Egeskov Castle

The entrance to Egeskov castle is grand, exactly as a castle entry-way should be. Purple flowers line the bridge leading to it. We stood in awe of the towering, regal building before us; its brickwork descending from turrets down to a glistening moat of water.

We learned of the castle from an advertising brochure we'd picked up at the Denmark information office. Based on the picture alone, we had to go. The castle, situated north of Svenborg, is on the island of Funen. It was built in the 16th century with elaborate grounds, including sculptured bushes, fuchsia and vegetable gardens. High hedges line the paths and through hedged archways gardens open up in small wonderlands of fragrance. Two bamboo mazes sit on the property as well. We walked through one, which in ten minutes had us walking into four dead ends, two of which we were sure we'd been caught in before. Our reward for finally reaching the end was a treehouse gaze overlooking the castle grounds.

Also on the castle grounds are a variety of museums. A motorcycle museum (very interesting!), a car museum and one for carriages, bicycles, TV's, vacuum cleaners and other odd items from yesteryear. ("Hey my mother owned one of those.") Fargo was particularly intrigued by the 1950 Rovin, French mini car. It stood only 4 feet tall and was just his size.

We took one last look at the pink 1914 electric ladies car and then headed for our own. "If she had a sink and a bed," John commented. "I just might consider a trade." An electric car might not have the range of a diesel but it certainly would save on fuel costs. Our fuel consumption seems to be high of late, perhaps because we keep getting lost. Looking for camp grounds seems to be the catalyst which begin our series of loops. Just today we headed down a small one lane road in the direction of a blue tent sign and ended up at the gate of a thatched-roof Danish house. The old woman who lived there came rushing toward us. "Excuse me, where is the campground?" I asked. But she only spoke Danish and for all her hand waving we never did find the camp ground. Pulling back down that road we felt like we were in that castle maze all over again.