ScandiTrip 2006

Tomorrow we take the train to Copenhagen, but today we enjoyed much of what Århus has to offer. And, we are very impressed. The central part of town features many of the things that we always hope to see in Europe like narrow winding streets, a beautiful 1000 yr old cathedral, and a cafe lined pedestrian-only canal street. But, for me, the best part is the "Den Gamle By" (the old town) which features a cluster of over 70 relocated renaissance buildings and houses from Århus and the surrounding areas. Lots of pictures! The strangest part is that this city (the second largest in Denmark) seems nearly undiscovered by tourists. We had no problem getting a reasonable hotel near the center of town, none of the attractions are particularly crowded, and the price for food and such is much less than anything in Norway. In fact, unlike Norway, we have yet to encounter another American.

However, the journey here was not without it's bumps. We caught the ferry from Kristiansand without problem, but we were a little confused as to how to begin our journey south to Århus. The travel guides said something about a connecting train, but provided no details. So, we did find signs directing us to a little train, got on, only to find that we cannot proceed without purchasing tickets from a machine that only takes Danish currency. When I asked the train conductor about this, he got a bit testy and proclaimed "Vee are in DENMARK now unt Vee use de Danish KRONE! If you do not purchase ticket, der is 600 KRONER FINE!!" Geez. When asked what to do, he suggested we get off the train, go to a minibank (ATM) "und get some Danish krones!!!". The next train was in an hour. After I got some cash from the ATM back at the ferry terminal, we got on the next train, bought the tickets, and road the train to the next station. No one ever asked to see our ticket. For the rest of the day, I could here that guy squealing "Vee are in DENMARK now unt Vee use de Danish KRONE!" Too funny. In all fairness, we have been in Denmark now for about 48hrs and everyone has been very polite and patient with us, except the "Vee are in Denmark now" guy.

So, this little train took 20 mins to get us to the next city which had a national train stop, where we could catch a train that is included with our rail pass. However, when we get there, we find that our connecting train has been canceled. Oops. Now what? There was a little travel store at the station, but no information booth or ticket desk. So, I just happened to see a guy who was wearing some pants that had the national train system's logo on them. He said we could wait an hour to catch a train to Aalborg (about half way to Århus). Jenn managed to pickup a schedule of trains out of Aalborg and figured out that we would have no more than 3 minutes to make the connection. When we got to Aalborg, we were lucky that there was a line of people trying to get on the next train, otherwise might have left on time without us. Ah, we were finally on the right train to Århus.

That's it for now. Next stop: Kobenhavn a.k.a. Copenhagen!!!