Wednesday 10 July 2013

Next we take Berlin (but a bit late)

We get a decent night's sleep in the Liggvagn and manage to disembark without problems at Stockholm central where we have the luxury of nearly two hours ashore. There is work to be done. Two enormous Smogastartas have to be collected, Darren's mate is delivering some beer and the first  reliable WiFi for 24 hours takes a caning. Smorgastarta is a very fancy savoury gateau garnished with prawns in one case and smoked salmon in the other. It is not fishcake.

We are told that Stockholm had been enjoying wonderful sunshine prior to our arrival. We brought some extremely threatening looking clouds with us and by the time we leave it is raining. The train to Copenhagen (number 10 on the official list) is one of the very smart X2000 types, as good as any we have been on but very busy.

The scenery is of the trees,  trees and yet more trees variety,  coupled wa pouring rain. No wonder Swedish novels are so bleak. We eat the first Smorgastarta - very filling. It's Jason' s birthday and he wants to know why there are no candles. Tension mounts as we head south. A twenty minute connection in Copenhagen is starting to look dodgy.

By the time we get to Copenhagen we have missed it so there is then a frantic, but fruitless chase round reservation offices to sort out seats for the next train to Hamburg and the onward connection to Berlin. We are on our own for this bit.We make sure that we are in pole position when the Hamburg train pulls in and we bag the bar. Internet resources are a bit thin but we follow England's batting collapse and keep up with the Tour.

This train is one of the GCERC highlights. A smart German ICE train drives onto a boat for a 50 minute crossing of yhe Baltic Sea - amazing. We are evicted from the coaches and head up to the top deck for fresh air and the second Smorgastarta. It was better than the first one. To a man the boys are totally wowed by this bit. Everybody should do a trip on a train ferry before they die..

1 comment:

  1. Sounds a bit frantic, how does it effect the rest of the trip?

    ReplyDelete