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Good morning! We're on our way to Solvang today. Is that right, Solvang?
I think that's how you say it. Yeah, Solvang.
It's a little Danish town near LA. It's about a 2.5 to 3 hour ride.
We're just going to check out this little town and see what it's all about. Why there's a Danish town in California and how it all started.
Excited to check out some restaurants.
They have a little carriage horse ride that tells you a little about this Danish town so we'll learn a little more when we get there.
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This is our first stop in Solvang at Paula's Pancake House. They have their famous Danish pancakes here
and of course I love pancakes so I have to try out Danish pancakes. We're in a Danish town, so you have to try the Danish stuff.
They had really good reviews here. It's very, very crowded right now.
It's so packed but we got really lucky and got a table outside.
So of course, Crystal had to get the pancakes. That's like her thing. I always go for the boring, plain stuff.
So I just got a simple egg omelet with biscuit and sliced tomatoes.
I like that they had sliced tomatoes as an option. I usually don't see that on menus.
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We just had some breakfast and we're very full now. Those Danish pancakes were amazing.
They were like crepes and thin buttermilk pancakes... kind of mixed. So I really enjoyed them. The strawberries are amazing.
Yeah, I liked the strawberries. They were nice and sweet. I think they sprinkle some sugar on it.
Oh definitely, they were super sweet.
It was good. I liked my eggs, but maybe it was a little bit dry for my taste.
My eggs were really good.
But she liked her eggs a lot.
We're standing in line right now to get a little tour of the area and get some information and the history.
Yeah, it's a trolley tour. I think a horse pulls it, I believe.
Oh really?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure. We're waiting for the guy.
So you can pay cash in the line or you can got to the building... I think it's behind here, but it's a blue building you go to and pay with a credit or debit card
but if you have cash, then you can just pay in the line.
We've been waiting 40 minutes now. We got in line at 11:50 and it's almost 12:30 now
because the tour was supposed to start at noon and we're just waiting in line and nobody's here.
Candy went to go ask and somebody went to go check and they were like, "Oh, they're just running a little late. They'll be here in like 15 minutes."
So basically, they're 45 minutes late.
Yes and no one would have known anything until someone went in there.
Yeah, what the hell?
It's really unorganized.
So, an hour later, the horses are finally coming. This is kind of ridiculous
but we've already invested our time here, so we mind as well do it. Hopefully they better give some good information. Hahaha!
Yeah, hopefully it was worth the one hour delay.
He lost like half of his customers.
Yeah, cause there was a lot more people here and they all left.
I mean half of them left. Which is understandable and we should have left but we stuck it out.
I was about to... any later than this, then I was thinking we should go.
Yeah, I was about to go.
I was like, I don't want to wait anymore.
Good morning! Fancy seeing you here. You guys look real familiar.
Oh yeah, you look familiar too.
Ok, let's see. Are you paying for yourself?
For both of us.
Ok, that's $28 for two adults.
What is the best seat on here?
Um... you know, it really doesn't matter a lot
because they're all facing forward. Not like the other trolleys where they're all facing towards the end.
Okay.
There's two tickets. Once they're cancelled, they're also good for discounts at the ice cream store and at Birkholm's Bakery.
Okay.
And the ice cream store has an Italian expresso machine so you get all your fancy coffees and such.
Alright, okay.
So, please climb aboard.
Thank you.
Welcome aboard.
Hi, thank you.
Got 'em. Thank you!
Finally made it on board, so let's get this party started! Right, Candy?
I am so ready... Did you see the annoyed face earlier?
Oh, Candy was so annoyed.
When I'm annoyed, I don't even talk.
She was about to kick some butt. Hahaha!
I didn't say one word the entire time.
She was just like...
Hahaha!
"Mhmmm... I'm going to kick your ass, old man"
Hahahaha!
Alright, look at these lovely, shining faces.
Good morning! ... er... Hello you happy people!
Hello!
These ladies up here are Belgian draft horses. The one on the left is Belle and the one on the right is Ginger.
Fourth in size of the big horse breeds.
The most popular of all the big horse breeds; not the most famous. The most famous are Clydesdales.
Clydesdales are second in size. They're bigger than this. These only run about a ton of piece
and they are the most beloved because they are freakishly strong and at the same time, their temperament is so sweet, gentle, and steady.
Right between the buildings, there's a little thing that looks like a birdhouse or a dollhouse.
Do you guys see that?
Yeah.
Okay, we're seeing a similar spot, just above the bottom of the roofline, there's another elf house.
This is to keep the elves from pranking you.
Every house has an elf. They're called nixies or nisse. This is the variety of elf.
They would be called house elves. Not withstanding what Harry Potter did to them.
And they do report to Santa. It's the kind of elves that Santa uses in his workshop.
Way back there, the Solvang Trolley Ice Cream Store, you can see another elf house.
Oh and the stork on the roof here - stork is the national bird of Denmark. You will see them on a couple of roofs.
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The trolley tour... we just finished it.
Yeah, we just finished it. It was okay. Um...
Yeah... we were hoping to get a lot more history information on the tour, but half of it was about the horses.
It's good to know about the horses too, but I just felt like half of that was about the horses and I wanted to know a little bit more about this village.
There was some good information like the elf houses.
Yes, and one of the oldest bakeries here... a little bit of history on the buildings...
but it wasn't really in depth. It was just like the year... um... and I guess how the town started.
But other than that, I want to say it was slightly disappointing.
Just a little...and plus, I mean...
But I know having to wait an hour - the hour delay - already put a damper.
Right. So I think that's part of it too because since we waited an hour, we were expecting more from it and it just wasn't up to par, I would say. I don't know.
Yeah, but I know that they have more than one trolley guide. They have I think they said three different ones, so that was just our tour guide.
So I don't know if the other tour guides have different information. They might.
It might be a hit or miss on that one for sure if you decide to do it.
It was a miss for us, I think.
It was a miss for us, for sure.
Now, we're going to check out Hans Christensen's Museum.
It's located upstairs, they said, on top of a library or book store.
Yeah, on top of a book store.
Yeah, I was really interested in this one because he's the author that created The Little Mermaid.
So since it's such a popular story, I was really interested to see this museum.
Me too.
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So...um... we were a little bit surprised at how tiny... I mean, we knew it was going to be small...
Yeah, but it was super small - this H.C. Anderson museum.
It was interesting. It almost looked like a school project.
Mhmm, yeah, there were pictures they cut out and put it on a big board.
And it's not even like a recent school project, it looks like a project from the 80s.
Haha, yeah, but it's interesting.
Actually, maybe that is recent and they're trying to be retro.
But yeah, it's super, super tiny... and he's the author of The Little Mermaid and the other one I couldn't think of was The Ugly Duckling
which was actually one of my childhood stories I liked.
It was cool to see all the different versions of The Little Mermaid books.
Another cool thing about here is actually not the museum, but the used book store.
It's really cool up there and we ran into this lady and she was like, this is the best used bookstore.
So if you're looking for used books, come here.
Yeah and she had like 10 books in her hands, so she was shopping for real there.
She was super excited.
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So we're going to use the free...
Bring this card to redeem one complimentary tasting with the purchase of one at regular price.
So it's like buy one, get one free, pretty much.
So we're going to go check out some wine tasting because it's a huge thing here.
We are pleasantly surprised with this wine tasting bar because it's so nice in here.
Our waiter, who's super awesome, he said the company has been around, but they just opened in Solvang a year ago.
He also told us that Santa Barbara is a world-renowned wine country place. Who knew? I had no idea. I thought it was Napa Valley or something.
Never thought it was Santa Barbara.
So we each got a wine flight because it's buy one, get one free on the wine flight and we got that at the visitor center information place.
Candy gets all red wines and I get all white wines because that's our preferred wine. I don't really drink red wine.
I started off with... what was it?
Oh, here it is. The 2015 Tre Anelli Arnise and this is really good. It's retailed at $34
and it has an aroma of lemon, honey, and a touch of jasmine.
Really good.
Mmmm... yesss!
Cheers!
We just got done with our wine tasting and it was the best!
It was super nice in there. Our server was awesome. Super friendly.
Tom is so great.
And then we were shocked that the tasting came with six tastings. We were expecting three.
So we actually couldn't finish all of them because we wanted to kind of get out and explore a little bit more
and we're kind of lightweights, so we were getting a little bit tipsy with three...
so we were like, maybe we should stop before we get too drunk.
Definitely stop by Sanger Wine House.
It was superb. I highly recommend it.
Yes. Might be the highlight of our trip in Solvang.
So far, it's been the highlight and we weren't even planning on doing wine tastings.
We weren't! But so glad we did.
Glad we did it. And now we are heading to a bakery because we're hungry!
Yeah, we're going to go to Birkholm’s Bakery. It's been in Solvang for a while through three generations in the family.
It's supposed to be a really good bakery and I'm going to try some - maybe danishes?
Yeah, we need to fill up our tummies with food.
It's probably why we're getting a little drunk because we didn't have any food in our tummies.
I know, hahaha!
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We got the Bear Claw.
We're huge fans of almonds, so it's that's like almond with almond paste.
And this is the Palm Leaf.
We wanted something simple, so she said this is a buttery, crispy pastry with a thin layer of sugar on top, so I am ready!
Where are we going?
We're going to the real windmill. There's replicas here all around town, but there's this one real windmill. I learned that from the trolley.
So that behind us over there is the real windmill in Solvang.
Yeah, there's a lot of them throughout the city, but our tour guide said this is the only one that's actually real.
This is the real one.
So if you want to see a real one up close, here it is.
It's by the Birkholm’s Bakery and that place was amazing.
I actually don't think you can tour inside there.
It looks like a wine house.
It turned into a tasting room.
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Today went by so fast.
It went by really, really fast.
I think... I know this is like a day trip, but I feel like I can spend another day here.
I definitely could spend another day here.
So I think next time, I will come back but I think I'm going to stay the night and I'm going to bring Zooey.
Yeah, we're going to bring Zoey because this place is super dog friendly. I mean, every corner we turned, there was a dog
and every wine bar that we saw, there was a dog in there.
You know, if the trolley didn't waste our time, we definitely would have covered more.
Yes, we lost like an hour because of that. Hour and a half almost.
Anyway, we did have a good time here.
We really liked the wine tasting. That was definitely our highlight here.
That was.
There's 12 wine-tasting places here, so there's lots to choose from, but we went to Sanger and that's excellent.
Loved it and I'm actually going back right now to buy a couple bottles of wine that's on sale.
It was our favorite wine too. It just happened to be on sale.
We'll definitely be back. We'll come back with Zooey and we're going to stay the night next time.
Yes.
For a day trip, you'll probably cover maybe 5-6 places.
Depending on what you're doing and what time you get here.
There's a lot to explore here.
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