Europe is small, right. And the trains are great. So how hard can it be to get from Paris to Copenhagen? Like rocket science. It required careful planning, coordination, perseverance and grit.
Here we are at the start at Paris Nord. Pretending to sleep.
The train departed on time and we were in Cologne three hours later where we peered up at the towering twin steeples of the Cologne cathedral next door while waiting for our connection to Hamburg. On the Cologne - Hamburg leg we passed by corn fields and the view outside the window reminded me of Nebraska. The ride was uneventful except when I jumped the gun at the Hamburg Harbor station and got everyone off the train. We then had to catch a local to the Hamburg Central station (Harborbahnof and Hauptbahnhof don't look that different to me). Jo had booked us a hotel near the train station. We ate (though not hamburgers) and slept and awoke early next morning to continue our journey to Copenhagen.
We had no reservations for this leg. Attempts to get reservations at the Deutsche Bahn offices in Cologne and Hamburg the previous day had come to nought. The very efficient Germans said that the not so efficient Danish railway's computer servers were not responding. But don't worry - the train isn't usually full.
At 7:25am on Platform No. 6 of the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof I begged to differ. It looked like a backpackers convention. An announcement was made in German that reservations would not be honored. In other words a land grab reminiscent of the 3rd class section of the Bombay Express at Nampally station circa 1980's. The backpackers convention attempted to reconvene inside the train. While I was schlepping our luggage into the train Jo channelled her inner Hyderabadi and got her and the kids seated. By the time I finished the aisles were lined with luggage and bodies. A young German next to me explained that it was the first day of summer vacations in Germany. You hear about Europeans traveling during August. I didn't know that they all went to Copenhagen.
Soon the train was delayed as it pulled into stations where more German backpackers tried to board. Then we crossed over into Denmark and the whole train was loaded into the belly of a ferry ship. The enormous ferry loaded with cars and trucks and the train and passengers and all took 45 minutes to cross 12 miles of open water. Back on the train on the other side till we finally arrived at Copenhagen. We took a local train to the airport and boarded our flight to the Faroe Islands. The kids instantly fell asleep on the airplane (the thing Vivian is sleeping on is my arm).
About two hours later our plane plowed through cloud cover and gave us our first tantalizing views of the Faroese landscape as we started descending into Vagar airport, one island away from Torshavn. Six trains, a ferry, an airplane, and finally a bus through an undersea tunnel and we were at our next destination!
Here we are at the start at Paris Nord. Pretending to sleep.
The train departed on time and we were in Cologne three hours later where we peered up at the towering twin steeples of the Cologne cathedral next door while waiting for our connection to Hamburg. On the Cologne - Hamburg leg we passed by corn fields and the view outside the window reminded me of Nebraska. The ride was uneventful except when I jumped the gun at the Hamburg Harbor station and got everyone off the train. We then had to catch a local to the Hamburg Central station (Harborbahnof and Hauptbahnhof don't look that different to me). Jo had booked us a hotel near the train station. We ate (though not hamburgers) and slept and awoke early next morning to continue our journey to Copenhagen.
We had no reservations for this leg. Attempts to get reservations at the Deutsche Bahn offices in Cologne and Hamburg the previous day had come to nought. The very efficient Germans said that the not so efficient Danish railway's computer servers were not responding. But don't worry - the train isn't usually full.
At 7:25am on Platform No. 6 of the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof I begged to differ. It looked like a backpackers convention. An announcement was made in German that reservations would not be honored. In other words a land grab reminiscent of the 3rd class section of the Bombay Express at Nampally station circa 1980's. The backpackers convention attempted to reconvene inside the train. While I was schlepping our luggage into the train Jo channelled her inner Hyderabadi and got her and the kids seated. By the time I finished the aisles were lined with luggage and bodies. A young German next to me explained that it was the first day of summer vacations in Germany. You hear about Europeans traveling during August. I didn't know that they all went to Copenhagen.
Soon the train was delayed as it pulled into stations where more German backpackers tried to board. Then we crossed over into Denmark and the whole train was loaded into the belly of a ferry ship. The enormous ferry loaded with cars and trucks and the train and passengers and all took 45 minutes to cross 12 miles of open water. Back on the train on the other side till we finally arrived at Copenhagen. We took a local train to the airport and boarded our flight to the Faroe Islands. The kids instantly fell asleep on the airplane (the thing Vivian is sleeping on is my arm).
About two hours later our plane plowed through cloud cover and gave us our first tantalizing views of the Faroese landscape as we started descending into Vagar airport, one island away from Torshavn. Six trains, a ferry, an airplane, and finally a bus through an undersea tunnel and we were at our next destination!
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