And on top of the canon tower

Damian with a fish made from junk found at sea ....

Rainy day today. We've been on the go for weeks/months now so we blobbed out and watched TV. Managed to pop out for lunch and a beer (my first ever Cantillon geuze, no less!). Back home now for more lovely lying around.

Today we leave our Airbnb in Copenhagen, pick up our rental car and drive to Møn.

Time to leave our great apartment in Copenhagen and take to the road. We had to take a BMW car as they didn't have the station wagon we ordered. I hope we continue to be nice people / driver's after this trip. 

Our first stop was a little place called Koge. More colourful houses (so yes Dad, it seems they are all over Denmark). Mainly we wanted beer (has anyone noticed a theme?) The brewery was not open for tours so we stocked up for future requirements.

Onto Møn, where we stopped for lunch at ..... The old brewery and tasted more new beer. It all is rather good. Then onto the Møns Klint where we did a short cycle, bush walk and long stair descent / climb to view the chalk cliffs. 

A trip back to the ice cream shop at a dairy farm (quite fresh milk) nearly ended in tears (Damian's) when we arrived at 4.56pm for a 5pm close. Made it though - last people through the door for salted caramel /mojita / hazelnut/ elderflower - some lovely, some interesting. 

Now relaxing before dinner...

More cycling through beach forest.

Beach forest niceness.

These are the orange slugs Sally mentioned a while back. They're often as long as your hand. Lots of them get squashed crossing the gravel road.

Smelly cliffs. Seriously. The stench. I'll find out what caused the smell and amend this post. Nice walk though.

[edit: nope, nothing. I will continue to try to find out what caused the reek though. It seemed to be coming from water flowing down the cliff rather than the sea below.]

[edit: our host assures me it's the seaweed that gives off that death stench]

I think this is barley. My favourite grain. Also, nettles (not pictured but felt afterwards).

[Edit: nope, this is wheat]

Bridget (Sal's mum) informs me that barley is the whiskery one. So that previous photo was actually wheat. My second-favourite grain. Nettles are still my least-favourite plant.

After a lovely breakfast and a near payment disaster in Møn we started our journey through the lovely Danish countryside until we arrived at a Viking museum in Trelleborg. Bonus we thought .....as it was the annual reinactment week. Our excitement was short-lived as the earlier payment disaster was affecting the whole country so we were unable to pay / enter.  Damian's cry of "We have come from New Zealand" fell on deaf ears. We were of course outraged but came to our senses when we discussed and had to admit that we were unaware of the place until that morning and it was a slight stretch to suggest that we had come all the way from NZ to experience this one thing! 

So, onwards to Nyborg for a lovely lunch Roeds Brassiere. To get there we needed to cross the magnificent Storebæltsbroen (bridge between Zealand and Funen).  Toll was approx $50 per car but it was about 13kms in total length.

Now we are happily hanging out in another lovely airbnb waiting for some beer to get cold.

Only one photo today - this is a dial on our rental car. You use it to mark the time you start parking in restricted time parking! Took us a while to figure it out - lucky no parking wardens were on to us!

We arrived in Odense last night - the birth place of Hans Christian Andersen and today was all about him. A leisurely start and we cycled into the HCA Museum.  

Lyndal, you should know that the Hansen's are everywhere here and are closely related to HCA (I can't remember which parent/grandparent). There was also a lovely looking shop called Hansen's in the middle of town AND most importantly there are Hansen's Icepops. 

After the museum we made like orienteerers / geo cachers and tried to track down the 15 HCA related statues around town. Damian has prepared a montage to prove we found them all.  I felt it right to sit with the man as he seemed to be unlucky in love and he had left a space for me.

After lunch at yet another brewery we cycled out to Funen Village which is set up like a village in HCA's times.  There were small numbers of animals in the village, pigs, sheep, cows, horses, chickens and the fields were planted.  There was also a kiln for making bricks and some bricks in all stages of the process so they must make a few each day.  Was interesting because it described how the class system started when the land owners started separating themselves from the other workers. It is also mind boggling to realise how long ago things happened over this side - small pox injections 1808 / compulsory schooling (7-14) 1818.

Hans Christian Andersen - "To travel is to live"

As Sally mentioned we visited Funen Village. They've done a really good job of reassembling various houses and farmsteads from around the country in one area and then bringing it to life as a working slice of history. We were there at just the right time of year to see all the crops in full production and the animals with their babies. If you're ever in this region I recommend a visit.

This one's for Dad and Tom (and anyone else with an unhealthy lust for piles of dead trees). Centrefold material you can pin up in your shed.

Today we drove a short distance from Odense to the island of Tåsinge. We also explored the next island on, Langeland, and visited a sculpture park and a cold war museum that is built on an existing outpost with gun emplacements and now has a submarine, minesweeper, MiG and other relics.

Today we abandon our car in Svendborg and take our bikes across to the island of Ærø (which can be said like 'aero'-plane or 'aewo'-pwane -- à la Elmer Fudd -- or, as someone put it, like a violent sneeze) for a couple of nights.

Also, the Danish for 'scheduling' is 'fartplan'. Chortle.

A fallow field can still be pretty.

Not much phone coverage on Ærø. We spent two nights here and explored the island on our bikes. Here is us having a great time in the sun on our bikes.

... and here is us having a great time in the rain on our bikes.