Day 4 - Copenhagen to Odense (via Roskilde)

Another early start...I think that Avery started babbling to me at 4:30am this morning. At 5:30 I gave up and got her some cereal, Cadence was quick to follow.
We spent the early hours packing up and playing Angry birds (Cadence is getting quite good) as there is little else to do in the early hours of a city that really doesn't get going until 9-10am.
We then packed up the stroller and headed to Europecar to pick up our rental. It was not a far walk and a good way to get some air and exercise. We picked up our brand new four door something or other and headed back to the hotel for our luggage, making a quick stop for some coffee.
We loaded up, I wrote out some directions and off we went. We decided that we would bring our own car seats on this trip. The charge was quite a lot to rent car seats considering the number of days we are going to be driving, and by bringing them we are able to use them on the plane. Apparently our car seats are not rated for Europe, but I figure if they are good enough for home, they should be fine for here...they had better be anyways! Cadence is now heavy enough for a booster, so that saved us having to drag along two huge car seats. The booster fit into our one small bags so it's tucked away when we don't need it.
Directions in hand, we headed towards Odense with a stop at Roskilde to visit the Viking Ship Museum. When we got to Roskilde, Cadence was very pale and not feeling well, we decided to have lunch first at the cafe next to the museum. It was a really nice spot and the food was great. The girls played in the little play area with these cool giant foam toys.
As an aside, I have to say that people here are so friendly and nice. They are quick to smile and helpful, I'm not sure what I was expecting. Having travelled through various parts or Europe quite a bit, and having run into my fair share of rude people, I guess, I was expecting more of the same, but it couldn't be further from what wee have encountered. The service and attitude here have been great.
We figured that Cadence must have been carsick from playing angry birds in the car. She must have Dave's carsickness gene! She was in good spirits after lunch and we headed to the museum.
It was really neat. We really enjoyed looking at all the ships. It is in a picturesque location and it we learned a lot.
We headed back on the road en route to Odense. The girls had a nap, and once we reached Odense they were well rested.
The directions we had got from google brought us into town through some residential areas, which was really neat, as this city has some beautiful and quaint residences. This is the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, and we stayed at the Radisson HC Andersen. I can't say I had any expectations of this city. We hadn't originally planned on starting here as we were going to go to Ero. When that was proving to be too rushed, I had cut Ero out and put in a stop here to cut out the driving. In any case, I'm so glad we came here. It is an unbelievable little town. We checked in and unloaded, the rooms here are spacious and a little retro looking. It is an older hotel and a bit tired, but nice overall and in a great location.
We headed out right away as we wanted to try and hit the HC Andersen museum and the children's museum -Tinderbox. Unfortunately both were already closed, we are about a week ahead of the heavy tourist season, so we have encountered some reduced hours here and there. In Odense, they publish working hours on a weekly basis depending on traffic, so just our luck that Tinderbox was closed this week, we would see the HC Museum, but not until tomorrow at 10am when it reopens. There was a rehearsal for a play going on outside the museum with a bunch of children, sort of an outside theatre, from what we could understand it seemed some sort story with all the characters from Andersen's children's novels.
We walked over into the pedestrian only part of town, there are a few of them, and we spent several hours strolling and browsing and stopping for sorbet. Things close up pretty early too, despite opening up late, so we headed back towards the hotel and had dinner at a restaurant in the square out front. It was beautiful and we had the place and the square to ourselves. The girls had a great time running around and playing in the fountain.
After dinner the jet lag and lack of sleep was finally getting to me and so off to bed for us....