Denmark Is Full Of Slots

The place we are currently residing in is a bit cramped compared to what we were used to both in England and in Chicago. No lawn, three rooms, and a windy dog. Yeesh. It doesn't take much incentive to go somewhere on the weekends.

On short notice, we decided to head to Svendborg for the night, a small coastal town on the next big island to the east of us, Funen. It was a quick 2 hour drive to our hotel that was very conveniently located right on the harbor (map markers near bottom right.)


View Danmark in a larger map

Saturday night it was too late to do much in town, so we wandered around a bit, grabbed some dinner, and wandered some more. Despite being on the water, not much was open in town.

Sunday, though, we got up early and made our way south to Tåsinge, an island connected to Funen by a bridge. You can also drive to Langeland, another island, via Tåsinge, but we didn't get around to that. Tåsinge is home to the first of two castles we saw on our little trip -- and the word in Danish for castle, by the way, is "slot".

Valdemars Slot was commisioned in 1644 by King Christian IV as a home for his son, Christian Valdemar. That didn't work out, though, when the young Christian died in battle with Poland in 1656. The castle was then given to Admiral Niels Juel in payment for victory in a key battle with the Swedes at Køge Bay. His family still owns it. It is the largest private home in Denmark. The grounds now also house a mini-golf course, a toy museum, and a yachting museum. We really enjoyed this place -- there were few other visitors and it was wide open to explore.

From here, we set out north, back to mainland Funen. About 25 minutes drive led us to the second Slot we visited, Egeskov Slot or "Oak Forest Castle". This place was built in 1554 in the middle of a lake. The builder, Frands Brockenhuus, leveled an oak forest to underly the castle's foundation, hence the name. It is now a hodge-podge of various attractions, including the castle itself, a car museum, a motorcycle musuem, something that had to do with Dracula, an award-winning rose garden, and a bamboo maze. If I had kids, I would take them there. Boo found the place hot and lacking sufficient bowls of hundvasser (that's my attempt at Danish for "dog water") -- but she did like that the only place she couldn't go was inside the castle. A very dog-friendly destination, she was allowed in the museums and restuarant.

Skål!