Day 13: U.S. and Canada West Coast Drive
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Solvang, CA
We enjoyed another day with pleasant weather this lovely Sunday in early October.
Our plan for the day was to take PCH for most of our drive to Buellton, CA (where our hotel was for the night) and stop at a couple of coastal cities along the way.
We were really looking forward to this drive. We have many fond memories of driving PCH to and from Northern California, including the special and memorable road trip we took up PCH for our honeymoon. (On our honeymoon we drove to Lake Tahoe, CA after getting to Northern California, and from there we drove to our home. While in Lake Tahoe my husband taught me how to snowboard.)
PCH is our favorite drive not only because the views are so beautiful, but also because there are a number of charming cities you pass through or near during the drive. One of those cities is Carmel-by-the-Sea. For us to stop there it would have added a lot of time to our drive because our car navigation system was telling us we had to drive south of Carmel-by-the-Sea then drive back north to get to it due to part of PCH being closed. It was a wonky, lengthy route. The same thing was happening for other stops we had planned to make along PCH that day; several sections of PCH were closed due to rock slides and other reasons.
Because of those crazy delays, we decided to drive Highway 101 straight to our hotel and visited Solvang this day instead of the next day as we had originally planned.
It worked out better that we visited Solvang this day instead of the next day because the traffic heading into Santa Barbara and then through L.A. county into Orange County was frustratingly slow the next day, and we had dinner plans the next day in Orange County that we were not going to miss.
The following photo gallery is of our drive from Santa Rosa, CA to Solvang, CA. The captions for some of the photos say where they were taken.
We went to our hotel in Buellton, CA then drove to nearby Solvang.
Click here for a downtown Solvang walking map.
My parents used to take us to Solvang when my siblings and I were kids. We always enjoyed it. It’s a sample of Danish culture, which includes my favorite part of Solvang – the pastries!
Click here for a guide to Solvang’s Danish Bakeries.
In all my previous visits to Solvang, whether with my parents or with my husband, the only food I ate was the pastries, and my favorite Danish pastry was the Danish waffle. Those things are soooo yummy!
Click here for a recipe for Danish waffles. I made this recipe and it tastes just like the ones in Solvang. It’s much cheaper to make than to buy the ones in Solvang, and, for me, a lot more convenient than driving across the country to fill my Danish waffle craving.
But one thing making Danish waffles at home won’t do is give you the experience of actually being in Solvang.
Visiting Solvang makes you feel like you’re in an old Danish village, at least that’s how I feel when I’m there. I realize it’s not entirely authentic, but it’s pretty neat to visit.
Downtown Solvang consists of a few streets which are entirely dedicated to Danish culture. The architecture, including four wooden windmills within four blocks, are all Danish style. There are a number of Danish bakeries and restaurants all within walking distance of each other.
Click here for fun facts about Solvang, CA.
The weather was perfect for walking the streets of Solvang that day. There was an event going on which brought in more people, so it was fairly busy, but it wasn’t crowded, and we had no problem finding parking right in downtown Solvang.
We decided to venture out and try something in addition to the typical pastries we’ve always gotten when we went to Solvang. This time we tried a meal in a restaurant and tried the popular Aebleskiver (æbleskiver) as well.
We decided to eat dinner at Solvang Restaurant because it had better reviews than some of the other restaurants in downtown Solvang. I hope the food at the other restaurants is better than Solvang Restaurant because the food we had at Solvang Restaurant was not that great. It was below average; we both were very disappointed.
Not only was the food at Solvang Restaurant not that good, but the service was horrible. Our waitress kept forgetting about us and then when we would get her attention she would forget to bring us what we asked for. At one point she asked someone else to bring us something we had asked for, and the other person took forever to bring it, and when they finally brought it … it was not what we asked for! So frustrating. It was a bad experience overall.
Solvang Restaurant sells Aebleskiver (æbleskiver) inside the restaurant for dine-in patrons, but they also sell Aebleskiver outside the restaurant at a walk-up window. We decided to get the Aebleskiver from the walk-up window to take with us while we walked around Solvang.
Based on good reviews I had read online about the Aebleskiver from this walk-up window, and also based on a show we had watched on television where a person raved about how great their Aebleskiver is, we had pretty high expectations for this Danish dessert. Aebleskiver is sort of like a pancake in the shape of a ball that’s a little smaller than a tennis ball.
At Solvang Restaurant’s walk-up window you get 3 Aebleskiver with raspberry jam and powdered sugar; for an additional charge you can get two scoops of vanilla ice cream with your Aebleskiver. We opted for it without the ice cream. Neither of us liked it. They were dense, oddly flavored, sort of doughy balls. After not liking our first bites, we each took a second bite to reassess our opinion of it. Our opinion was unchanged. Aebleskiver, at least Aebleskiver from Solvang Restaurant, is not something we like at all.
After tossing our Aebleskiver into the trash can, we continued walking around Solvang, looking for the Danish bakery that my parents used to take me to when I was younger. That wasn’t an easy task because they have a few Danish bakeries in Solvang, and they all serve a lot of the same things, and they all have a Danish look to them, not surprisingly.
I did find the Danish bakery I was looking for, but the Danish waffles looked pathetic; there was just a scanty layer of buttercream inside of them, and the filling was only in the center of their pastries; the filling didn’t go even near the ends of the pastries. I wanted a good Danish waffle with filling all the way to the ends of the pastry, and I was determined on finding it.
I ended up finding a yummy Danish waffle that had filling that came all the way to one end and nearly to the other end of the pastry. I was happy. Even though I found this later that day, I’ll share a photo of it now since I’m talking about it. We bought it from Birkholm’s Bakery & Cafe. We picked up a couple of other pastries there as well that we also enjoyed.
For dinner we wish we had gone to Copenhagen Sausage Garden instead of Solvang Restaurant. They have lots of outdoor seating, and they offer a variety of sausages. They also have a good draft beer selection. Copenhagen Sausage Garden looks like it would have been a lot more fun than Solvang Restaurant. Maybe next time.
The photos in the following gallery were taken while we were walking around downtown Solvang.
We went to Swedish Candy Factory; they claim to be “the only bakery in the USA that makes authentic handmade Polkagris.” I’ve never had Polkagris, so I wanted to try it. But their prices are really high for what you get (at least we feel they are), so we decided to pass on trying it.
After walking around downtown Solvang we considered driving to the beach to watch the sunset, but then we decided to go to our hotel instead and relax for the evening.
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