Chasing Shiny Pennies

Today (April 17th). Yep. Still behind. I’m aware. My planning is caught up though. We’re locked in for the duration. The short and overnight stays are behind us and we’ve got longer stays until we leave. I plan on this being my last post and I’ll just add to it occasionally after I’ve caught you up. We’ve only got one more location change between now and the 30th.

Leaving Pau, the goal was to get to Gothenburg, Sweden. The best that was on offer at Eurail was a 25 1/2 hour, 4 transfer ordeal. I opted for planning our own.

4 1/2 hour train to Paris. Overnight stay (sounding romantic already isn’t it? [settle down, we’re both wearing 1 of 2 outfits we came with and neither has been washed with any regularity]). Early morning train to Brussels. 1/2 hour transfer to a 6ish hour ride to Hamburg-Harburg, a short trip to Hamburg Hbf. Overnight stay in Hamburg. 5ish hour ride to Copenhagen (I’ll say here that we could have just parked. We’ve got seats out on a plane……Copenhagen to Austin in 3 weeks. But you know…….), 1/2 hour transfer to a 4 hour ride to Gothenburg, Sweden. Scoooooooooore.

That was the PLAN.

One adapts. Darwin. Everything was smooth as silk to Brussels. We had our train out. We had our seats. We were set. Then everyone started offloading. So we did also.

The train was “broken”. Liz discerned that from overheard conversations. I was looking at a platform full of displaced passengers and wondering how quickly the “broken” train would be pushed out of the way. Other platforms had trains loading and unloading. I wasn’t hopeful about the prospects. I knew there was a train leaving on the same route in an hour. I told Liz, “Let’s switch trains; before all these other people have the same idea.”. So we hotfooted it down to the ticket office.

The Eurail Pass is really great for that. Switching plans is very easy.

The train I wanted required reservations. I’ll just leave it there…..

We booked on a train that didn’t require reservations. There are two types; one is “seat reservations optional”, the other is “seat reservations optional, but recommended”. They may be “optional” or “recommended”, it doesn’t matter……they’re not available. The same guy controls them all and you’re not getting one….unless you know the janitor. We rolled the dice.

We boarded our train and scored a couple of seats. Then settled back to watch, in dread, as other passengers walked by, inspecting their phones and the seat numbers. There was a young family that had clearly been through this before. They weren’t even sitting down, well the young kids were, but mom and dad just stood and waited as people passed, looking for their seats. Dad didn’t even take his backpack off. Then another guy sat down across the aisle from us. He had also been through the same ordeal. Finally, the stream of boarding passengers slowed to a trickle and then stopped. The family settled in, we breathed a sigh of relief, and the train pulled out.

We made it to Hamburg, found our hotel, dumped our stuff, and went back to the train station. The train we were taking to Copenhagen in the morning required reservations. The Eurail app wouldn’t let me make them. I had tried when I booked the trip. I had asked at every train station we had been in since booking the trip. Strasbourg, Montpellier, Paris, Brussels….the answer was always the same…”I can’t make that reservation here.”. So we went to the Hamburg station, where we would depart from….to see if we could secure the required reservations.

We located the Ticket Office (we’d become very adept at finding them despite them being squirreled away in out of the way places). I approached the agent, showed her my phone with the train number and asked if I could get seat reservations. She looked at my phone and said…”Why do you need seat reservations? I’ve never heard of that. I can’t make seat reservations.” I asked who could. She pointed her thumb over her shoulder and printed a number out for me; and without another word, I was dismissed.

So I took my numbered slip of paper back behind the curtain (cubicle divider) in hopes of meeting the Great Oz (or at least the janitor). At a minimum I was going to score us a delicious slab of round steak.

The agent looked at my phone and got us on the next day’s train to Copenhagen. The other was a no go. He was a bit bemused when I started crying and thanked him profusely and told him how many places I’d tried to get the seats. Then we went and had dinner.

The next morning we caught the train. The young family that had been on the Brussels to Hamburg leg sat across from us and we got to know them a little. He was Canadian, she was Swedish. They’d met when he was studying and then working in Sweden. We changed trains in Copenhagen and headed to Gothenburg.

We found our stay, decided that it hadn’t been cleaned before we arrived, dropped our stuff and went in search of food. Before we found food, my message to the host was answered and we were reassigned an apartment. Airbnb has gone corporate. Bummer. I met some great folks on my first trip to Europe using Airbnb. We’ve met some great folks on this trip using Airbnb. But it seems as if it’s become a corporate and investor driven enterprise.

Anyway, we went back, transferred our bags then went back out in search of sustenance. We found it, ate, drank, and made merry.

I’ll say this, a little soon maybe, but I can amend if needed, of all the places we’ve been, 2 stand out as beer brewers. The whole of Ireland makes a nice IPA. Gothenburg, Sweden produces a wide selection of very, very drinkable IPA’s. Everywhere else has just been typical beer. France, though, makes this drink that is beer and a liqueur that’s interesting. Picon. We’re in Stockholm at the moment. There’s nothing here that I had in Gothenburg and nothing that compares.

I’m looking forward to what Copenhagen has in store.

Today marked one week remaining in our sojourn. We’ve moved to Copenhagen and we’re here for the duration. Stockholm was nice, but we didn’t do a lot. Rain and cold was the theme for the bulk of our stay. We did find the largest grocery store of our trip there…in the metro station. So there’s that….. Ah, memories….

So, let’s do randomness. An unordered recount of our trip. Observations with no anchor. There’ll be no clarity from here on out.

The best hard sausage you’ll ever eat is available in Montpellier, France (Spanish chorizo competes though). I can draw you a map. If you go, I’ll need you to check on my photograph. You can get excellent (and not so excellent) olives next door.

There are great pears available here. You know how the ones in the US are either flavorless rocks or delicious mush? These are a delightful in between. Firm and flavorful. I don’t remember where we discovered them though…so no map.

Someone should do a study on wandering. There’s something freeing about just putting one foot in front of the other. With no destination. No expectations. No time. Whims rule the day. I love the metros and the trams. They’re time travel in the present.

The Eurail pass is the best thing ever. Get one. Go….wherever.

After having done two extended overseas trips, I think the next will be a park in one place and explore. Outwards. The shotgun approach is fun. The longer stays give you a better feel.

Stinky cheese rules. I will miss it.

The jury is in. Ireland and Gothenburg, Sweden make the best IPA’s. I’m the only member on this jury, though….make you own call.

Driving in Ireland should be part of every driving test. And a boy scout badge.

Today (27th). Yesterday it rained, all day, and was cold. We went to see the Little Mermaid. The statue…not the movie. That was the 26th and has nothing to do with the 27th but that’s all I’ve got for that day. So I tossed it in. Today, though, we went to a food market. We love these things. They’re a combination of a farmers market, a food hall, and a park. There’s nothing green about them…except the lettuce, but they’re community gathering points. Liz asked a couple of times…”How do you capture this?”. She was thinking a picture, or words. I told her, “You can’t, you have to experience it.”. But an idea has come to me while writing this. I’ll get back to you if I can make it work.

Anyway. As we were passing a meat/cheese/olive vendor. I found our sausage. The one from Montpellier….”fleeing iberico”. I was stoked. I bought a stick, despite the fact that we’ll be leaving in 2 days. We’ll eat fast.

It’s like walking the midway at a county fair….but with croissants instead of cotton candy, with sausages rather than corn dogs, with fresh fish instead of stuffed animals.