This was a really exciting time for us, as we were about to embark on a type of journey that neither of us had experienced before: a sleeper train. With our Eurail ticket, the train fare was included but unfortunately not the bed reservation, which can be very expensive! Our ticket, being first class, allowed us to get 1st class beds – one bunk each in a 2 bunk room – but there were two reasons we decided not to get that. First, those beds cost over 100 euros EACH! Of course we were not going to purchase those tickets at that price. Second, we could not have reserved beds in the same room! They were single-sex only. These two things completely convinced us to downgrade to a 2nd class sleeper car which cost 26 euros each and was 2 bunks in the same room with 6 bunks total. That’s right, we were able to book bunks together in 2nd class. How strange!

Sleeper Car

Anyway, we didn’t know quite how the accomodations would be, but as you can see, they were quite comfortable: the beds folded up and the cushions were nice and soft (Hazel also appreciated the color). We had some cabin-mates who all spoke French so we didn’t really interact too much but Hazel enjoyed eavesdropping on their conversations since she can understand a lot of it from her school education in French.

The travel was interesting because although it was a long voyage, the train didn’t actually go that fast. We had several breaks at stations for a smoke (well, other people smoked) and a 20 minute stop at the German border where the police came on and asked some people for their passports. We apparently looked German enough since we weren’t asked at all, but some passengers in another car got asked several times on the trip for their papers.

We awoke in the morning to our arrival in Copenhagen. Both of us felt remarkably refreshed and ready to face the coming day, which would be long since we intended to use the whole day for tourism. In South America we took a whole lot of long-distance overnight buses, and while the travel experience was similar, we felt MUCH more refreshed after the train ride. I suspect it was having proper beds and nothing beeping at us all night whenever the train exceeded 100kph.

When we arrived in Copenhagen, we decided to go right back out of town because of an interesting feature of our Eurail pass. Our pass is a limited one: you can travel for 10 days during a 2 month period. The ticket has a calendar in it with 10 spots, and you fill in one with the date each time you want to ride a train. The interesting thing is that night trains (which depart after 7pm) only count for 1 day: the day you arrive. This means that when we got into Copenhagen we had a whole day during which we were able to use any train we liked! So we decided to see a little bit of upcountry Denmark.

First Stop

Our first destination was a place called Odense. We had looked this up in our book before we left and it is the birth-town of Hans Christian Andersen, a notorius writer of fairy tales who authored “The Little Mermaid” and other famous tales. But along the way we discovered the best thing about taking trains in Denmark: Free Chocolate!

First Class Perks

We also got free coffee, tea, water, trail mix, apples, and fruit smoothies. This was the first-class experience that had been lacking in other parts of Europe. We were totally shocked by this and decided to stock up on trail mix since we had found that Denmark was a very expensive place. Ultimately we took 4 different trains that day and had chocolate on each one!

Danish Church

Anyway, Odense was a pretty town that had a few interesting things about it. For example, the pedestrian walk/don’t walk lights were not your typical walking man icon: there was a man with a cane and top hat strolling! It gave the town a little bit of a charming feel. Also we dropped by the H.C. Andersen house and found that a free play was going on outside. So we sat on the lawn and had our lunch (bread and cheese and free smoothie) while they were finishing up.

Danish Play

The main other notable place in Odense was its beautiful church. Danish churches are typically built of brick (unlike many other places in Europe where they are built of solid stone) and this one was was completely whitewashed inside. It also featured an enormous altar with dozens of scenes from the life of Jesus. They were gilded with gold and were very impressive! The altar was not the only cool part of the church – there were sculptures all over with all sorts of interesting scenes depicted, like the Grim Reaper!

Bigger Danish Church

Fancy Church Artwork

After seeing that and walking along the various streams in town we took off back towards Copenhagen, but we stopped along the way at a beach town we had seen coming through: Nyborg. There is not much to this town besides a really beautiful beach, but it was fun to stroll along, dip our toes in the (freezing) ocean water, and take in the scenery.

Danish Beach

Danish Beach Scenery

More Nyborg Scenery

After relaxing there for a while we hopped back onto the train and went back to Copenhagen.  What a wonderful day!