Delightful Denmark

Sunday Evening, Kolding, Denmark

I must confess that I have been dilatory in completing my diary. Copenhagen was such a rush on Friday and then I set off to Kolding on Saturday. Yesterday, two weeks of travelling finally caught up with me and I took a long afternoon siesta, followed by an early night.

But, batteries recharged, I have had a really good day and have just uploaded my photographs of the past 48 hours.

I hadn’t realised that regular readers of the blog don’t see the attached photographs when the email arrives. To remedy that, just log on to http://mikesouter.blogspot.com/ and you will see the whole thing. To see all of the photographs from the trip, go to http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/MDSouter/MikeSEuropeanRailTrip

I am just a little bit concerned when I reach Copenhagen on Friday when the taxi driver advises me to be careful with my wallet. It turns out that the Tourist Board has booked me into a hotel right in the middle of the red-light district! But the Mayfair Hotel has actually been very nicely refurbished and although the bathroom is not big enough in which to swing a cat, it has the advantage of being able to wash your hands and clean your teeth while sitting on the loo. A nice touch is that they offer guests afternoon tea, which is when I first get a proper eyeful of ´Copenhagen’s ´Legendary Gentlemen’s’ Club’ right across the street.

I haven’t got much time, so set off at a brisk trot to Tivoli Gardens, the Town Hall Square and various other touristic landmarks. The city is busy and has a very continental feel to it. I like the atmosphere very much but have to keep my wits about me to avoid being crushed by criss-crossing bicycles. Amsterdam is the only other European city in which I have experienced bicycle traffic jams. The Tourist Board has kindly given me a Copenhagen Card, so I can whizz around to my heart’s content on the very integrated public transport system. A bus ride takes me to Christianshavn, which my Rough Guide suggests the hippie colony of Christiana is a ‘must-see’ before the authorities finally give it the chop. Even skirting round the edges makes me feel uncomfortable. But the area with its waterways and tourist boats again reminds me of Amsterdam.

In the supermarket to buy a gift for the Danish family who have kindly invited me to dinner, I see folk who make the oddballs in Vienna look pretty normal. Outside, high-school students are gathering in colourful groupings to celebrate the start of the new term. So I pop into Copenhagen’s new Metro both to seek sanctuary and also to try it out. There are only two lines and no drivers; there are plans for a complete new circle line in the future.

At the very modern Fields shopping centre, I again discover just how expensive Denmark has become. In one shop, a teenage male assistant is struggling to gift-wrap a parcel while the queue builds at the till. He is relieved of his wrapping responsibilities by an even younger female member of staff who completes the task with a flourish and a Danish jibe or two at the young lad.

I am met at the Bella Centre Metro stop by Crisanta, my hostess for the evening and her daughter Tiffany. It´s lovely to be welcomed into a Danish home and we have a splendid evening with her husband, two sons and two dogs.

Having been up since 5am, I decide that sleep is a rather better option than the Midnight Tivoli fireworks and Crisanta very kindly drives me back to the hotel where I collapse into the very comfortable bed - without any thoughts whatsoever of a venture across the road!

I have toyed with the idea of nipping across to Sweden to add another train journey to my collection, but decide that it´s a bridge too far and opt for my original plan of the 0918 to Kolding in Jutland.

The train is really busy and I am amused when an elderly lady incurs the wrath of her fellow passengers by using her mobile phone in the quiet carriage. If only that rule was respected in the UK.

In Kolding, I am about to clamber into a taxi when the driver tells me that my destination is actually in the station square. I have stayed at the Saxildhus Hotel many moons ago, but arrived by car and so probably didn’t realise its’ proximity to the station.

Quite clearly the hotel has seen better days. The brochure blurb says ‘furnished in accordance with today’s standards’ but that is complete tosh. It’s clearly not had much money spent on it for years and the place is falling apart. If I was Sir John Harvey-Jones or some other business guru, I’d probably say it can’t survive without a serious cash injection. However, they kindly offer to do my laundry for me, without charge, which is something none of the five star hotels has offered.

I remember Kolding as a pretty and quiet little town, with a great castle. But it´s gone completely to pot. The town is in a disgraceful state. There’s graffiti and litter everywhere, weeds growing out the pavements and an air of teenage rebellion abounds. There’s clearly been a seriously riotous Friday night party and there is broken glass, discarded beer cans and pizza wrappings everywhere. Yet there’s no sign whatsoever of anyone cleaning the place up. The area around the Castle is especially bad and I am appalled. The locals just seem to be getting on with their Saturday lunchtime shopping as if they don’t notice a thing.

Deciding that Kolding has been a bad choice of destination, I set off bright and early on Sunday morning for Esbjerg. Well, my rail pass won’t last forever!

Last night was the climax of Esbjerg’s Festival Week and there is rubbish everywhere. But there’s an army of cleaners sorting it out; although picking all the bits up by long-handled pincers instead of using a machine seems to be a very inefficient way of doing it. The statue of King Christian IX has been completely wrapped in cling-film, either to protect him from damage or maybe it´s some Danish Royal fetish? After the Mosley case, I doubt the News of the World will want to know my revelations.

The impressive 1897 water tower is not open at the advertised 10am, so I repair to the nearby pleasant natural auditorium overlooking the port and have a morale-boosting chat with my friend Carol in Norwich and pass on greetings ´to everyone who knows me´.

Finally, the water tower is open; the young lad at the door is clearly suffering from the excesses of the party last night and looks dreadful. When I finish taking photographs and enjoying the view from the top of the tower, he is nowhere to be seen.

Esbjerg has a lovely feel to it and, with signs to the Harwich Ferry outside the station, East Anglia feels very close. But there’s another train to catch.

I visited Vejle as a Royal Navy cadet in 1971. I’m delighted to find that the train has originated from Hamburg and is the same extremely smart German Railways ICE train I used on Friday. I feel a bit of a fraud getting my free coffee and snack, having just had an apple and carrot (absolutely true) from Danish Railways on the connecting train from Esbjerg.

Vejle is lovely and could teach Kolding a thing or two about smartness. There’s no graffiti and hardly a piece of litter anywhere. I visit the port area, literally on the edge of the town, where HMS Scarborough ´parked´ all those years ago. There’s a lovely walk beside the river back into town, with, on my right, wild flowers, apple trees and reed banks to enjoy. Plus the town sewage works on my left.

I love the splendid Danish design work on the Bryggen shopping centre; unlike Kolding, Vejle seems cared for, with no sign of rebellious youth. Well, it´s maybe a bit early on a Sunday for them to be up and about?

The ICE takes me back to the Kolding and, being a decent chap, I decide to venture back into the town centre to give the local mayor another chance. But he’s blown it. The rubbish is as bad, if not worse, than it was yesterday. But I do visit the excellent Koldinghus castle and marvel at the superb collection of Danish antique silver. In the splendid ‘Ruin Hall’, there’s a special Lego weekend. With the factory just up the road, I am sure they are given as many bricks as they can ever use.

I’ve made the most of my short time in Denmark. It’s a country I really do like a lot. I love the flags on poles fluttering outside the houses and the welcoming candles in the windows.

But I do wonder where all Kolding’s money has gone to let it become such a state?

Tomorrow, the longest daytime journey of my trip. I’ll be travelling for nearly eleven hours to reach Brussels, with changes in Hamburg and Cologne.

Clearly, another early night is required.