An entry in The TFS Travel Journal
Some additional observations: nice that everyone here serving (clerks, salespeople, etc.) seems to be dressed very casual; not sloppy, just relaxed. Also, there’s sure not a lot of advertising here, no billboards, no sides of buildings, not much. . .
This a.m. enjoyed the fruits of yesterday’s fruit picking, then shlepped all five bags down to the storage area and set off walking to Den Hirschsprungske Samling , a museum of 19th and 20th Century Danish Impressionist art. A bit of a walk, but well worth it. Most were a bit two-dimensional, and not the depth of the French versions (despite some loose attempts at specific French styles!) but the inherent beauty of the works and the content made up for the shortcomings. Left there and picked up Wendy’s re-sewn shoes from a shoe repair guy who lives in Sweden and commutes 45 minutes to Copenhagen daily! We then went back to our favorite Danish smorrebrod (sandwich) shop (the one from Monday) and Wendy had Milton’s turkey sandwich w/avocado, while Milton had a Danish specialty of a large, lightly fried patty of meat served on their very good bread. What kind of meat? Don’t know, but it was good enough that I’ll probably be ordering it some more! We dined in the same park, this time one bench down from some aging hippie/wacko with a baby carriage filled with flowers, some unidentified steaming liquid in a pot on the sidewalk in front of him, and a hat out for donations. We then picked up the Vectra, and departed for Dragor, a leftover, unchanged old fishing village about 10 miles southeast of C.
What a charming place! Mustard-colored little houses, most with thick thatched rooves and copious flowers all over, primarily large red and white rose bushes. Again, some little touristy parts with large quantities of assorted alcohol for ready sale. Also, a nice little marina with little fishing boats. We finally succombed to the enticing frozen yoghurt in large waffle cones, and waited patiently while a lovely Danish girl doled out endless cones to all the cute Danish children in front of us. We ordered, and the machine then quit! She sent us back to the dockside, where another store filled our order, but with some sort of Nestle’s cocoa/quick-type powder coating instead of sprinkles — a delightful innovation. Nothing much more to see there, though walking through the small streets allowed us to peer into almost everyone’s windows. It was the kind of place that looked like it didn’t need addresses, the postman would just know which was Bjorn’s house and which was Elsa’s. . .
A quick drive to Roskilde, the burial place for seemingly every Danish monarch. The town was pretty commercial, but the church was grand and filled with many, many large and larger mausoleums of all sorts. A little too creepy for us. . .
Back in the Vectra, after getting the daily downpour, then off to the ferry to Fyn island. We paid the 270DK ($38!) and waited amongst the U.N. of cars and passengers and music. Just about everyone got on, then we were first in line, and were told “maybe, maybe not”, but finally we were the last car aboard! What a great feeling, since the ride took over an hour! However, it was great weather, and we did get a pretty good close-up of construction on the world’s longest bridge, scheduled for completion next year.
Zipped along toward our Kro for the night, as it was past 6:30, but on a whim we stopped at Egeskov Castle just to see it, since obviously it would be closed. But! it was open late, as it is on all summer Wednesdays! Our lucky night. . . Unquestionably one of the neatest castles we’d ever seen (and this follows a week in Scotland!). We could never adequately describe it here, but it was small enough to be seen and enjoyed in totality, had fabulous gardens of flowers, topiary, herbs, and the largest hedge-maze in the world. The castle was actually surrounded by a moat of perfectly reflective water. In addition, there was to be a concert by a local Danish pop band that we just couldn’t stick around for, but we did enjoy hearing them practice — quite an interesting contrast while viewing the multi-hundred year old interiors. We also saw kids using long sticks to bar-b-que (?) something over a bonfire. We thought it was giant marshmallows, but found out it was dough from the nearby stand!
We finally rolled into this divine place, probably the nicest lodging of the trip! A centuries-old inn with a famous restaurant, on the water and oozing Danish thatched-roof charm. Our suite was two stories with a large sitting room and almost-office setup downstairs.
We dined at their Grill, the lower-key option and it was out of this world! (Well, maybe not out of this one). Milton had the gaspacho and the salmon tartar, which was notably fresh and tasty, while Wendy had a tomato mozzerela lettuce salad that was so good that Milton then ordered his own. Wendy had the grilled steak with bearnaise and some pomme frittes that were so tasty we demanded to know what seasoning the chef used, but she swore it was the innate quality and freshness of the new potatoes. M then had coffee brought to our room and we enjoyed it in the sitting room while reading the tales of Han Christian Anderson, who was born and lived a few km from here.