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Hamburg to Copenhagen
Overview
It’s nearly a five hour train journey from Hamburg to Copenhagen. Today I will officially enter Scandinavia.
Train IC 394 departs from Hamburg Hbf at 12.53 and arrives at Copenhagen’s Central Station at 17.36. On the way the train travels around 370 km at an average speed of just over 80 km/h.
Boarding the Train
Getting from the Reeperbahn to Hamburg Hbf is relatively straight forward, allowing me to arrive early and to board the train armed with a coffee and sandwich, all around 15 minutes prior to departure.
According to the InterRail app seat reservations for this trip are mandatory and I’m thankful that I have an allocated seat. In reality though, the need for a seat reservation seems to be a bit arbitrary. By the time the train is ready to depart the carriage is stuffed full of people, many standing in the isles and others sitting in the passageways. This train seems to be very popular with backpackers and there is luggage deposited everywhere.
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The Route Highlights
The main highlights of the journey are:
The Rendsburg High Bridge
Approaching Rendsburg, Germany, the otherwise flat landscape is interrupted by a monstrous steel girder railway bridge (the Rendsburg High Bridge). This viaduct, cum bridge, rises some 42 metres into the sky in order to cross the Kiel Canal. The viaduct is around 2.5 km long, providing the train with a gentle enough slope to climb up onto the summit of the bridge. To add to the spectacle the viaduct also turns through a 360 degree loop (the Rendsburg Loop) to allow the train to both pass over the canal and serve the town of Rendsburg, situated immediately to north of the canal. As if this wasn’t complicated enough, the bridge additionally includes a vehicle / passenger transporter (gondola) facility suspended beneath its main span – By comparison to this eyesore, Middlesbrough’s transporter bridge is a non-starter.
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(Source: Image by Wolfgang Claussen from Pixabay)
(Source: Image by Wolfgang Claussen from Pixabay)
The Flensburg Loop
Much less dramatic, but equally puzzling, is another 360 degree loop in the track at the town of Flensburg, just south of the Denmark border. Here, the loop is provided to allow the train to serve the town’s station, located to the east of the main route alignment.
The Border Crossing
Slightly further north, just after crossing the German / Denmark border, the train stops.at Padborg. Here, despite Denmark being part of the Schengen area, passports are checked by government officers who board the train. To be fair though, the whole operation is very low key and may simply be a remnant of the Covid era.
Great Belt Fixed Crossing
Finally, between Nyborg and Korsor the rail line crosses the Great Belt, a sea passage separating the Danish islands of Funen and Zealand. This rail crossing (the Great Belt Fixed Crossing) is some 18km long and is made up of a western low level bridge and a 8km long bored eastern rail tunnel. The former carries both road and rail traffic while the latter is paralleled at high level by a road only suspension bridge.
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The Route Low Lights
The low lights of the trip are being surrounded by screaming kids and an inability to reach the loos because of the overcrowding.
Accommodation in Copenhagen
On arriving at Copenhagen Central Station it is a short walk to my accommodation at Annex Copenhagen, a reasonably upmarket hostel providing a private room with shared bathroom. The major upside of this hostel is that it is accessed through the adjoining Absalon Hotel so you have all the facilities of a ?? star hotel at a hostel price. These include a bar, a reception seating area and access to an automated laundrette facility.
Book your Room at the AnnexCopenhagen Hostel here with Hostelworld.com
Talking of automation, this hostel is my first introduction to the Scandinavian revolution of ‘Self Service hotel Check-ins’. Everything, including delivery of a door card key, is achieved via a ‘self-service’ computer screen and keypad. All you need is your booking reference and passport details and you’re in. I suppose with the high cost of labour in Scandinavia it all makes sense.
Retiring to bar for a well earned beer following check-in I quickly understand better the cost of living issue – a 0.5 litre beer was around £8 in English money. What’s more, when I went to pay for it I discovered for the fist time that Denmark does not partake in the Euro. Instead everything is in Krona so I have to pay by credit card – What am I now going to do with all these Euro I have in my wallet !!!!
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