London to Copenhagen by Train and ferry

Posted by l.p.enersen (Glostrup, Denmark) on 11/24/22 01:21 PM

For our home journey (from https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/copenhagen-to-london-by-train) I had decided to use the alternative from the man in Seat61, i.e. The ferry Harwich to Hook van Holland.

Tuesday 22 NOV 2022

18:45 Liverpool Street Station - 20:23 Harwich

I hadn't been able to book seats, but the train was less than half full, so that was no problem :-)

20:30 Harwich - 07:00 (GMT)/08:00 (CET) (Wednesday) Hook van Holland

The check in to was smooth and efficient. There were only a few foot/train passengers, so there was almost no queue. We found our cabin and entered to find a large room with a double bed, a comfortable bath room with shower, and a minibar. Very nice.

We immediately went out to have dinner and after some searching found the "Taste" restaurant. I had paid for a three course dinner from home, so we were looking forward to a nice relaxed meal. Unfortunately, the restaurant was virtually empty, so we got far too much attention from staff. We started with a pretty good Tomato soup, then I had "Chinese Style Chicken", which was a dry chicken, some OK rice, an OK sauce and almost no vegetables. My wife had fish and chips, which were OK. If we ever go that way again I will eat in London before we leave or get some take-away to eat on the train.

Next morning, we got up at 05:00 and I went out to do some tax free shopping (only good thing to come from Brexit). The sign said it would be open at 05:30 but it wasn't. I asked in information, and they said it would open at 06:00, but when we passed at 05:45 looking for breakfast, it was open. I hate mixed information! It seems so unprofessional.

We went to the restaurant to have breakfast, but they could only offer Full English Breakfast for a fixed amount and that is too much for me and much much too much for my wife, so we went looking for the cafe, but they could only offer tea/coffee and Croissant - and I detest croissant - so in the end my wife went back to our cabin and made a cup of coffee - which is her usual breakfast - and I went back to the restaurant and spent 15,50 GBP for a plate of beans and egg. Next time (if there ever is one) I will buy a ham-and-cheese sandwich to eat in the morning.

Wednesday 23 NOV 2022

08:32 Hook van Holland - 08:55 Schiedam Centrum

We bought tickets in an automat (which was mainly in Dutch) and entered the train for an eventless trip.

09:06 Schiedam Centrum - 10:15 Amsterdam Central Station

We bought tickets in an automat (which was mainly in Dutch) and entered the train for an eventless trip.

The rest of the journey was pre-booked and prepaid, because we wanted a relaxing trip after our vacation.

The plan was:

11:10 Amsterdam Central Station - 14:06 Osnabrück
14:23 Osnabrück - 16:14 Hamburg
16:54 Hamburg - 21:33 Copenhagen Central Station.

Continued below

Posted by l.p.enersen OP

Glostrup, Denmark

11/24/22 01:25 PM

1321 posts

The reality:

11:10 Amsterdam Central Station

We had trouble finding the train. The information boards don't display the train number, but the time and end station. Since our ticket/plan had train number, start and end time of our trip, and start and end station of our trip, but no information about the end station of the route, I had some trouble and had to go find a staff who could help me. He gave me the track (changed since I got the plan) and it turned out the had also changed the start time, so in the end we had to hazard a guess and get inboard a train which looked plausible. Luckily it turned out to be the correct one.

Just after we crossed the border to Germany (and had to put on face masks) they told us over the intercom that the train would stop in Bad Bentheim and we would have to transfer to a substitute train for the rest of the trip. A great hassle to change - and of course all reserved seat information was lost. We were lucky to find seats, but we were beginning to think we might be late for the next train.

14:23 Osnabrück

Half an hour before we reached Osnabrück they told us that due to an accident on the tracks after Osnabrück, all passengers to Berlin and Hannover would have to go via Hamburg. When we reached Osnabrück everybody scrambled to get to the train; and in the chaos and confusion we didn’t notice that we entered the wrong train, i.e. not the one where we had reservations. We ended up sitting together because a woman offered to move to another vacant seat. Thank you if you ever read this.

The train moved to Hamburg-Harburg where it stopped for no apparent reason. After about 30 minutes they said that they had no idea when the train would move on and that they suggested we took the S-train to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (Central Station). We had no idea how to find that, but a lot of other passengers did, so we just followed in their wake. The plan had allowed for 40 minutes in Hamburg to buy some food for the rest of the trip, but now we had 10 minutes to get to the correct platform.

16:54 Hamburg

We got onboard, found our seats and settled in. Our stress level at this time was uncomfortably high, so we didn’t try to do anything tricky, but just gazed out the window or on our iPhones. Apart from a 30 minutes stop, because of a faulty brake the rest of the trip was uneventful.

21:33 Copenhagen Central Station

We abandoned our plan to go home by S-train and took a cab. We were just too tired to care much for the environment at this point.

What should have been an easy 5 train journey, ended up as a 7 train stressful and exhausting survival exercise.