A Welcoming Denmark

When we crossed from Germany to Denmark, there was a distinct change in the air. It wasn't the landscape, that hadn't changed, and the highway speeds were just as fast. Other than the road signs now in Danish, I couldn't quite place my finger on it. I tossed my German/English dictionary into the back seat and waited for the light to turn green. Two old people crossed the road in front of the van and looked up at me. "There, did you see that?" I said to John. "It was in their eyes." That difference I had felt was a welcome; a warmth in people that said 'come in you are my friend." The woman at the information booth had it. The man who directed us to a gas station had it. And the old man who gave our van an oil change had it. They had a glow; a jolly look as if they'd spent a lifetime bouncing children on the knees and telling them fairy tales.

Perhaps they had. Denmark is the home of Hans Christian Andersen, the master of children's stories. At the information office we picked up a brochure about the museum honoring him in Odense. "This," I told John, "is the perfect place to start." Hans was, after all, a traveler too. Many of his stories were in fact inspired by his trips. Of traveling he wrote, "To travel is to live." We certainly agree.

The Hans Christian Anderson museum is in the old area of Odense. On display are all his early works including fairy tales, travel books, autobiographies and poems. Displayed too are his paper cuts-outs, his sketches, his letters to friends. Even his theater passes and passports can be seen, and the pressed flowers he had once given to Louise Collins, the youngest daughter of his friend with whom he had fallen in love. We were amazed that so many things had been collected. Early illustrations for his fairy tales lined the walls of one room, early photographs and portraits of the man lined another.