Back in a pre-corona 2012 I got inspired by my friend Erik to make an epic rail trip through a part of Europe. I persuaded my best friend to tag along and together we decided to head north, to Scandinavia, to a part of Europe we both hadn’t visited yet and where fascinated about.
After our few days city tripping in Stockholm we boarded an X2000 tilting train towards Malmö.
This time the experience was less nauseating as the tracks where less curvy than in Norway. We also pre-booked a meal to enjoy during the trip. We had received a voucher that we could exchange in the on-board bistro for a hot meal and complimentary drink. They served a nice vegetable lasagna when we travelled.
After arrival in Malmö we used the rest of the day to explore a bit of the city.
The next morning we hopped on to a Oresund train across the Oresund bridge back to Copenhagen in Denmark.
After arrival in Copenhagen we joined one of the few daily ICE trains between Copenhagen and Hamburg. At the time they still travelled over Rodby and Puttgarden, the so called Vogelfluglinie, and crossed the Fehmarn belt by ship. They also used the diesel ICE-TD sets that proved to be unsuccessful for their original deployment in Germany but still found a second life for a few years operating the ICE trains between Copenhagen and Hamburg.
Nowadays the Copenhagen to Hamburg EC trains operated on the longer overland route via the Big and Little Belt crossings and the mainland via Flensburg using the Danish IC3 units, this until the fixed link across the Fehmarn belt is finished thus eliminating the use of the ferry crossing.
We were very lucky in still having experience the ferry crossing by train, it’s very unique to be driving onto a ship by train before disembarking on the deck.
For the duration of the traverse we were obliged to leave the train and spend the crossing on the passenger decks, getting some time to enjoy the fresh sea air on the open deck of have a quick meal in one of the restaurants.
When the ship arrived in port we all had to board the train again and drove off the ship, along some rural German routes down to Hamburg.
In Hamburg we joined a different IC train taking us towards Cologne where we changed for an ICE train to Brussels and our trip ended. We had an absolute blast throughout the trip and it was the start for more rail adventures in the future.
Which trip or event triggered the travel bug inside of you? Tell us in the comments below!
