Behind the Cathedral is a paved yard. No one ever goes in there, as it looks like access is reserved to priests and priestly things. But if you do go in and walk in the direction of the blossoming laburnum on the right-hand corner, you get to the History House.

Here you may get shocked by the fact that both a library, a reading hall, an auditorium, and a nice green view over the cloister yard are hiding behind the arched ceilings. All of it is entirely public and open for all.

On the first floor is Odense's best hidden reading room, in the middle of the library, with fourteen seats of pure cloisterly reading peace. The atmosphere is medieval through art nouveau — the building sits on Skt. Knuds Cloister's ground but was home to fabric manufacture during Odense's golden industrial years. Here, on this most sacred ground, stood Odense's first steam engine as early as in 1839!

This may be why the cloister burned down in the beginning of the next century. In 1919 the place was rebuilt to host a multi-culture house with the public reading room. Here the archivists are still ready to help you, or to let you mind your readings and thinkerings under the reading lamps. 

Everything in this place tells a very human history. On top of their recurring events in the series 'Husker du...' (a kind of collective reminiscence-lectures about specific places and times, where the participants also can contribute with memories) and 'Torsdagsmik' (morning lectures with coffee and bread rolls), the History House regularly arranges events that draw on the vast knowledge that the Local Historic Archive and the National Archive have what life in Odense was like in the past.

At the History House I learned for instance that Odense between 1983 and 1991 had a women's book café called Basviola. It was located in Grønnegade, it had curvy 80's-style letterings on the windows, and on top of selling books it regularly hosted the meetings of five groups: SF's womens group, Women Advice, Women over 40, the Lesbian Movement, and the Working group for women studies at Odense University (as it was called back then). No men allowed, it goes without saying.

This exciting piece of information turned up into my life during a lecture at the History House about the Redstocking movement in Odense. Here in the audience were a number of the leading figures in the activist movements of that time, who contributed to the discussion with corrective commentaries. Titillating both for my curiosity and for my understanding of how the city is driven by those people that want something and do something about it. And when either those people or the zeitgeist disappear, places disappear too, often without any trace.

What drives the History House is a fusion of written and oral stories. Whenever the city changes its looks — as it is doing right now — it is always fun to remind oneself that it's happened before, and that it is only our city for a short while. Being reminded of all the layers of other people's movements on (and behind and under) every facade makes me even happier, whenever I walk around town.

• Mon - Tue: 12.00 - 16.00
• Wed: 10.00 - 16.00
• Thu: 14.00 - 19.00
• Fri - Sun: -

“Out on the edges they're mixin' the colors/ Some they don't like it but me I don't mind” (Iggy Pop).

When my kids were very young, Vollsmose was the destination for their first long bicycle ride. We wanted to see the Children’s City. After traversing the idyllic path along the river – with views of pollarded trees in true Hans Christian Andersen style and polkadot ponies like Pippi Longstocking’s – we stood facing the enormous high-rise blocks on Vollsmose Allé. I don’t recall the kids expressing much admiration for or interest in the natural splendour (they were top busy complaining of fatigue and thirst), but my son’s first comment upon arrival was “MEGA nice!”. He immediately added ”The church looks like a prison” – and he’s right; at least, it is hard to tell it apart from the local Aldi. My daughter’s comment, on the other hand, was value neutral: ”Why are there so many brown people here, dad?”

In later years, Vollsmose has made a bad reputation for itself through gang showdowns, especially the one culminating at the Eid celebration, where men left by the dozen to ravage the hospital’s casualty department, and through the commotion around poet Yahya Hassan’s visit that (according to my source) had policemen stationed in every shrubbery in Vollsmose, and through the terrifying “dog-walker case”. However, it seems to be the case that most of the crime originates from a core of troublemakers, or even a small number of families. Experts have even stated that there is more crime in other Odense neighborhoods, naming Bolbro and Skt. Klemens.  Nonetheless, Vollsmose continues to enjoy a motley reputation, even to the extent that students of journalism at University of Southern Denmark have been advised to look elsewhere for research material for their projects.

I have always gone about the vilified streets of Vollsmose in safety. As recently as the early 1970s, it was also the site of a landfill, whose flammable underground produced yellow fetid vapours in the same area that is now home to one of the city’s most charming oases. Vollsmose has returned to its old standing as a place of recreation for the citizens of Odense, much like Stige Ø. And even if Vollsmose is flanked by two-lane roads on all four sides, it is not so much a black square as it is a black diamond, calling for light and life in the shape of an extended system of road and paths supporting new social and urban development strategies.

I have been told that if you insist on using the word ’ghetto’ about Vollsmose, you have to pluralize it, as each of the six ”parks”, each named after a good old Danish tree species, are home to 10.000 inhabitants of very different nationalities. But I wouldn’t know. During the couple of years that I worked in the area, I never once entered a single housing block. I haven’t visited the ‘bog’ for ages, so this is my cue. I think I’ll get on the old velocipede and go along the river path.

I know about Vollsmose because of a youth club and a leisure club, both with a compelling name: Ragnarok and The Diamond. But also because of Vollsmose Torv (previously known as Vollsmosecentret and Center Øst), which for me is, on the outside, the epitome of the architectural style “brutalism in concrete”; but on the inside it is memories of shopkeepers so overwhelmingly friendly, that on a gloomy day I would have to avoid being confronted with their brilliant smiles. But then one could turn to the “old Danes”, like the mysterious “Santa Claus” with the long white beard and the wheelchair, the irritable kiosk owner with the combover, or the crass guy with the cowboy outfit and beer cans by the entrance. Or the regulars at “Mosen”, which has now been well hidden under the center. Yes, I bloody miss them all.

But much has certainly changed since the last time I was there. Vollsmose Torv is a bit of a Klondike, where shops and restaurants come and go. I will therefore take a whole tour around the center, buy my groceries, and take a look inside the fine library, where poet Viggo Madsen once held court; then bust a move up the green spiral staircase and into Vollsmose Kulturhus, which - just like Kulturmaskinen in the city - is a place for conferences and all sorts of creative activities. Here you can also enjoy concerts, theater, movies and communal eating. 

Apropos wolves, it is argued that Vollsmose was given its name by the Germans - of all people! - because the wolf shrieked there in the old days.

• Mon: 13.00 - 18.00
• Tue: 10.00 - 16.00
• Wed: 13.00 - 18.00
• Thu - Fri: 10.00 - 16.00
• Sat: 10.00 - 14.00
• Sun: -

Have your evening pilsner on the bank of Odense River with the sun on your face and surrounded by unbusy people on blankets. Leap between water lily petals on the Fairy tale playground, sail to the ZOO with a riverboat, or jump in the water on your last day of school.

The park is the southern bastion of the Latin quarter where the best of city and nature is gathered in one place; water, trees, grass, duck feeding, aafart (sailing), art exhibitions, sculptures, and playground. A nice place to hang with your friends, with disposable grill and beers in the summer time. And a place just as suited for swinging your ponytail and flashing your gravity-defying sporno body in a neon tracksuit.

On sunny days, there is always at leas tone silver ghettoblaster, releasing tunes from past decades. On the playground: kids. In the open lawn areas: drunken people. So, a good opportunity to hear a truth or two.

• Mon - Sun: 0.00 - 24.00

Summer on a budget? Maybe you should go on a hike to the former wasteyard, now recreational area, Stige Ø. Pull the plug, take your tent, your camping stove and a (warm) sleeping bag on your back and go camping with your favorite bottle of booze on the top of Stige Ø, where the view over the city is quite good.

Stige Ø is Odense's Amager Fælled. Space and kilometers. A big and hilly recreational area. Here you can escape the city and enjoy the wildlife. This is where the good jogging happens. This is where the mountainbike-people do dirt jump. This is where we go out and lay in shelter and make bonfires and ride our bikes and run on the hills and fly kites and get wind in our hair and look out to the water - this is the good life. Whatever it is you might want to know about the island, you can find it here: http://www.stigeoe.dk (in Danish).

Have you used up your entire vacation budget buying ridiculously expensive cold beer at Roskilde, or do you just want to test your survival skills within a convenient (bike) radius, then I recommend that you pack your camping gear and take a trip to our own little "trash island". Here you will find free shelters and great outdoor experiences waiting for you - whether it's catching your own dinner on the island's fishing spots, pretending to be an amateur ornithologist looking for white-tailed eagles, patting the wild horses, or just enjoying the evening while the silence descends - there is plenty to see for those who think nature is awesome. And if you do not feel quite SO adventurous, or simply do not have the time, then you could still just spend a couple of hours exploring the hills and the many activities that the island has to offer.

But I have also just heard that Stige Ø is the place where junkies that can't pay their debts get their fingers cut off. "When a drug addict is told to get into a car, late at night, and driven out to Sige Ø, (s)he knows perfectly well what's going to happen."

This undeniably adds a little extra suspense to our shelter tour. This is - also - Odense. See you on Stige Ø.

• Mon - Sun: 0.00 - 24.00

In my younger days, I often strolled through the ZOO; potential lover in one hand and a flask of heartening spirits in the other. Now my visits are with my daughter and a self-indulgent ice cream.

But it is no less enjoyable. Because, even though Odense ZOO in 1930 was the tamest ZOO imaginable – a peacock, two monkeys, a deer, a mole, and some guinea pigs were what was on show – the attraction is now truly attractive and in both 2013 and 2015 it won the award for Best European ZOO in its category (with up to 500,000 annual visitors - only awarded every second year).

This is mainly because the ZOO has managed to make cages into more than crates of containment: The enclosures have become narratives. The rocks and roaring waterfall in the lions’ enclave eccho Pride Rock from The Lion King; the ring-tailed lemurs romp in an abandoned vanilla-warehouse; and the noise of wings whistles overhead in the largest aviary in Europe.

Still, the favourite is the manatee, which bobs about in its jungle swamp bassin with the appearance of an inept kid’s drawing – strange proportions and short of details. Yet, I find myself forgetting time and place watching this big, grey beast hovering in the water, chomping on lettuce. It is absolute, peaceful bliss.

Remember that Odense ZOO serves both very bad and very expensive food, so it is worthwhile preparing lunch befoerhand and enjoying it on the savannah with a view of grazing zebras.

• Mon - Fri: 10.00 - 17.00
• Sat - Sun: 10.00 - 18.00

The best gallery in town is also the best kept secret. Galleri 5000 is Peter Thomsen's spacious third-floor apartment on Filosofgangen. Here, decor and art bombard the senses in alternating exhibitions. Genres and prices fluctuate, but the quality is consistent.

Go exploring among paintings, photography, prints and sculpture by artists of varying fame, some of them local. You will find names such as Peter Martensen, John Olsen and Per Arnoldi, with price tags ranging from a couple of hundred to a million kroner.

Peter Thomsen is a kind, knowledgable host, patient with visitors who need a briefing on stylistic periods and artists' names.

You can always try the doorbell, but if you want to make sure that the gallerist is in, you should call ahead on 24 23 73 57 and make an appointment. Ahead of your visit, you can delve into the gallery's website, which lists more than 2.300 works of art for sale.

• Mon - Sun: 00.00 - 24.00

In the old train station at Fruens Bøge, behind the lake, the forest, the playground, and the resurrected Carlslund Kro, lies Velodrom Kaffebar. The name is a subtle homage to the bicycle-racing track, which a hundred years ago was the big attraction in Fruens Bøge, back then home to world champion sprinter Thorvald Ellegaard and his remarkable handlebar moustache.

The place has been refurbished with care and respect for the original use of the building – there’s an old ticket window, DSB soap dispensers in the bathrooms, and Aage Rasmussen’s iconic railway posters on the walls. Café owner and coffee brewer Kåre Loll doesn’t much like the word retro, but admits that he has a lot of love for 1950s aesthetics. He has wanted to - and succeeded - creating a décor with clean lines, no plastic, and a massive presence of polished wood.

The name Velodrom firmly grounds the place in local history, but the cycling references are otherwise very subtle. Apart from a gorgeous, celeste-green Bianchi that serves as decoration on one wall, god is the detail: the excellent coffee is brewed on a Faema espresso machine, model 1961. Faema famously sponsored the record-breaking road racer, Eddy Merckx, and coffee is served in cups whose red and white pattern matches his classic cycling jersey.

Ordering a cup of coffee has turned into quite an ordeal in most places. Variations on “hot, caffeinated drink” seem endless and sometimes impossible to pronounce. And the intake of said beverages is more often than not accompanied by stressed-out guests, acerbic baristas and a horrible soundtrack.

Not so at Velodrom. Here, you happily miss out on all of that. The choice is limited, but everything on the menu is excellent. The coffee can’t drip any faster than it does naturally, which helps encourage a pleasantly slow experience. Café guests wait without impatience; they even do it with a smile, for no one is busy in Fruens Bøge. The radio is never, ever tuned to P3, but often plays 1930s blues legend Robert Johnson, and sometimes French psychedelic 1960s pop. And the coffee has been sampled and approved by friends and family. If it is good enough for them, it is good enough, period. Kåre decides. It is his place, and his call – and he does it so well. 

• Mon: -
• Tue - Sun: 10.00 - 18.00

Nørregaards Teater is Odense's only professional theater for children, which through the years has produced and developed a number of intense and elegant shows for children and young people.

The theater is very active, producing and co-producing new shows of high artistic quality every year. It's not just a theater that wants to entertain. The performances are deep and based on issues and dilemmas that children and teenagers might have — and always on the children's premises.

The theater also shows guest performances for the young audiences — which adults can enjoy too.

• Mon - Sun: -

Don’t be fooled by its name – at Eventyrhaven (literally, The Fairytale Garden) there is neither amusement park nor tourist trap in sight; instead, you’ll find a green slice of heaven perfect for sunbathing in the middle of the city. Its official name might be H.C. Andersen’s Garden and sure enough the poet himself stands tall in superhuman size on its hills, yet this river valley park is never called by any other name than Eventyrhaven, and old H.C. is nothing but a dash in the mind of dreamers (and the occasional tourist) here. Instead, the key figures of the place are the soulful nymph Echo on the hill (Aksel Hansen, 1888) and the waterborne iron sculpture Papirbåden/Paper Boat (Erik Heide, 1985), each stirring the imagination of grown-ups and children in their own way.

Despite a playground and a salsa corner with a small café, Eventyrhaven maintains a rather more refined, even secret aura than any other park in the city. Perhaps it stems from the fact that the park is really an island in the Odense River; perhaps because of its history – once a convent garden, it was later turned into an exclusive haven for the bourgeois patrons of the city’s Reading Society and it remained so until 1942, when the whole area was opened to the public, including the herb garden of the cloisters.

Today its gentle hills are open all year round to promenaders, sunbathers and playing children. Yes, hills – in Odense! The steps leading down towards the river are steep and veritably beg for a death-defying bicycle dash. But if you turn around halfway down and look back up, you’ll see the cathedral and the city hall take on unexpected grandeur and height above you. Even after the nearby Albanigade has been closed for traffic, you can always hear the hum of city in the park, but it is white noise under the sound quacking ducks and the reggae music that a group of school kids are sure to be playing at any given sunny day as they set up camp with blankets on the lawns.

Watch the changing seasons in the circular flower garden, surrounded by an overgrown archway providing shade for lovers and beer drinkers alike, no matter the time of day.

• Mon - Sun: 0.00 - 24.00

Carlsens is one of the city’s proud institutions and has a solid reputation among connoisseurs all over the country. A dark beer-monastery from 1898 with a distinct, mystical magnetism. Here you will meet the chief surgeon from high class Hunderup, the labourer from the Skibhus district, the young student, and the occasional old OB-pioneer.

You will also meet a ginormous selection of Danish and Belgian beer (127 at the time of writing) and if you enjoy beverages brewed by munks, revel in the 13 different Trappist beers on the altarpiece. You can also find two special edition Odense Pilsners made to celebrate OB’s championship i the previous century …

Carlsens is a bar where words are big and the conversation runs merrily, but you can chose to have your beer in high cheer or relative silence. Regardless, the mood is set in the building that, until 1963, housed an apothecary and whose characteristic white, opal-glass ceiling illuminates the bar. It is also due to the personal and competent service from a range of great bartenders, whose predecessors you can see depicted in drawings hanging amongst a more or less becoming interior.

• Mon - Sat: 12.00 - 01.00
• Sun: 13.00 - 19.00

By now, Odense has a lot of really good wine shops and, fortunately, a few of these have yet to succumb to the idea that wine is something you buy online or best enjoyed at a warehouse somewhere along the highway.

But there is no place quite like Portugisisk Vinkælder- the Portuguese wine cellar. It is an institution in Odense, more than 25 years old, yet known only by a few. An informal and outgoing-yet-serious wine merchant with a large assortment, whose owners have spent half a lifetime perusing Portuguese wine cellars to find quality wines at affordable prices.

From Duoro to Vinho Verde, from Barroca to Touriga Nacional. Regardless of your knowledge of wine or Portugal (or perhaps lack thereof), there is always something new to experience when you talk to Henrik in the shop. You can always get him to say a few harsh words about wine snobs, and those who claim to be, but you can't ask a question that he cannot answer. Especially not if your question belongs in the realm of what wine goes well with a certain kind of food.

White - rosé - red - port, olive oil and olives. The basement carries quite a lot of Portugal on the shelves.

Keep an eye out for their events. Sometimes prices are lowered and wine is offered ad libitum. And on top of your afternoon-buzz, you get to experience the vibrant neighborhood clientele at large, with customers from all strata of society.

• Mon - Thu: 13.00 - 17.30
• Fri: 13.00 - 18.00
• Sat: 10.00 - 13.00
• Sun: -

At the cheap end of the river lies a botanical garden, which with its 9000 species is Denmark's largest collection of living plants. 

I recommend biking to Kulturbotanisk Have and swallow in the gorgeousness of nature. And if you can't resist making the experience into a cultural one, then you can couple nature with some knowledge and categories — we humans are so good at classifying! — by reading all the thousands of signs about what the different species are called, how old they are, which other plants they are related to etc. etc. You can book a guided tour by calling this number: 66102723.

But you can also just lay down in the middle of everything. Flowers are too cool. If everyone looked at flowers, the world wouldn't be in flames.

Address: Ejbygade 75, 5220 Odense SØ

Always open.

• Mon - Sun: 00.00 - 24.00

Sankt Jørgens Park is the shit. Still. Even though it has become a scooter inferno in the daytime - but more about that later.

A skate area located at the poor end of the creek. Weed (illegal), beer, sun, fire, asphalt, curbs, hips, banks, eurogabs, ledges, flatbars, big host, manual pads, rails ... it's a bit of a lie, you must go to Fælledparken in Copenhagen, if you want it all. But Sankt Jørgens Park forever. Skate or Die.

'Skate or Die' is more than a poem for teens to ride on board. Skateboarding is an existential choice. It's To Be or Not to Be. It's a way to use the world. Where the surroundings are not limitations, but possibilities. To get results you must believe in yourself and keep on until you succeed. Each fall is just one step closer to the goal. Slam, hard! There is only one restriction and it’s your own ability. It’s human condition, The Human Condition.

About the scooters: Who would have thought it was going to be cool to have a scooter?! Big boys running around on these children's toys?? I have a theory why: this generation is obsessed with the thought that nothing must hurt. Skateboarding hurts. Scooters don’t. It's easy. It works from the start. See how easy I can get up and down and over ramps, I'm cool right away ... No. You are not cool. No Pain No Gain. You cannot achieve anything without paying a price.

Odense has some skateboard legends. First this guy, from the time of the VHS, a flying Silas Eriksen with alias Kill, from the Wrong Team's Make It Or Break It: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQR66UGinms.

And from the next generation, an even wilder dancer, Flex Sebastian O'Connor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbeRBtQHv98. No one has surpassed him since, he is a European phenomenon.

Once you have thrown your scooter in the harbor, bought a skateboard and hurt yourself 10,000 times at Sankt Jørgens Parken, and in the wintertime in the indoor-hall on Grønløkkevej, and you have become skilful, you may get to Fucke's secret pool.

"Use the City", "Odense plays" - and all those terrible municipality slogans - nobody listens to those better than the skaters. But nobody is as excluded from municipality's 'Leisure and Culture' budgets as much: Odense's outdoor skate areas are under-financed like nowhere else. From Skagen to Bornholm, municipalities are buying setups for large concrete-bowls. And it is only because the owner of the skate-concrete company FSR, Claus Hermansen, an old skater from Odense, financially supported his childhood hobby, that now one-tenth of Sankt Jørgens Park is now worth skating.

• Mon - Sun: 00.00 - 24.00

The Albani brewery is located between Albanigade and Frederiksgade, like a massive uncompromising giant enclosed by tall red walls. Undoubtedly, they ensure the whole city’s pilsner supply, but the building has not given much back to Odense – at least until recently.

Since 2016, the Albani brewery has exposed one of its corner, the furthest one down to the river. And, on the high wall next to the brick arches – old inheritance from bygone days – one can meet five high forms, composed by white and black triangular tiles. Once in a while, the triangles somehow stick out into the air, from the underlying insipid brick wall. These small grips run in zigzag through the five large panels, and if you are standing up in front of the artwork, you can actually grab some of them.

The installation on the back of the Albani brewery is indeed both a sculpture and a climbing wall. The artist behind this climbing wall, Jacob Skov, has developed the different wall elements in collaboration with local climbers, thus creating an artwork, on which you can have fun.

In addition to opening the back wall of the brewery for artists and climbing enthusiasts, the small green area beside the wall has also been cleared, and a small playground has been added. The enormous brewery organism opens up beautifully for other urban creatures, and the little green area between the walls and the river has become a tiny oasis in the middle of the city.

The next step could be to tear down the wall underneath one of the arches and open a small bar that sells bottles with manufacturing defects to young people, who relax in pallet-based furniture in the sunshine. Hear me now, Albani!

• Mon - Sun: 00:00 - 24:00

Of the pubs located at the end of Sdr. Boulevard's sideroad to the south-west, Wienerstuen is the best and probably also the only one of the places - the others are Boulevardkroen and Bondestuen - that qualify as a brown pub. Although I have lived in the neighborhood for almost 10 years, I haven’t exactly been a regular at the place, but every time I have dropped by, I have walked pleasantly uplifted out of there.

Wienerstuen is discreetly located on Gustav Johannesens Vej, which leads from the Boulevard and down under the viaduct to Fruens Bøge, which gives a pleasant hills and valley feeling. The proximity to the forest and to the Zoo also contributes to the idyll out there. The address is still 5000 Odense C, but because it’s located on a side road to the Boulevard, you're a good distance from the city noise. Outside there is a terrace where in the summer you can sit and follow life on the Boulevard pass by. Behind there is also a courtyard, but that’s something I have to try yet.

In comparison to the Vesterbro bodegas, Wienerstuen is more rustic-romantic from the outside and the tone inside is also nicer - some will say more boring! - then in the city. But otherwise they have a lot in common: Cheap beer, brown wood, non-smoking, billiard table and screen. Wienerstuen is an obvious place to end if you have been to the Zoo or on a picnic, yes in general just a good place.

Brown checklist:

Jukebox: Yes

Terrace: Yes

Beers: 24 kr.

• Mon - Sun: -