Kjaersgaard

The pace of life at Kjaersgaard may be chilled, but there’s plenty to do around and about on the island of Funen. As well as numerous cycling and walking trails along quiet country lanes, there’s a castle worthy of your attention. Egeskov Castle (35 minutes’ drive) is a red-brick Gothic edifice surrounded by a moat and open for guided tours of its extravagantly furnished apartments, classic-car museum and formal gardens with a maze. The Viking Museum Ladby (also 35 minutes) features Denmark’s only known ship grave; it is the burial place of a Viking king who died in 925 AD, who was interred with his horses and dogs. Outside on the Kerteminde Fjord, you can see a painstakingly accurate reconstruction of the original wooden ship. Funen’s main city is Odense (25 minutes), birthplace of storyteller Hans Christian Andersen in 1805. You can visit his modest, half-timbered childhood home and the rather more substantial H.C. Andersen’s House, an immersive museum designed by architect Kengo Kuma that brings the author’s fairytales back to life in immersive displays.