A day with Henning

In Canberra I have been fortunate to work with a delightful Dane called Tage. His wife Marianne arranged for us to be given a tour by her brother Henning. We met up in Odense and drove to the centre. We started by walking through the local gardens with paper boats. The city’s best known name is Hans Christian Andersen. This statue of him also has in the background Sankt Knuds Kirke (Saint Knuds church – there are quite obvious similarities between the Danish and English language which is I suspect why the Danish, including our host Henning, are so good at speaking English – why it does not work in reverse remains a mystery).

The church (or cathedral) was named after Canute (King Knud II who ruled Denmark from 1080 to 86). He was slain in the church and is now on display in a glass case. I cannot even remember the name of his murderers and have no idea what happened to their remains – another case of why crime does not pay. The church décor was a simple plain white with a number of eye catching features.

The 16th century alter piece by Claus Berg is just stunning.

Han’s Hus is the very small old house where he was born. This has been extended with a museum built around it and includes gardens and a stage where parts of his some 160 stories are enacted.

We followed this with a bit of lunch. All of us opted for the smoked salmon – great. The waitress is explaining to Helen in perfect English where the fish came from, the way it is smoked, its age, how it is dressed….. The rest of us just wanted it to be served so we could eat.

Henning then showed us the Odense shipyard which is owned by the same people as operate the Maersk line. It overlooks the Odense fjord – the construction of large ships requires careful planning as getting them out to sea through the shallow waters is quite a challenge. The crane is relatively new as the old one’s brakes failed in a strong storm and ran off its rails. This one has had a similar incident but was stopped by running into a smaller crane. Any brake designers out there?

Moving to the North Eastern part of Funen we went past a range of houses, slots and churches.

The church of Viby was decorated similar to Sankt Knuds although the spire was quite unusual. Again the gardens were pristine. The church was undergoing painting and getting a photo shot without the painters vehicles was only just possible. Martin left his cap behind but did not realise this until sometime later. Henning very kindly went back for this the following day. As the cap was an heirloom this was particularly appreciated.

Many of the houses had gardens full of Holyhocks – they are called stock roses in Denmark.

We had the opportunity to view up close one of the newest and one of the oldest windmills in Denmark. Contrary to many tales the new turbines are not noisy but have a slight “whoosh” and hum (presumably from the generator). If the background noise level was not so quiet I suspect both would be hard to pick if you were more than 50 metres away.

The older windmill was a working version. It was not open during our visit but it was interesting to consider how the sails were unfurled and how the blades were kept to windward.

On the road adjoining the windmill there was a cherry tree where a local was picking the fruit. The cherries were a bit too sour for all but Sue and Henning. Sue mentioned that we called this activity scrumping and asked Henning what it was in Danish. His reply “Oh in Denmark we call it stealing!”

We finished the day in Kertiminde which has a great harbour and aquarium with dolphin and seals. We decided on a traditional dinner which was the same that Tage treated Helen and I to in Tomakin last Easter. It was very good but not quite up to our Australian experience. Henning advised that we should also have had brown (HP) sauce with it but we opted against this.

A wonderful day which was purely down to Henning’s planning and company. We look forward to the opportunity to reciprocate when Henning travels to Australia in February 2010.