Perhaps the most widely recognized Dane is the author and poet Hans Christian Andersen (or H.C. Andersen or the Danish apparently prefer). Born in Odense (one of the cities we're visiting) in 1805, he wrote a number of very famous fairy tales such as The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, and The Princess and the Pea. Besides his fairy tales, he is also known for his novels and for an unfortunate resemblance to Tiny Tim.H.C. Andersen's legacy lives on in Denmark and around the world. 2005 was the bicentenary of Andersen's birth and was marked by celebrations, and his birthday is celebrated as International Children's Book Day. In Copenhagen, there is the world famous Little Mermaid statue and of course one of the main roads is H.C. Andersens Boulevard. My guess is that most cities in Denmark probably have some version of the that. I observed a similar phenomena in India, where it appeared that the main street in every city was an M.G. Road (M.G. as in Mahatma Gandhi).
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