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  • Good morning! We're on our way to Solvang todayIs 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 elvesNot 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.