Our trip to Copenhagen began with a tram to Amsterdam Centraal Station where we caught a train to Hamburg. The distances from Amsterdam to Hamburg to Copenhagen appear short on the map, but they are not—by rail are almost 12 hours with Hamburg only half way.

The start of the trip was a little hectic. We had reserved seats but somebody was sitting in them, Everybody was just sitting anywhere. Since the train was not crowded, nobody seem to care.

We changed trains at Hanover, a major junction where many people were waiting for connections. Apparently a previous train to Hamburg had been canceled, leaving a train-load of all people anxious to be on our scheduled train. The Hamburg arrived late, a rush ensued. People were crowding anywhere they could get on. Luggage was stacked everywhere it should not be. It was equal opportunity train mashup.

Since we were unable to get to our reserved seats, so we stood up most of the final leg of the trip. A chatty woman going to Hamburg to visit her ailing partner found a seat for Becky for a part of the trip.

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is an impressive edifice and example of gigantic train stations across Europe. All 12 tracks handle trains coming and going from early to midnight. I thought maybe 20,000 people traveled through Hamburg per day. Becky looked the number up; I missed it a little. Approximately 720 trains move up to 450,000 travelers per day, making Hamburg one of the most frequented passenger railway stations in Germany.

The Continental Hotel was across the street from the station. We asked for directions because we had exited the wrong door from the station which was two city blocks long . The hotel is in the photographs—not the large fancy one— but the small one labeled Continental to its right. Our room was on the 6th floor which had a separate elevator—penthouse at last. Not really, but the room was clean with a good bed, hot water, and a balcony.

After standing for most of two hours, our legs and backs were exhausted. As soon as we checked into the hotel, we checked out for 4 hours of deep sleep. I woke at 7:30 pm and went foraging in the Wanderhallen food court that serves thousands of train travelers. Subway is there, Dunkin Donuts is there—along with every possible ethnic food choice. The Middle Eastern cafe had the freshest looking food and best prices: a vegetarian plate with halloumi for Becky and a chicken shawarma (like a gyro) for me.

Repacking for the journey to Copenhagen was the evening’s task. We were up at 6:00, buffet breakfast, 7:00 in the hotel, and at the station by 8:00. We were determined to claim our reserved seats for this five hour trip: 104 and 107 in Coach 8.

If you do not claim seats, people sit in them, and you have to convince them that they are in your seats. After standing yesterday, we were willing to make people move so we could have seats. Standing up from Hamburg to Copenhagen would not be fun.

The train was on time, there was not a crush of people. We found our correct seats and settled down for 5 scheduled hours to Copenhagen, which turned into 6 due to track maintenance work and some other problems with train schedules. The train arrived in København, and we were ready to enjoy Danish wonders.