TRAIN #30 – 23:48 Hamburg to Copenhagen (Continued)
It was already well after midnight before we left Hamburg’s suburbs behind. We knew that we would reach the Danish border in less than an hour, so sleep would be pointless. We broke out some liver pate, spread it on rolls and washed it down with Pepsi. We then took it in turns to wash in the toilet at the end of the corridor.
An hour later, once the on-train West German and Danish customs formalities had been completed, we put the seats together, got out the sleeping bags and settled down. We must have been tired because neither of us were woken by the noise of the train being shunted onto the train ferry in the middle of the night. We arrived at Copenhagen at 07:30 certainly feeling a bit brighter.
COPENHAGEN
We changed £10 to Danish Kroner, put the luggage in the lockers and went off to find the Little Mermaid. We took an S-Tog train to Osterport, went through Churchillian Park and made it to the statue pretty quickly. Apart from a group of Japanese tourists who soon dispersed, we had the statue and the area around it to ourselves. There was obviously merit in visiting at 8am on a Sunday.
We went back through the Citadel Park and down Bredgade to the Royal Palace. We then made a detour up towards the beautiful Rosenburg Castle, passing a military parade ground on the way. We arrived back in the pedestrianised zone in the centre of the city, hoping to eat at a Burger King. Unfortunately, the sign on the door said it wouldn’t open before 11am.
To kill time, we continued walking around the impressively upmarket pedestrianised streets towards the centre of the town. We trekked around the Tivoli Gardens, past the Danish Museum, Christiansborg Palace and the Royal Arsenal.
Back outside Burger King we met an Australian/English/Portuguese gentleman and spent a few minutes discussing his life trading precious stones and his extensive travels. He had just flown in from Singapore.
After lunch we walked once more around the Tivoli Gardens where we photographed ourselves in the distorted mirrors and paused for coffee. We spent the rest of the afternoon outside the city, catching the S-Tag to Hillerød and walking to Frederiksborg castle.
TRAIN # 31 – 17:30 Hillerod to Helsingor
We then jumped on a brand new and rather plush DSB (Danish State Railway) diesel train from Hillerod to Helsingor, travelling through very flat countryside. The landscape and towns reminded me a bit of England.
We had a walk from Helsingor station towards the coast and watched the ships coming and going and looked over towards the castle, reputedly the setting for Hamlet.
TRAIN # 32 – 19:03 Helsingor to Copenhagen
We took the train back to Copenhagen and then, after retrieving the luggage from the lockers, went up to find what we had heard was ‘the ultimate Interrail waiting room’. It was situated over two floors and there were desks, tables and chairs, a coffee machine, a receptionist and quite a few customers.
We sat down and got talking to a guy from Liverpool. He was a hotel manager from Holiday Inn. He recommended going to Narvik for good views and told of his experiences in Paris and on a hitch-hiking holiday around Germany. He also had a copy of an English newspaper, and from it we learned that Diana, Princess of Wales had just given birth to her second son.
TRAIN # 33 – 23:34 Copenhagen to Stockholm
We boarded the overnight Hamburg to Stockholm express. It was fairly full but we found seats in a compartment in one of the two DB coaches. There were already two girls occupying the window seats and they continued chatting to each other in German long after we had left Copenhagen. Their conversation didn’t stop me from falling asleep as the train headed north and then was placed on the train ferry over to Sweden.
Forty Years Later….
- Physical border controls between Denmark and Germany were removed in 2001 under the Schengen Agreement.
- Trains linking Hamburg and Copenhagen now run completely overland, heading west and then north through Jutland and Funen.
- In September 2026 there are now around 8.69 Danish Kroner to £1.
- The new royal baby was christened Henry Charles Albert David and became known as Prince Harry.
- Apart from one arrival at the airport for a quick transit to Sweden, I have not yet been back to Copenhagen since 1984.
