I remember working on the NC Tourism account when Bath, North Carolina, celebrated its tricentennial. Three hundred years was a very big deal.
Odense had its 1,000th birthday nearly 20 years ago. It was founded in 988 (amazing how they can whittle it down to the exact year, after 1,000 years). Two hundred years ago, Hans Christian Andersen was born here. You used to have to board a ferry to get from Copenhagen to Odense.
Now you pay a bunch of money and drive across this bridge. It's called the "Great Belt" and is the second-longest suspension bridge in the world, connecting the largest Danish Island, Sealand, to the second-largest Danish island, Fyn. When it opened 10 years ago, I think it was the world's longest suspension bridge, but just afterward, a suspension bridge opened in Japan that beat out the Great Belt by about 300 meters. It's a beautiful bridge, but it doesn't feel that long when you're driving over it. After all, it's only a little over a mile in reality.As I mentioned, H. C. Andersen was born in Odense about 200 years ago. On the anniversary of his birthday in 2005,
the city put H. C. Andersen-style paper-cutting sculpture all over. They're very proud of this famous Dane. Here's a funky, very Danish-looking sculpture in his honor--the three faces of Hans Christian Andersen. 
When my mom was in the Odense newspaper because of her dissertation on Moliere in the Danish theatre, they took a great picture of her in front of this statue.Speaking of my mom and Moliere, that's why we made the trip to Odense on this freezing cold, windy Saturday. My mom had tickets to a production of Scapin directed by Emil Hansen. My dad and I couldn't exactly understand what was being said, but watching the actors and set made for great entertainment. The floor was red sand, and the costumes were all shades of pink and gray. Great wigs and great use of motion and space on a WWII bunker-turned-stage situated in a theatre that used to be an old sugar factory.
Anywho, one of the main attractions
of Odense is a nice walking/shopping district. Of course, being Saturday, many of the stores--where we might have pretended to shop for 5,000 KR peacoats or adorable 900 KR shoes to escape the face-numbing cold--were closed by 3 p.m. Instead, we found warmth (and more organ music) in several of the city's cathedrals. St. Knud's actually has the skeleton of King Knud/Canute on display under glass. That was gnarly. 
Danish churches almost always have an elaborate model ship or two dangling from the ceiling, probably to provide holy protection to the sailors, since so many Danes throughout history made their livelihood on the water. Danish churches don't always have stained glass, but this little circle caught my eye. This sign caught my eye, too. This bageri (bakery)
went out of their way to advertise their Kranzekage, a multi-layered celebration cake. Little did we know, we should've picked one up to eat with Champagne at midnight in honor of Mortensaften. Mortensaften: On the drive home, we passed countless window with candles lit in them. Danes love candlelight, so I shrugged it off as a Danish Saturday night thing. Then we pulled into Crepes o Bøf, the crepes restaurant where we were going to do dinner for our last free evening of this trip, and the waitstaff informed us there was no regular menu, only a buffet for 300 KR a piece. That's $60/person not including drinks and tip. None of the three of us were nearly hungry enough to warrant a 1,000 KR dinner tab, sooooo we went home and enjoyed a delicious asparagus soup and some nice open-faced sandwiches.
Turns out it was Mortensaften, which my mother remembers vaguely. She couldn't quite put her finger why the Danes do what they do on this night: they light candles and eat duck or goose along with a special kind of roll. She called Mormor to school us on Danish customs. Apparently, St. Martin didn't want to become a bishop, so he hid in a barn amongst some geese. The geese made noise that gave him away, so on the eve of St. Martin's Day, Danes punish geese-kind by eating them. Of course, goose is a large and expensive meal, so many Danes actually eat ducks on Mortensaften. Poor fowl.
