About an hour's drive from the dorms in Odense, in a town called Kværndrup (one of many towns in Denmark where the letters have squeezed together for warmth or security and are now one two-headed unit...kind of like CatDog on Nickelodeon) there is a perfectly preserved Renaissance water castle called Egeskov Castle, complete with moat. The castle has been owned by the same family for years, who still live in it, but some of the castle is open to the public, and the grounds have been maintained with mazes, gardens, and museums for people to visit. The exhibits in the castle were of elaborate dresses made for the countess in the past, shoes, fans, beaded jackets, and other finery, plus a dollhouse and other staged rooms. She had been quite the lady, having hand-colored fashion magazines brought in by horses from Paris. (What, no internet?)

Things you really want to know: There is modern plumbing in the castle, and you can visit the loo and flush - no Renaissance-style relieving of bodily functions, which will either come as a relief to you or a big disappointment :)

Danish-style fun: so much less concern with being sued, of course. There was a large area cleared so you could grab some stilts and try your hand at walking around on them. The cleared area had some smooth-ish gravel. No soft, cuddly mulch like an American playground. I watched for awhile in a kind of tense fascination, waiting to see if anyone broke their neck or at least chipped a tooth. Mostly people gave up (harder than it looks) and went to the go-cart area, where you had to have someone push your car for you around the track (what, no motors?)

The only line longer than the ones for the Ladies' and the Gents' was for the soft serve ice cream, but what a let down...once you got the cone, it was not cold or even recognizably ice cream. We concluded that it was, in fact, Cool Whip swirled into the cone and fobbed off as soft serve. No wonder they wouldn't swirl a combo chocolate/vanilla cone. Cool Whip doesn't play that.

One of the first things I have noticed on this trip to Denmark is that smoking is less prevalent than on previous trips (although we haven't been to Copenhagen yet, so I could be wrong). However, the smoking mindset is still alive and well - I did notice the ashtrays in the restrooms -- one next to EVERY sink next to the soap so you could tap your ashes into the tray while sudsing up :D -- and they still sell a variety of cigs at the ice cream stand (that goes together, right?)

Although, if you're going to be eating Cool Whip and calling it ice cream...you might just have to light up a smoke to deal with it ... or at least complain to the king 8-/