Coming Home
Aug. 19th, 2017 03:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dormouse1953I'm on my travels again and have been incommunicado for two days.
Checked out of the hotel Thursday morning and had several hours to kill before the ferry back so I walked around, bumping into other fans, and then ended up in a park overlooking the sea, reading Interzone. I then walked back into the centre, had a coffee and then picked up my bag.
I'd discovered that the ferry terminal is a lot closer to the hotel than I first thought. Indeed, all of central Helsinki is a lot smaller than it looks on the map. I realised it wouldn't take long to walk from the hotel, right through the city centre. It took about half an hour, but I soon realised how many pavements in Helsinki are cobbled rather than smooth. Important when you are wheeling a heavy case.
I didn't see any fans I recognised this trip, and my attempts to sit in the bar and go through my e-mail failed as the connection speed was pitiful. But I did manage to get to sleep this time, although I did discover that someone flushing the loo in the next cabin made a loud roaring sound that woke me up. Of course, waking up in the middle of the night and I immediately wanted to go to the loo, so I returned the favour.
The advantage of going in this direction is that the clock change meant I could get up early for breakfast. The disadvantage is that everyone else had the same idea. And why did people start to queue to disembark long before we docked. As I had three hours to get to Central Station in Stockholm, I waited until we were nearly docked before going to the cabin to get my bags.
It was raining slightly when we docked, but I decided to walk to the underground station and get a train to the centre. Although as I mentioned in a previous post, the direct foot route to the station involved a narrow uncovered aerial walkway, I knew a long detour at ground level. Probably added another 15-20 minutes.
When I got to the central station, my train was already on the board and I noticed that although my ticket involved changing at Lund to get to Copenhagen, the train went on from Lund to Copenhagen. I went to the ticket office to enquire about this and the clerk was quite happy to extend my reservation to Copenhagen when I thought to ask an important question. "What time does the train get to Copenhagen?" It turned out that by changing in Lund, even though there was ten minutes waiting for the train, it got me into Copenhagen five minutes earlier, which gave me ten minutes to get the connection to Hamburg. So I stuck with the original booking.
Ten minutes for the connection in Lund. Ten minutes for the connection in Copenhagen. What could possible go wrong?
Well, I got to Lund only two minutes late and my connection was on the board and due in on the same platform. However, it was marked as two minutes late, and that delay grew to about fifteen minutes. I got into Copenhagen about ten minutes after my connection left, just before six in the evening. Two weeks after missing a connection in Copenhagen, it had happened again.
I found the ticket office, which was busy, and also had a different queue for international travel. It was a take a ticket system, but there seemed to be no advantage in getting an international ticket as the same positions seemed to be dealing with both.
There was another train to Hamburg that night. The trouble was it didn't leave till 22:55 and got in at 05:28. But I had no choice and the new reservation was made. And I now had nearly five hours to kill in Copenhagen station.
I found an organic pasta place in the station. The guy who served me turned out to be from Leeds and I then found myself talking to an Irish woman whose husband was in Copenhagen to take part in an iron man contest. After that I found a seat and started to read.
Copenhagen station is a lively place on a Friday night. There seemed to be a fad for teenagers who had self-graffitied. At first I thought it was really bad tattoos, but I noticed it was on their clothes as well. I don't know if this is some Danish clubbing thing or something to do with it being Copenhagen Pride that weekend.
The train wasn't too crowded. There were a lot of early stops where people were getting off. But it was difficult to sleep and the guy opposite me snored loudly. He also wanted to stretch out his legs which meant I kept kicking him as I moved around. Finally he moved to another seat where his snores weren't so loud. I think I got some sleep.
The train actually got into Hamburg station just after five. Hamburg station and its surrounds look different at that time in the morning. I had a hotel booked and paid for, and it was just over the road from the station. There was the first glimmer of light of the start of dawn as I crossed the road.
They'd kept the room for me so I got about three hours sleep in a proper bed before getting up for breakfast. I didn't seem to be able to get an internet connection though. Then it was off to catch a train back to Cologne and the same hotel I was in the first day of my trip, seventeen days ago, which is where I am now. Back home tomorrow.
Checked out of the hotel Thursday morning and had several hours to kill before the ferry back so I walked around, bumping into other fans, and then ended up in a park overlooking the sea, reading Interzone. I then walked back into the centre, had a coffee and then picked up my bag.
I'd discovered that the ferry terminal is a lot closer to the hotel than I first thought. Indeed, all of central Helsinki is a lot smaller than it looks on the map. I realised it wouldn't take long to walk from the hotel, right through the city centre. It took about half an hour, but I soon realised how many pavements in Helsinki are cobbled rather than smooth. Important when you are wheeling a heavy case.
I didn't see any fans I recognised this trip, and my attempts to sit in the bar and go through my e-mail failed as the connection speed was pitiful. But I did manage to get to sleep this time, although I did discover that someone flushing the loo in the next cabin made a loud roaring sound that woke me up. Of course, waking up in the middle of the night and I immediately wanted to go to the loo, so I returned the favour.
The advantage of going in this direction is that the clock change meant I could get up early for breakfast. The disadvantage is that everyone else had the same idea. And why did people start to queue to disembark long before we docked. As I had three hours to get to Central Station in Stockholm, I waited until we were nearly docked before going to the cabin to get my bags.
It was raining slightly when we docked, but I decided to walk to the underground station and get a train to the centre. Although as I mentioned in a previous post, the direct foot route to the station involved a narrow uncovered aerial walkway, I knew a long detour at ground level. Probably added another 15-20 minutes.
When I got to the central station, my train was already on the board and I noticed that although my ticket involved changing at Lund to get to Copenhagen, the train went on from Lund to Copenhagen. I went to the ticket office to enquire about this and the clerk was quite happy to extend my reservation to Copenhagen when I thought to ask an important question. "What time does the train get to Copenhagen?" It turned out that by changing in Lund, even though there was ten minutes waiting for the train, it got me into Copenhagen five minutes earlier, which gave me ten minutes to get the connection to Hamburg. So I stuck with the original booking.
Ten minutes for the connection in Lund. Ten minutes for the connection in Copenhagen. What could possible go wrong?
Well, I got to Lund only two minutes late and my connection was on the board and due in on the same platform. However, it was marked as two minutes late, and that delay grew to about fifteen minutes. I got into Copenhagen about ten minutes after my connection left, just before six in the evening. Two weeks after missing a connection in Copenhagen, it had happened again.
I found the ticket office, which was busy, and also had a different queue for international travel. It was a take a ticket system, but there seemed to be no advantage in getting an international ticket as the same positions seemed to be dealing with both.
There was another train to Hamburg that night. The trouble was it didn't leave till 22:55 and got in at 05:28. But I had no choice and the new reservation was made. And I now had nearly five hours to kill in Copenhagen station.
I found an organic pasta place in the station. The guy who served me turned out to be from Leeds and I then found myself talking to an Irish woman whose husband was in Copenhagen to take part in an iron man contest. After that I found a seat and started to read.
Copenhagen station is a lively place on a Friday night. There seemed to be a fad for teenagers who had self-graffitied. At first I thought it was really bad tattoos, but I noticed it was on their clothes as well. I don't know if this is some Danish clubbing thing or something to do with it being Copenhagen Pride that weekend.
The train wasn't too crowded. There were a lot of early stops where people were getting off. But it was difficult to sleep and the guy opposite me snored loudly. He also wanted to stretch out his legs which meant I kept kicking him as I moved around. Finally he moved to another seat where his snores weren't so loud. I think I got some sleep.
The train actually got into Hamburg station just after five. Hamburg station and its surrounds look different at that time in the morning. I had a hotel booked and paid for, and it was just over the road from the station. There was the first glimmer of light of the start of dawn as I crossed the road.
They'd kept the room for me so I got about three hours sleep in a proper bed before getting up for breakfast. I didn't seem to be able to get an internet connection though. Then it was off to catch a train back to Cologne and the same hotel I was in the first day of my trip, seventeen days ago, which is where I am now. Back home tomorrow.
