Odense and the ship graveyard of Ladby

The hostel was lovely, and the kids had a chance to run around and play in the courtyard for a while after breakfast, before we set off on a long day of travelling.

If you look at the boys jackets, you will see Ghostie 1 and Ghostie 2 attached to their zippers.

First stop on our trip was Hans Christian Anderson's house. Its small, and maybe the best word for it is 'quaint'. Not a long stop here...(because the house wasn't open for another hour, it's very small, and the Lonely Planet Guide said there wasn't much to look at in there!)

But it was one of those things that you have to see....the "quaint" town was lovely! People still live in these homes. I wonder what the restrictions are for living in them, and what rules they
must follow?














We then proceeded down country lanes as we back-tracked to our next stop - the ship graveyard in Ladby - The Viking Museum. Driving up a farm lane to the site, you pay your cash (Kids free) and are show out a door onto a path that leads into a paddock (thats a field for the non-Aussies).

















After you walk for a while, you arrive at a mound. Feeling a bit 'ripped off' at this point, you walk behind the mound to a small door hidden in the back





- and as the automatic doors open a truly amazing display of the impression of an old viking ship (with rings, nails, bones and the like) comes into view.

It was really interesting, and shows how much history there is around Denmark, if you just happen to dig..

The bow of the ship

Can you see the remains of the small pony?







We then spent a while checking out the displays back at the farm-house, before hitting the road for the top of Denmark.


This is a model of what the experts think the ship may have looked like.














We found a wayside stop for a picnic lunch. Nothing special, just a rest stop on the highway, we thought. However, just behind the rest stop was a 5,500 year old barrow and burial site. As they have extended the highways through Denmark, and done 'serious' excavations, they have uncovered more and more historic sites. There was an interesting map showing how most of the newly found archeological sites were found along the highway routes.

















We stopped for Afternoon tea at Aaborg, then continued to our final destination at Hirtsals. We arrived at a beautiful hostel on the beach (it faces the North Sea) and we were getting ourselves organised to walk into town when a North Sea Squall blew in off the ocean. This cramped our style a bit, and we had to drive into town.


We were at the beach

Everybody had matching towels

Somebody went under a dock

And there they saw a rock

It wasn't a rock

It was a rock lobster

Nicole satisfied her 'shopping' bug and found a wool shop, where she bought a pattern and a couple of balls of wool. The boys found the toy shop and Phil...he found a pint of Guinness at the pub!

By the end of dinner the weather had calmed down again. Nicole and the boys walked back to the hostel (to help shake the "wiggles" out of the kids), and Phil drove home. It was less than 2 kms, and the sea breeze and air was great!