Bellarine Traveller: On to Denmark

As I type part of this blog - I am sitting on an ICE train (Inter City Express) to Copenhagen. Compared to the trains at home, this train is quite luxurious. I do have a Eurail pass, that entitles me to a first class seat and I must admit the seats are far more comfortable than most airline seats I have travelled in! I have just had my ticket checked and been handed a voucher to use in the buffet car. It is about a 5 hour journey from Hamburg to Copenhagen.

Travelling north I have already noticed several changes: the design of houses & farm buildings; different crops; many farm animals; and the change in vegetation. We have passed through several small forested areas and I am starting to see more Spruce Trees. I do love all the deciduous trees; everything is just so green compared to our often ‘burnt’ Aussie landscape.

Since I have been travelling people have asked about the Australian landscape and climate. Rather than try and describe it or even explain it, I have on several occasions recited the first few lines of Dorothea McKellar’s poem. “My Country” ....

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.

Lots of people know about the floods in Brisbane and other places in 2011, and are aware the long drought we had for many years, so the lines of the poem are just so true.

The train journey was very interesting. An announcement was made about 2 hours into the journey and I thought I had misunderstood the announcement!

And, no, I hadn’t – in about 20 minutes the train was going onto a Ferry!

My first question was “my goodness, how big is the ferry?”

There were two more Aussies in the same train carriage we were all amazed!

Yes, the train did go onto the Ferry, so did numerous cars, coaches, semi-trailers and smaller trucks.

Once the train was on the ferry, all passengers had to go up to the upper decks. The train was locked so all out luggage was quite safe. The Ferry went through the Danish Straits which is part of the Baltic Sea. The journey took about 45 minutes. On the upper decks of the Ferry there are numerous cafes, shops, money exchanges and a duty-free shop. All the shops seemed to do a roaring trade. The sea was a bit choppy. I did spend a bit of time outdoors as there are hundreds of wind turbines in the sea as well as many on land.

After the 45 minute crossing it was back on the train, the coaches, cars and trucks all moved off and there was queue of more vehicles lining up the return trip.

It almost seemed as the rest of the 2 hour trip was a bit boring after that bit of excitement!

I arrived in Demark about 6.30pm and it had started to rain a bit. I was waiting for a taxi and I struck an extremely rude taxi driver who refused to drive me. As it turned out the hotel was near the station (not that I knew where), however with the assistance of a couple of kind people in the taxi queue I did manage to find the hotel and settled in for a good night’s sleep.