Denmark – Svendborg and the local area.

We took a couple of days to travel up to Denmark with a quick overnight stop in Hamburg. The Vindebyore site was just across the water from Svendborg which is part of an area called Funen. We were sited just below a small hill that protected us from the wind and overlooked a picturesque lake. The sea was behind us over the rise.

Of course with a lake comes the inevitable ducks. These seemed to have a routine of working around specific sites looking for tidbits.

We took a trip on a local “hop on hop off” vintage trip boat called Helga. It was immaculately maintained.

Our first stop off was at a little hamlet called Graston. There were a few wonderful houses in this hamlet and as we ambled down the lane we suddenly realised we were also sitting on a bonanza of fruit. Starting with black cherries we went onto gooseberries, and red currents. It was hard to actually collect many as they were generally eaten as soon as they were picked. The last time we did any serious scrumping was also with Sue and Martin on a narrow boat in North Wales 4 years ago. Sue is clearly a bad influence.

After all the hard work it was down to the serious business of a bit of lunch.

After lunch Susan and I went back to pick a few more cherries that Helen later cooked into a chocolate sponge cake – a great desert that lasted for 3 days.

We then hopped back on and off to Valdemars Slot (castle). It is quite famous and the little seaward house typifies some of the architecture of the period. It almost looks like an idealised painting - but it is real. We spent a couple of hours walking around the slot. The top two floors housed a very large exhibition of animal trophies – not quite our thing but at least there were some animals we had not seen before. A short trip over the bridge from the site brought us to Langeland which we visited twice. The capital of the island is Rudkobing. In our first trip we did a quick drive through and found ourselves driving down a pedestrian precinct. Some of the passers bye did look at us a little oddly but our unusual red French number plates enabled them to conclude that we were a bit strange. Nonetheless we quickly left. Returning at a later date we had a bit of lunch at the boat harbour and then walked into the town.

Most of the houses are very well maintained – although in some cases how they are still standing is a bit of a mystery.

The church yards really took us aback. This was not a “one off” as they were all beautifully maintained. Even the gravel pathways were raked and could just as easily be part of a Japanese garden.

Later in the day we strolled around Svendborg. There was a horse and cart giving rides and later when we visited the harbour the horses were being transferred into a trailer – or at least that was the plan. It took 15 minutes of bribery with sweets to eventually entice them in.

After such an energetic day we decided to have a pint. There are many local breweries and the range is diverse – the four we sampled were all excellent and seemed to have hit the mark with Helen.