| Destination: DENMARK | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Things To Know
The Modern City
The Old Town The Martyred King |
The Old Town Going east from the Town Hall takes you across the traffic-laden street Thomas B. Thriges Gade and into Odense's Old Town. Here in Hans Jensens Stræde is the Hans Christian Andersen House (entrance on Bangs Boder), amid a little complex of cobbled streets and doll-like houses that was once the poor quarter of the city. Nearby is the Carl Nielsen Museum, which adjoins the Odense Concert Hall. Charming as this area is, the best of Old Odense is a couple of streets away, where the medieval thoroughfares of Overgade and Nedergade retain many of their enchanting old buildings. Pause at the entrance to Nedergade and look down the side street leading down to the river. This is Paaskestræde, location of the Old Poor House, with its rippled red-tile roof and scalloped cornice above the first floor. Hans Christian Andersen went to school here, and the wording on the wall is his touching comment: “Here Accessible: went with my wooden shoes to the poor school.” The combination of old and new is what makes Odense such a delight. The city's human scale, its sense of healthy provincialism and its vigorous regional culture are all enhanced by the international cachet of Hans Christian Andersen and Carl Nielsen. What you will find refreshing is that the locals have retained a friendly, unaffected nature in the face of all this. |
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