07 June 2023

70th birthday trip, Wednesday 7 June

We should have arrived in Stockholm at 09:10 this morning. We finally arrived at 16:40. I spent most of the day lying on my bunk as the most comfortable option!  They gave us  breakfast, of a sort - stale roll with margarine (which I won't touch), cream cheese and jam, cardboard orange juice and quite nice coffee.

We had hoped we would be only a couple of hours late - the death that caused the original delay was an "accident" at Neumunster, where the train also sat for ages.  We were still in Germany when we woke up!

And every time the train stopped the projected delay got longer and longer and longer and longer. By the time it was lunchtime, I knew I would probably not last out, so the SW went to see if he could scrounge some food from somewhere and came back with a much nicer breakfast - fresh roll, margarine and jam, (didn't eat the margarine), muesli with yoghurt, fruit juice, and a tub of boiled egg, cheese and salad. And more coffee. We assumed this was the paid-for breakfast available to seated and couchette passengers, but they didn't charge us for it (I should jolly well think not!).

There was some lovely views as we went over the bridges between the various Danish islands and Denmark and Sweden.

Anyway, we got there in the end, and the hotel was not far from the station if you knew where to look! We found it eventually. The room is very nice, although it looks over the railway line - totally soundproof, though. I believe the cheap rooms here don't have windows, but I wasn't having that!

After a cup of tea and a rest, we went out and had a lovely walk round the old town, and a delicious meal. Meat dishes are expensive, but fish is reasonable and beer and so on positively cheap! Then back to the hotel. 

But the hiccups aren't over. The hotel I have mistakenly booked us in in Oslo is about 10 miles out of town and not refundable so we can't change it. And the first leg of our train from Oslo to Copenhagen has been cancelled, so I'll have to rebook. Oh dear. 

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