to do there. People said they never would travel with young kids because they're restless and they don't remember anything afterwards anyway. But they're wrong. Your one sentence says it so well: Henry loved the salt shaker. Of course! Discovery lies in the most unexpected places!