As the Denmark-UK guide on the Man in Seat 61 outlines, it is not possible to do Copenhagen to London in a day – an overnight stop has to be built in somewhere. Having travelled from Copenhagen to Hamburg by train and ferry, an overnight stop in Hamburg therefore ensued (including a very fun visit to Miniatur Wunderland and a dawn visit to the Fischmarkt). Having made a bright and early start, we had no trouble getting to Hamburg Hbf to start out long day of travel.
As was the case with the tickets from Denmark to Hamburg, a little careful planning had ensured that the booking from Hamburg to London was made when DB released their London spezial fares, which meant that €129 per person bought a first class ticket from Hamburg all the way to London St Pancras (including protected connections). In practice, this meant we had first class seats on a standard DB Inter City service from Hamburg to Cologne, followed by first class seats on a DB ICE service to Brussels, and finally seats in Standard Premier on Eurostar. Departure from Hamburg was at 09:46, with the final arrival into London at 20:03. All on a Sunday, and with a couple of hours built in for a quick wonder around Cologne during our connection.
Our train arrived on schedule – a very pleasant loco-hauled Inter City train, from before the era of high speed. Between Hamburg and Cologne, the time saving for using high speed was negligible, so it seemed a good opportunity to try the older stock. Some careful planning using the Man in Seat 61 and various DB seating plans meant we had been well-informed when it came to selecting reserved seats. We were booked in a first class compartment – distinguishing itself from standard by having just 4 seats in a space usually used for 6. We had the compartment to ourselves as far as Bremen, which leant it the air of high class seclusion from the masses that would ordinarily only be found by connecting your own private car to a train in the USA. Once we were joined by two strangers, the vibe changed a little. While it wasn’t uncomfortable, it obviously feels different to chat in front of others who in a confined space with you. We felt empowered by the fact that we had been there first, which meant we had already set the tone of the compartment for the journey. The lighting levels were good – there was a full window from the compartment, and the corridor was walled off using glass, ensuring plenty of light and views in the opposite direction too. On board service was limited – we could pop along to the buffet car for DB’s snacks – or wait and see what happened. A very nice attendant popped along with a tray of fresh coffees, which we were able to buy for the princely sum of €3 each and consume along with our own chocolate goodies. The quality of the ride was very good – comfortable and quiet. Service friendly and polite, albeit with no freebies as one might expect in 1st in the UK.
We had wisely stocked up on snacks before boarding at Hamburg Hbf and consumed many of these over the course of our rather lengthy journey to Cologne. It was clear over the course of the journey that the train was filling up (we had been warned that the train was ‘full’ between Bremen and Osnabrück) and all seats in our own compartment were filled from Bremen as far as Cologne, where all occupants alighted.
In Cologne, we had to deal with an unexpected change to our plans that we had received a little advance notice of. A week before our travels, we had been emailed by DB with the news that our departure from Cologne at 15:43 had been cancelled and that we should travel on any suitable, alternative service. As we had a connection in Brussels to maintain, it was clear that we should eat into the two-hour window we had built into our itinerary in Cologne and depart an hour earlier on the 14:43. The email had told us we were on our own when it came to seating reservations – a little unfair given we had gone to some trouble to select seats we liked! We hot-footed it round to the DB travel centre, and after carefully explaining our predicament to the travel centre dragon (entry to the centre proper was not permitted until you had justified your presence there), we were provided with a ticket for the erste klasse queue. Hurrah! We entered, and waited about 2 minutes before being served in English by a rather officious member of staff. Having explained that we would like a reservation on the train an hour earlier, having been unceremoniously bumped off our train, we received some good news! Our train wasn’t cancelled – it was just leaving an hour earlier. Indeed, it was the train an hour earlier we were aiming for. Our reservations were still intact – all we need do was get on board and sit in them.
We popped outside, with little time to idle, to take in the cathedral and take up a prime vantage spot for watching trains departing the station via the bridge. Yet, before we knew it, we needed to retreat back inside the station building to seek out our train – not cancelled, just leaving one hour earlier – and our special seats. Foreseeing hunger, we procured a couple of somewhat questionable sandwiches from a German railway station bakery before heading up to the platforms to find our carriage. It was across the platform from a matching DB ICE service bound for Amsterdam – but our Brussels-bound service looked the best. So sleek. So beautiful. They do not build trains like this just anywhere. As luck would have it, we had emerged at the wrong end of the platform and had to walk the length to find our reservation – dull for most, but quite exciting for train lovers. Having turfed the chap who had settled down in our prized seats out of them, we took up position.
Departure was quiet and smooth – like most of the journey on board the ICE. Whether it was running at high speed or slowly on suburban Belgian tracks, it was offered good ride quality. We were pleased to have chosen seating in the open carriage for this leg – the compartments on the ICE trains look a bit confined. It was lucky we had bought snacks too – the bistro was closed (so much for Germany efficiency). Indeed, announcements in four languages (German, French, Flemish and English) became progressively less apologetic about this fact – where Germans were undoubtedly promised heavenly reward for their endurance, we were informed in English that we were out of luck – no bistro. Never mind! We made rapid progress and it wasn’t long before we crossed the border into Belgium. The reason for the confused timetable and one-hour-early departure? A diversion that meant we did not call in Liège as might be expected, but in Angleur – deep in the Liège suburbs. I particularly enjoyed watching eastern Belgium fly by outside the window – I’ve previously enjoyed the transition to the red brick housing of Belgium from Germany’s more austere appearance, and I did so again. Conversation (and high speed travel) meant that the 2.5 hour journey was soon drawing to a close. Most of the passengers got off at Bruxelles-Nord, but we hung on to Bruxelles-Midi – given we were connecting onto Eurostar.
TransportIan 