Dogs on trains . . .

The Scandic Crown Hotel in Göteborg is huge.  Seven floors and 338 rooms.  So breakfast is a frenetic, noisy affair.  It is surprising to see the number of Swedish families staying here.  We guess that they come in for a weekend in the City.  We had missed out on the pancakes yesterday and were determined to have some this morning.  Got down to the buffet breakfast about 9 am and true to form, plenty of food.  No pancakes.  Doesn't help when there is a male sports team there and some of those 'growing boys' were taking 6 pancakes or more - each!  We could see however that the staff were in the process of refilling and so, waited at a nearby table.  By the time more were delivered there was a queue waiting with 11 people ahead of us.  Thankfully the boys had had theirs and we managed to get two each this time.  Lovely crepe style pancakes, not the stodgier fatter ones.  Maple syrup, cream and jam did the trick!

We had not bought a ticket for Copenhagen as there is a train every hour - even on a Sunday - from Göteborg.  A short walk to the station and Donna goes from the Tourist Office, to the booking Office to the local Pressbyrån convenience store where she was told it was cheapest place to buy them.  Cost us the princely sum of $83.10 for each ticket - for a journey of 3 hours 38 minutes.

It is interesting to journey by train because it allows you to do a few things.  You can watch the scenery and compare how it changes over distances.  You can people watch - and in this instance, also dog watch.  Yep, we were accompanied by six dogs at various points along the journey an in this one carriage alone in this train of 13 carriages!  Once seated with their owners, they were all well behaved, but the gauntlet was thrown down by two as others passed them.  Takes a bit of getting used to.

The land between Göteborg and Copenhagen is flat.  Much of it is under crops, and there are plenty of wind turbines being farmed as well.  We see corn and strawberries, wheat and hay, just-ploughed fields, and others lying fallow.
There is the North Sea coastline, locks and canals and channels.
And dotted right along the coastline there are lots of caravan and camping areas, small hamlets that appear to be holiday homes, parklands and well serviced beach areas - everything that you would expect coastal areas to have.


We cross a bridge that is 8 kms long that crosses the Øresund Strait that is the border between Sweden and Denmark. It's hard to get photos between the pillars, but we manage a few.  And as we near Denmark there is a sight that I've only seen once before in northern Scotland - a sea-bound wind farm.  


Obviously in this area of the Strait, the coastline is well protected - otherwise you would have to question the investment in significant rail infrastructure that hugs the coast - and I mean hugs it.  There are times when there is nothing between the train line and the water other than about a 20 metre strip of sandy grasses.

We needed to be on our wits as this train does not terminate at Copenhagen.  Needn't have worried as there were lots of people getting out here.

The Station is a beautiful piece of engineering with exposed iron beams supporting a predominantly glass domed roof.

It sits across the road from the Tivoli Gardens and our taxi driver insists that even if you do not want to partake of the amusement rides, that it is worth a visit for the gardens.  We'll see.

Our hotel (hostel) is a little way from the railway station - too far to walk with the luggage in tow on cobblestones, but it is very central to much of what we want to see.  Copenhagen is one of those cities where you could spend a year and still not see all that is on offer.  The driver gives us tips on where to eat and see and take tours.  It sure helps to chat to the locals.

And finally, we have access to a full laundry.
We were starting to get sick of recycling our clothes after airing, and of washing smalls in

bathroom sinks. Donna makes four trips to make sure that everything in our suitcases is washed and dried - what a trooper!

So tonight we rest because tomorrow we hit the ground walking again.  It has done my poor feet a world of good having a quieter day today without too much cobblestone pounding.

Ciao.  See you all soon!