五月, 2012: Oslo -> Lillestrom -> Hallsberg -> Mjolby -> Malmo -> Odense -> Copenhagen -> Frankfurt

 All packed and ready to roll.
The Norwegian railway staff narrowed the trip down to two transfer between Oslo and Copenhagen. They were in Hallsberg and Mjolby. Both new places to me, one I can't even pronounce.













A silver Swedish railway express train streak pass.

 
Lillestrom is the station where I had got off to take the connecting bus to Oslo, earlier in the weekend.

 

 
The train pulled up in the Hallsberg station. This gave me the something to check out the town. Katrineberg propered when the Malmo-Stockholm line was laid through the town. Hallsberg probably saw a boost to their economy when the train came.
 
Outside the station was a statue of what looks like a labour who works on the railroad track.

Across the road, I found another Thai shop, ASien Thai Shop.

The standing sign board outside the station kiosk was very tempting, I would have gone in for the ice-cream if I have some Swedish kroner. The Norwegian kroner were now useless.

I was expecting either a Swedish or Danish train to take us to Mjolby. But a train in Tagkompaniet livery came along.

 
It looks like the Hallsberg-Mjolby route is served by a private company.
 

 
 
I left the Tagkompaniet train in Mjolby for the transfer.

I am too old to purchase a 2nd class railpass, which are reserved for the youths of the world. The pass is more expensive, but then it allows me to travel first class. On most trip, the difference between 1st and 2nd class isn't much. But on this Mjolby-Copenhagen leg, food was served from a trolley. After the cabin crew served the drink and brownies and fruits, the trolley is left at the back of the cabin for a free-flow buffet.

Passing Malmo, I could now see the train crossing the sea over the bridges.

 The graffiti on the railway facilities seems to announce that we have crossed into the Denmark end of the bridge. Compare the Sweden, there seem to be more graffiti in Denmark.

I have a few minute before the transfer onto the Copenhagen-Frankfurt train. Enough time to rush up to the station to spent my leftover Danish kroner on Danish pastries.


It would be another few bridge-crossings before the train round the bend allow the coast and slide into the Odense station.

It was already 8 in the evening, but still enough light to catch Thomas the train, if it was still on the track. Too bad, it was gone. As I was talking the pictures of the station, the tall Danish conductor of my cabin was taking an interest.

When we board the train again, the Dane came over and ask if I know the station.

Him: You know this place?
Me: Yes.
Him: You know this place?
Me: Yes. It's Odense.
Him: You know this place?
Me: Yes (getting a bit annoyed.) I saw Thomas the train here, just last week...
Him: Oh....(and proceed to tell me there is a Railway museum right next to the Odense station, and that his young son own every episode on the Thomas show on video.) But do you know this is home of Hans Christian Anderson. He was born here.


Ok...so that was what he was trying to tell me. Well, I always thought Hans Christian Anderson was from Copenhagen.
So, we have a chat that started with Thomas and continued with rail travel in general.
He told me about the railway museum in Odense and recommended other railway museums I may like to visit if I get the chance. He then told about the time when he was a conductor on a train the royal family of Denmark was on. Showing the pictures on his tablet, those were likely one of his proudest moment in his carreer on the railroad. He served the Queen of Denmark.




He then ask me how's the railway like back home in Singapore. I told him we have non. He was kind of surprised. It was quite clear, like many outside of Asia, he got Singapore confused with Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei. If all the money spent on the F1 Night Race is to put us on the map, it obviously isn't working. He told him of the recent closing of the Tanjong Pagar train station, trying hard to make the historic ties between Malaysia and Singapore as clear as possible to him. After his show-and-tell on his tablet, I felt obliged to show his videos of the last night of Tanjong Pagar.
Him: So what will happen to the station. Are they going to bring it back again some years later?
Me: No. It's not going to be a train station anymore. It's gone.
Him:...no good. That's no good. No good.

Spoken like a true railway man.

I probably slept through the night as the sleeper train made its way from Odense to Frankfurt. I vaguely remember the German border police coming into the cabin in the middle of the night to do a passport check.

In the morning, the train slided into Frankfurt station. Here ends my trip to Scandinavia.

There now remain one last leg between me and Nordkapp: Oslo-Nordkapp.