Hans Christian Andersen Sculptures in Odense

A week or so ago, The Polar Bear's Tale blog shared some pictures of some sculptures in Odense, H.C. Andersen's hometown. She wrote:

This weekend I was in Odense - H.C. Andersen's hometown - and mine ;O) I was at Hotel H.C. Andersen...and saw these beautiful cobber sculpture groups consisting of three large pillars by the artist Jens Galschiøt. The ornamentations are inspired by the fairy tales of H.C. Andersen.

She shared about a dozen pictures, close-ups and studies mostly, so I wanted to share a few here and encourage you to look at all of them on her blog. She shares many beautiful images on her blog and I enjoy visiting it regularly.

And because I have had mermaids on the brain:

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing, Aputsiaq.

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Maison Moschino, Milan

Today I wanted to share a clever hotel located in Milan, the Maison Moschino. It was recently picked as one of the ‘Top Ten Sexiest Hotels in the World’ by The Luxury Travel Bible. (Another that made the list was The Library Hotel in New York which has been on my wish list for a while already.)

One of the rooms offered at the Maison Maschino is the Little Red Riding Hood. There are many other themes that would make me waffle between choices such as The Forest, Clouds, and Sleeping in a Ball Gown. Here are some images of the other rooms. All of these are interesting juxtaposition of ultra modern and whimsy.

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Fairy-tale feast rewards Black Forest trekkers by Susie Woodhams

From Fairy-tale feast rewards Black Forest trekkers by Susie Woodhams:

“So you want to make ‘Tischlein deck dich’?’’ the clerk said.

“Uh, I was talking about the hike and lunch. The one that starts at your hotel and happens only on Tuesdays,’’ I replied uncertainly in English.

To quell my confusion, the clerk explained that “Tischlein deck dich,’’ which translates to “Little table, cover yourself,’’ is the title of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale known in English as “The Wishing Table.’’ In it, a young man receives a simple table, which produces a feast on command.

Only in this case, after snaking three hours through the forest backdrop of many Grimm tales, hikers stumble upon a feast at 3,200 feet. The idea is to reward participants with a three-course, sit-down lunch as they take in views of the Rench Valley and verdant highlands – and on a clear day, even Strasbourg’s cathedral 30 miles northwest in France. Refreshed, they then complete their 8-mile journey down to the five-star hotel.

For 45 euros, or $62.55, could this be my dream hike?

That's just the beginning of the two page article, a lovely description of Woodmans' trip and hike to the Black Forest.  Enjoy!

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Another Article About the Fairy Tale Route

Well, some of the major newspapers appear to be on the same wavelength since The New York Times also just published an article about traveling along the Fairy Tale Road in Germany: On the Trail of Hansel and Gretel in Germany by David G. Allan.

I think it is a plot to torture me that I am not traveling far from home this year...but it is another great article with recommended sites for touring and lodging.

An excerpt:

Or you could do what I did, accompanied by my wife, Kate, and our 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Alice: drive the Fairy Tale Road in Germany, an official but unmarked route designed by local tourism officials to promote sites, some authentic, some imaginary. The 350-plus-mile route between Frankfurt and Bremen snakes past locations that include the actual homes of the Grimms and the fantasy ones of Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, and Hansel and Gretel, along with a mix of foreboding forests, striking towers and even some genuine castles.

Alice’s introduction to the world of the Grimm tales began on our flight, as I read to her from the brothers’ version of Cinderella. “Once upon a time there was a girl named Isabella whose mother had died,” I started, immediately rediscovering how much death, vice and fear is woven into the Grimms’ stories. (Their first volume included a gruesome story titled “How Some Children Played at Slaughtering.”) As I continued, I did some on-the-spot Disney-fication, glossing over hungry wolves and murderous stepmothers to get to the happy endings. But even sugar-coated, the stories hooked Alice. Over the week, our car rides featured her backseat-spun yarns that began, “Once upon a time there was a girl named Alice ...“

And this article also reminds us that the bicentennial of the Grimms's first publication of their fairy tales is in 2012, not that far down the road. Now I have to start pondering how we'll celebrate that one on SurLaLune.

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Fairy Tale Travel Article in Wall Street Journal

Today in the Wall Street Journal we are given a great article: On Germany's Fairy-Tale Trail by Rhea Wessel.  I occasionally share travel articles like these and this is a particularly strong one.

Some 60 cities are pinned to the Fairy Tale Route, a loose affiliation of villages and cities that claim a connection to a Grimm story or to the brothers.

We decided to focus on the trail within 100 kilometers of Frankfurt during a weekend trip in early June. With my husband and our 5-year-old daughter in tow, our tour began in Hanau, where the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born in 1785 and 1786, respectively.

The city is home to a wide variety of fairy-tale productions during the Brothers Grimm Festival, the second-largest theater festival in the state of Hesse, which takes place each summer and draws some 75,000 attendees annually. This year, the festival features 90 plays, plus readings and speeches from historians about the lives and work of the Brothers Grimm. Children can choose from a variety of productions such as musicals, ballet renditions of Hansel and Gretel and a sing-along rock concert.

There's much more, of course, so click through to read it all. There are also some guides on places to stay and visit. Overall, a more detailed and helpful article than I usually find about the Fairy Tale Trail.

This is at the top of my dream vacation list these days.  Someday when the economy cooperates again, I will go on this journey...However, my parents are headed on a Baltic cruise next week and have been instructed to seek out anything fairy tale and share it with us.  They start out in Copenhagen, but since The Little Mermaid is currently in China, we won't be getting any pictures of her. 

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Take a fairytale trip to Germany

Hello Magazine recently posted Take a fairytale trip to Germany as a short article about fairy tale themed travel in Germany, obviously. It's a nice piece and includes links to a Fairy Tale Route site. (If you click through to the site, note the animated Puss in Boots in the right column. At least Germany is quite happy to use a French fairy tale.... :)

From Hanau to Bremen, there stretches a trail of magic where childhood dreams come true. The Fairy Tale Trail, a journey of 600 kilometres on the map, but farther than that into the depths of imagination, leads back to the early nineteenth century to the palace where Sleeping beauty lay for a hundred years and through the forest where Little Red Riding Hood met the wolf. You can listen to the melodies of the Musicians of Bremen and perhaps Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will come out to greet you on your way.

It's ideal for a family trip, a journey full of magic, linking some 70 cities and towns from the marvellous stories of Jacob Ludwig Karl and Wilhelm Karl Grimm. The brothers were students of philology and folklore and their studies prompted them to travel around the country talking to the people. They talked to farmers, and wood cutters and women in the market, and they asked them to dig into their memories for the stories their grandparents had told them when they were young. First they collected the stories together in the book Tales of Children and the Home and then later expanded the collection in Grimms' Fairy Tales: the tales that are still so familiar to us today.

This is one of the trips I dream of taking someday, so I always notice articles about it and this one stood out as one of the better ones.

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