The previous post was too much whining so now we need to share some of the good that happened on the way to Aarhus, Denmark. Most of it is about people. We talked about the servers in Schweinske in the Hamburg station and we really cannot say enough good about them. Letting us sit at that table for 5 hours was so kind. Don’t know what we would have done all day lugging all our stuff.
There were also nice people who tried to help us figure out the train situation. We think there were many very confused people like us. Our travel was on Friday so by late afternoon there were many people traveling. Also, it turns out, the German trains are offering some really low fares to travel around Europe and people were apparently taking advantage of this for the weekend.
On the train leaving Hamburg we were in a five-person compartment with two seats on one side and us on the three-person side. There was only one person on the two-person side and her name was Inkrit. She was traveling from the Netherlands to visit her son in Copenhagen. She lives in very northern Netherlands and had been traveling since early in the day. There had been cancellations and delays making her miss connections so she had also had a difficult day. But, we had such a good visit. She had quite good English (had lived in the US a short time and was very funny about living in “the south” in Tennessee). She is Dutch, having been born in Amsterdam.
When we had to leave this train to continue on with the Aarhus contingent, we attached ourselves like limpets to two young people traveling to Aarhus (and beyond, apparently). They we so kind, with quite good English, and laughed at us for not letting them out of our sight as we made changes. They were only 18 and 19 and returning home after visiting Berlin. Bob asked how old they were when they began traveling like this. They responded that this was their first trip outside the country without family, but they have been traveling within Denmark alone for sometime. They told us what we should see in Aarhus.
When we got on the train in Fredericia, we were separated from the young people (they were not in first class) but met a woman from Aarhus who was also really helpful. She explained about the bus and why we had to take it. She told us things to do in Aarhus (where she has lived for 20 years). She works for the Arts Council of Denmark and travels to assist in arranging exhibitions. She was coming from one in Germany (can’t remember where) and had also had a difficult day of travel. She was kind enough to make sure we found the bus and, when we got to Aarhus, to get us to the taxi stand (at midnight). Lovely woman. Wish we had gotten some contact information to thank her the next day when we enjoyed some of what she recommended.