The Copenhagen Metro
The Copenhagen Metro is unusual in two ways; it is driver-less like the DLR and it doesn’t go anywhere near the main railway station for the city. As to the latter, I don’t think I’ve ever found a metro like that before. It certainly makes it difficult for visitors.
Hopefully, it will be better when they built the next line.
It is also not up to the standards I like in a Metro, with regard to information. As an example, there are no walking maps at the stations. But then I didn’t see a useable map anywhere in Copenhagen, although there were a couple in Frederiksberg.
Would I Go Back To Stockholm?
Most certainly! Yes! Although, I wouldn’t stay in the Stureplan Hotel again!
I’d probably try to get in Hotel Rival. It looks like I can get a room at a reasonable price for a couple of weeks ahead.
The hotel also knows its gluten-free, as it appeared did most of Stockholm.
Perhaps next time I go, it’ll be a stop-over on the way to see the bears!
Everybody needs to go to Stockholm once, just to see the Vasa.
From Stockholm To Copenhagen By Train
I left Stockholm for Copenhagen late in the morning.
The journey should have taken just over five hours but the train was half-an-hour late into the Danish capital. A hotel manager I spoke to, said that the trains are always late. But I couldn’t find any published statistics, like you see on British stations.
The Stockholm to Copenhagen line is not very spectacular, except for the amazing crossing between Malmo and Copenhagen on the double-deck Øresund Bridge.
The Øresund Line, which is the high-speed rail line between Malmo and Copenhagen, illustrates some of the problems of running trains between different countries. This section called Border Technicalities in the Wikipedia article on the line, illustrates the problem. The electrification, signalling and train running systems are all different.
At least England and Scotland have the same systems and we’re vaguely the same as the French, Belgians and Germans, with respect to high-speed rail.
But then Ireland, including the North, use a different gauge.
The Swedish high speed train, called the SJ 2000, that I used on the journey has the luxury of running on 19th Century lines between Stockholm and Malmo, that were built relatively straight. But it is not particularly fast, going at speeds comparable with our Inter City 125s from London to the West Country. Our trains are thirty years older and diesel powered, but comparisons like this illustrate how good was the design of the Inter City 125s.
Velez Malaga Sends Its Trams To Australia
The BBC World today, was dominated by this story, about how Velez Malaga was sending its trams to Australia, as it can’t afford them.
I do wonder who is footing the bill for all these Spanish practices?
An Inclined Lift
In one of the stations I passed through on the Stockholm Metro, there was an inclined lift.
An Inclined Lift
Both Crossrail and the London Underground are installing some in the near future.
Hiss incidentally means lift and is easily remembered, if like me, you need the occasional pick-me-up.
A Walk At Hässelby Strand
After I’d seen the Vasa, I thought it would be nice for another walk. So I looked on the Stockholm Metro map and found a station called Hässelby Strand. If Strand means the same as it does in German, then it could be a beach. I’ve just checked and it is.
So I went and explored.
It was a very pleasant place by the water. Sadly, there didn’t seem to be a cafe for a drink.
The Vasa Museum
One of the reasons, I went to Stockholm was to see the Vasa.
I first heard about the ship in my teens, when it was raised from the floor of Stockholm Harbour. The techniques of raising the ship were also detailed in the Meccano Magazine.
It will be interesting to see how the Vasa compares with the Mary Rose.
I must have spent about three hours wandering around the museum and afterwards I felt a lot better, as the humidity in the museum was about 60% to keep the ship [preserved.
A Walk And A Taste Of Stockholm
After checking out the tickets, I went for a walk with lunch thrown in using my Walk and Eat Guide.
The pictures tell the story of the walk.
I actually had lunch in Cafe Rival, which is in the hotel of the same name. Again there was gluten-free bread. I think, if I go to Stockholm again, I’ll try the Hotel Rival first.
Buying My Ticket To Copenhagen
The Swedish ticket machines appeared to be very comprehensive, but trying to buy the ticket to Copenhagen was very difficult, so in the end I queued up and bought it from a person, who was very helpful and spoke English better than myself.
Swedish Ticket Machines
My first problem, was that like the touch screens in IKEA at Edmonton, my fingers had the wrong dampness to make them work. But by changing to another machine, I was able to work the system.
Then I found the problem, that turned me towards buying a ticket from a person. Although, I was using the machine in English, the place names were still in Swedish. How many of those who speak English as a first language, know how to spell Copenhagen in Swedish.
I’ve always felt that every town or city, should only have one name and those that live there should choose it. That way, we would probably all know the town names that didn’t confuse.
What’s Wrong With A Large Map?
London, in common with many other cities, puts their city rail network on a large clear map.
Stockholm’s Interactive Metro Map
Stockholm Metro tries to be different and uses an interactive video map, which admittedly has other functions, but I found very difficult, as the station names were small. The information on the platforms is rudimentary, with no local maps or even a linear map of the line, which most metro systems seem to have.
Information On The Platform
But the two things, I found most annoying about the Stockholm Metro, was that all stations are labelled with large T’s and my tourist ticket had to be shown to the ticket office every time I entered the system.
I know the T stands for something like Tunnel-bahn, but most countries seem to use either M, U or as in London’s case, have a symbol recognisable all over the world.
My daily ticket, that I bought from the Tourist Office is being replaced, but it would have been so much better to have an electronic ticket, that most countries seem to have.
The Anonymous Widower 