A place to 'relax'~ Denmark part 2

The city mice in my family really enjoyed the energy, noise and movement in Copenhagen. While the country mouse {moi}, also enjoyed the bright big city, I felt quite at ease for 2 days in the countryside.

Welcome to 'Relax', our friends' perfectly named family vacation home, located in Skodbjerge, Denmark. This is on the far Western side of Denmark, on a narrow strip of land with the North Sea to the West and the Ringkobing Fjord (large body of water) to the East. This precious, thatched roof cottage by the sea is where we rested our heads (literally) and unplugged for a few days.

The front of the house as seen from the dune paths~ and the back of the house, with our clean clothes blowing in the North Sea breeze.
It doesn't get dark here until around 11pm so we had nice long, lazy days.



You can see the back side of 'Relax' in the photo on the left. Elise and I having glass of wine on the beach while N searches for treasures. In the photo on the bottom right, we had a festive family dinner with fresh breads, a variety of local smoked fish, and cheeses.
On our way from Copenhagen up to Skodbjerge, we stopped in the city of Odense, Denmark. This city is full of amazing, old, architecture and history.

Some of these old buildings are so warped they look like a strong gust of wind could topple them in seconds. But most have been standing since the late 1800's.


One of my favorite streets in Odense. I could've stayed here and taken photographs all day!

The yellow house above is where Hans Christian Andersen lived.

It's common to see the year that the buildings were completed right on the front of them. As you see below, this building dates back to 1883.

Another great cobble stoned street in Odense.

The main square in downtown Odense. In the photo on the bottom left you'll see my lunch. This is the typical, Danish open face sandwich. Pate, meat, capers and pickled beets~ it was delicious! OK- back to the coast. This beautiful church sits just beyond 'Relax' and is where Elise's sweet father was laid to rest about 7 or so years ago. The surrounding cemetery grounds are beautiful.

Note, another old building~ built in 1869 and updated in 1947.
Just seeing these images again brings my blood pressure down a notch. It was surreal there. So quiet and peaceful and so much simple beauty surrounding. Things seem much more simple in general in Denmark. Just a slower pace with more focus on the people with which you surround yourself and the quality time you spend with them.
Proof that this is an entirely different world~ roadside potato stands using the honor system! We took a bag of potatoes and left some money in the can.

We had to experience some of the local Nordic fish so a visit to the local fish market and a lunch of fish-n-chips was in order. This is also where we purchased the variety of smoked fish for our outside dinner in the collage photo above.
There was a lot of talk of the vikings up in these neck of the woods. So the viking museum was a must-see. We actually found some very unusual things to bring home in the gift shop here. This wasn't your typical museum but more of a re-creation of the way the vikings lived.

Some replica boats full of history and crazy stories about what took place on them years and years ago.
We learned all about the viking way of life here.

We parted ways with our good friends at the end of the week and flew back to London to spend our final long weekend.

It was so sad to say goodbye to scenes like this, but it will be forever in my memory and has morphed it's way into 'my happy place' image for times when I need a mental escape.

Goodbye to these happy and loving spirits~ at least until we hook up with them in Houston. So sad that you have to travel around the globe to spend good quality time with special friends who just so happen to live only 30 miles away. ☺

I'll be back next week with photos from the London leg of the trip.

Happy weekend everyone!

xo~
Tricia