Bicycle trips. Odense, home of Hans Christian Andersen the father of the European Fairy Tale
Bike trips
Surely our journey in search of Fairy Tales could not miss this stop, Odense, the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen!
Just think of the world without the fairy tales of these four most important authors, the fathers of the fairy tale: the Brothers Grimm from Germany, Hans Christian Andersen from Denmark and Charles Perrault from France!
Returning to our topic, cycling trips, Odense is a city, despite being the third largest and most important in Denmark, is structured to make cycling trips easy, safe and pleasant. Located on the island of Funen, Odense today is most famous as the birthplace of the famous writer.
His birth house, where the museum in his honour is located today, belonged to the cobbler's family and was located in a neighbourhood that was poor at the time.
The city is a little over 1,000 years old, celebrated in 1988 with a beer edition dedicated to the famous writer and poet; the beer is distributed in numbered bottles making it a collector's item and is only distributed each year on Andersen's birthday, 2 April, starting with the city's 1,000th anniversary.
There are several curiosities connected with the writer's life. It is said that Andersen's mother, Anne Marie, was foretold that her son would become famous and the whole town would hold festivals in his honour, a prophecy that was fulfilled again during his lifetime.
Shy, sensitive and touchy, Andersen spent a lot of time dreaming and making up stories and tales, he had created his own little theatre where he told his stories, often in a language he invented.
Very bizarrely, Hans Christian Andersen always had a long rope with him that would allow him to save himself from a fire by escaping through the window.
His fairy tales always have some sense of melancholy, while the tale of the Ugly Duckling could be the story of his life.
Would you like to read more stories about the family's fairy-tale bicycle journeys? To your attention our collection.
