Little Denmark, in California!!

So, let me tell you about my beautiful trip to the central California coast. For those not familiar it’s above Los Angeles, in Santa Barbara County (Sideways filmed here).It started out Monday noon, taking the Amtrak train from Fullerton to Santa Barbara, then a connection bus to Solvang.
Solvang is a Danish community founded almost 100 years ago. It is also in Wine County and those two things make it very attractive to tourism. This post is just about the food, I’m still working on the rest of the photos. I took like 100. But, don’t worry I wont post all of them!!
After our arrival on Monday, we realized the town goes to sleep early. No great eats!! But, Tuesday that’s another story. The day started out in the Olsen’s Danish Pastry Shop.
Complementary breakfast from our hotel included Danish pastries and coffee. The cinnamon roll is great, the cheese Danish my mom had seemed out of this world!!
The server in their cute Danish uniform, were very friendly!!
After that we went about the streets, took the local bus to Los Olivos, and then came back for lunch at the Paula’s Pancake House.
The potato and leek soup tasted very light, not processed or salty. The vegetarian sandwich I ordered included alfalfa, avocado, tomato, onion, cheese on rye bread. I loved it.
The only bad part? I arrived at 3:00 they close at 4:00.
With so much free time on our hands we did olive tasting, wine tasting, and chocolate tasting. Okay, that was more like stuffing ourselves with chocolate!! They had a local chocolatier, and then a fudge factory (pictured). So much good stuff!
Then after resting at the hotel we went to dinner. The Bit of Denmark seemed a good choice, offering local fare. They had a smorgasbord buffet for $16 dollars a person. I had carrot salad, green salad, olives, prickled cauliflower, and pasta salad and pumpernickel bread.
The second serving consisted of veggie broth (a little salty), mashed potatoes, German style cabbage, and havarti cheese with poppy seed bread. !!
For dessert you could choose Danish pasties, pears, gelatin, pudding or fruit salad. I couldn’t eat one more bite
I did have a glass of Firestone Riesling a local brand of wine that I loved. I even bough a bottle for home.
After that if was a sweet dream for me!!