According to the app, there’s a strong possibility of my getting some auroral action in Norway over the next few days.
I made contact with Oslo Host and am off there on Tuesday. I had been contemplating going north in Sweden (could still happen) but am quite aware that time is ticking so have decided to go back to what was part of my original plan for visiting Norway: Trondheim. I’ve had this trip in the back of my mind, along with a trip further north, ever since I read an article about the Nordland Railway in the i last time I was in the UK. At this point, it’s not really on the cards but it’s not a plan that’s been abandoned altogether yet. After all, I can’t do everything, otherwise there won’t be anything else to do next time.
Host took me to Struer and plonked me at a very beautiful early-morning sunny station before rushing off to do his winter bathing. He invited me to do this last week and I made the right noises in the evening but thankfully he left on the Sunday morning without making a noise and I was spared the indignity of neshing out. This is not important, because whilst he was plunging himself into a freezing fjord for the sake of health, I was tucking into my free DSB breakfast (I make it sound more glamorous than it was, but it was free) on the 08:04 InterCityLyn train to Copenhagen.
As he plunged, I sat contemplating why anyone would do that to themselves when they could be sitting in a big comfy seat, feasting on a bun and a mug of coffee — instant, admittedly, but gift horses and mouths — and watching the world go by.
As the InterCityLyn trains are not by reservation only, I’d taken a bit of a gamble on not making one and was lucking enough to have the entire quiet compartment to myself for every joyously peaceful minute of the threeish-hour trip to Copenhagen. There was hot tea and coffee on tap in the carriage and my breakfast was brought to me by the train manager. It was a bun with some cheese and jam but it was nonetheless a free breakfast so I ate it and then wondered what to do next.
At Fredericia, our InterCity Lyn was joined by another and then coupled to make one longer train.
There is a Wikipedia article about the DSB IC3 which goes into great detail about a lot of things that are quite dull, but the feature I witnessed and suddenly became interested in was that the driver’s cab is mounted on a door which can be opened. Once opened, the entire cab can be folded away when the front of one train is connected to the back of another so that one can walk through the entire train. It was quite a fun spectacle to watch and I was particularly happy when the nice man and doing it let me watch while I chatted to the lovely woman from the cleaning team.
Puppet was even alowed a photograph.
It was in Fredericia that I realised I had missed a perfectly good opportunity to visit Middelfart and take a picture of the sign because I am that immature, but I was far too busy enjoying the coffee and snacks that I decided it was not a waste of an opportunity as it will give purpose to another train journey in the future.
There was only one stop between Fredericia and Copenhagen (Odense) and the train rockets through the countryside at about 180kph until we pulled into Copenhagen with a delay of about ten minutes. The train goes on to the airport and that was where the Rail Planner app thought I’d like to change, but I decided a change in Copenhagen would be better so I could get on my next train earlier. I think I made the right decisision as there were plenty of seats in first when I got on the Öresundståg train at the central station, but none by the time we got to Malmö.
I was in a window seat, and watched the world go by as I briefly contemplated getting off at Båstad Station for a humorous puppet photo. I decided that the chances of getting a window seat on the next train to Göteborg would have been very slim and while one should suffer for one’s art, one shouldn’t have to suffer the indignity of sitting in second.
We arrived in Göteborg at 16:20 where I was delighted to find the lounge open. Fika loosely translates as “taking time out for coffee and a pastry with a friend”, but as I don’t have any friends I was forced to take the time out to eat their pastries for them. After some cheese and biscuits. I had brought a packed lunch with me for the train from Copenhagen but after the first announcement to remind us that it is prohibited by law to drink one’s own alcohol on the train in Sweden, I decided I couldn’t eat my pasta salad without being able to drink my (classy) pink Prosecco in a (classy) tin or my baby bottle of red. Instead I starved myself out of principle. In all honestly, I’d also had a few too many of those little cinnamon bun things and free chocolates on the train from Struer so there wasn’t really much room for lunch.
I saw the weeping girl. Hurray!
So here I am again, sitting in the Goteborgs Mini Hotel which is cheap, cheerful, and functional. My evening was not glamorous, but I consumed some of my packed lunch for dinner with my baby bottle of Côtes du Rhône.
