On Saturday, June 23, 2018, Jeff and I left Copenhagen, and took the 1.5-hour train trip to lovely Odense. We’re exploring its Hans Christian Anderson House and Museum, its Open-Air Folk Museum, and the adorable old center for three days.
Odense’s old center is a time warp, picture perfect and very walkable. We spent Saturday afternoon in Hans Christian Anderson’s (HC’s) small birth home and HC’s Museum – we’re so enjoying learning about the remarkable rags-to-riches life of this celebrated storyteller and traveler (the suitcases in the photo were HC’s. He spent 9 years of his life traveling, and loved it). We also enjoyed the museum Møntregården which tells the history of Odense and its Island, Funen, from prehistoric times to the present.
They’re all tied together with one ticket – more info below.
I will say, we were a bit sad to leave Copenhagen. Even though we spent 28 days there, and we saw several special things every day, there is so much to see in Copenhagen, we could spend another month. Jeff has even said that due to this trip, it’s his favorite city in all of Europe (which is saying a lot. For me, Copenhagen and Stockholm are neck-and-neck.) We’ll be back.
I’ll post more details about Copenhagen — we’ve seen a lot more there than I’ve had time to share.
A Place to Stay
- Radisson Blu SAS Hotel
- 10-minute walk from the train station
- 2-minute walk from HC’s Birth Home, HC Museum, and Møntregården city museum
- Beautiful view of the lovely town from the breakfast room
- Fabulous smorgasbord breakfast; Very quiet; Very helpful staff
- 3141 DKK ($491 USD) for three nights on these dates
- Website: https://www.radissonblu.com/en/hotel-odense?facilitatorId=CSOSEO&csref=org_gmb_sk_en_sn_ho_ODEZH
My original plan was for us to stay here the weekend of June 29 – July 1, but the Tinderbox music festival is happening next weekend, and there were no rooms available at all in town. So check out Tinderbox dates if you want to stay here in late June/early July.
Odense – Museum Pass
Five sights are all connected with a one-day museum pass:
- Hans Christian Anderson Birth Home*
- HC Museum*
- Møntregården (City Museum)*
- The Tinderbox (for kids)
- HC Childhood Home
- The booklet that you receive with your ticket includes a self-guided walking tour. We hope to do that on Monday,
- Cost for all 5: 75DKK ($12USD per person)
- We went to the three with *s, started at 1:00 and finished at 5:00, when the museums close at this time of year. We really enjoyed all three.
- The three museums above, and the Open-Air Museum (2 miles out of town), are closed on Mondays.
Travel From Copenhagen to Odense:
- We left Copenhagen on the 10:30 train (and, per above, started visiting Odense museums at 1:00.)
- Trains leave from Copenhagen to Odense about every 20 minutes.
- Be sure to check what cars to sit in to get to Odense.
- We bought our tickets several days in advance, when we were near the train station, and when there weren’t any lines. (We were glad we did, because lines were somewhat long on the Saturday morning that we left for Odense.)
- You can buy tickets at a kiosk, but I like going to the DSB office in the train station – it’s nice to get personal “professional help.”
- You can also buy tickets online, and use the app to show your tickets on the train. We didn’t do that so I don’t have any how-tos for this.
- Cost: 556DKK for two ($87USD for 2.)
Related
- August 10, 2018
- August 8, 2018
