Friday
13 September
Day 75
21 to go
Moving day! As usual we were awake by 7am and ready to get our day started. We had a couple of hours to be ready, so we were able to be leisurely with our pack. We dropped our key cards at the desk and then made the walk across the road to the central train station for 9am. We read the departure board, located our train platform, 14 and then waited.
Our train arrived at 9.20am and we were able to board our first class carriage, store the big bags and find ourselves a seat, ready for the 4 half hour journey.
After Varberg station, the train skirted the coast. It looked like a lovely place and plenty of other tourists were enjoying the space in their campers. It was obviously a popular tourist destination.
At 11am, we reached Halmstad. Here we had a 15min stop. We enjoyed a mid morning snack, while we waited. The town looked quite large and interesting. One to remember for future travel. Once back up and travelling, we continued to pass by vast areas of farming land, much of it harvested and the soil turned over.
Our 1st class carriage was as quiet noisy. We assumed a large group were coworkers was heading somewhere together. Some got on in Gothenburg, while a few others joined them at a couple of the next stops. Thankfully they all alighted at Bastad station and the carriage was left with us and two other blokes..
By 11.40am, two hours into our trip, we stopped at Angelholm. The travel into the station, again ran along the coast. Another pretty tourist destination and one to remember for future Swedish travel.
We spent the travel time watching the NBL Blitz as well as the scene outside our large window. Helsingborg, came into view at 11.50am. Lots of beachside views. Another spot that would be busy on warmer, sunny days. It also gave us our first glimpse of Danish land, with a he land over the sea being Denmark.
There was far more civilisation on this train trip, compared to our journey from Stockholm to Gothenburg. There were housing estates of all shapes and sizes. It still amazes us with all this land, that there are so many living in small, multi-storey apartment blocks.
Three hours into our trip, we reached Lund, another large centre. By 12.50pm we were in Malmo and we only had 40min to go. I joined a group chat with Shaz and Annie. It was so great to catch up with them and Simon too, who popped in briefly.
We didn’t see much of the centre of Malmo, as the train travel through a tunnel. There were a couple of stops in the suburbs, before we began the journey over the waters separating Sweden and Denmark at 1pm. The bridge connecting the two countries was expansive. There were sail boats below and a large wind farm. We then ducked into another tunnel, finally reaching Dane soil and then we pulled into the Copenhagen airport terminal at 1.15pm.
At 1.30pm we finally reached our destination, Copenhagen central station. We pushed our bags through the people on the platform, reaching the concourse upstairs and then asking others for directions to our next train. We had one stop to tackle and then a walk of 350m, before we reached Hotel SP34. All checked in!at the funky lobby, we rode the elevator to the 4th floor and then to guess which apartment was ours, as there were no numbers. Luckily, the first door we tapped with our key, opened up and we were able to get ourselves sorted in our room.
We oriented ourselves with our home for the next 4 nights, enjoyed a drink and nibbles and read up on on the block party info they gave us. Seems we picked a good weekend.
By 3pm, we were ready to wander our local area. After reading a what to do in 3 days in Copenhagen itinerary, I planned out a couple of spots near by and we returned to the pavement. Our first stop was the City Hall building. There were plenty of tourists milling in the square. We took in the large fountain out front and the peaks of various old buildings around us, all while admiring the City Hall. We entered the building, so we could check out Jens Olsens world clock with 14000 moving parts. It took 27 years to build.
We then moved on to a Brew Pub, so Paul could have a beer. It was a very bright space and there was plenty of choice for Paul. They had maps of Copenhagen, so we sat at the table and checked out the layout of the city and its position in relation to where we were staying.
With the beer drunk, we made our way to Strojet, the shopping street. Being Friday afternoon, there were plenty of people out. We walked passed the Caritas Fountain, before arriving at Hojbrohus and the stork fountain. From the blog, I knew to make our way into the Illum department store and head to the Original Coffee shop at the top, for a great view of the square below. It didn’t disappoint.
We then returned to the colourful pavement, walking towards the Christianborg Slot. We admired the Bishop Absalon statue, before walking along the edge of the canal and then back in towards the city buildings, returning to our hotel for 5pm, just in time for their free wine happy hour.
I settled in to the lobby with my glass of white wine. Paul returned the shopping we had bought to the room, and then he joined me with a glass of red. The place was lively, with plenty of patrons hoeing into the free wine. With food and drinks, an expensive outlay here, we were going to get our fill.
When the hour was up, we returned to the room briefly, before heading out to get dinner. Hungry Jacks seemed like a good, quick meal. Two burgers and a chips later, we were down nearly $50! We returned to our room, thinking we would go out later on to enjoy the night lights and then the offering of free liqueur between 10 and 11pm. However, after eating dinner and planning out the next 3 days, we were both beat and ready to fall over.
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