Berlin to Odense - 27th July

Breakfast eaten, bags packed and ready to go by 8am for a travel day.

It was scheduled to be a full on day, moving across Germany and then north into Denmark, but not sure we could have planned it any better.

Walked to the nearest S bahn station, quick nip to the main station in plenty of time for the ICE over to Hamburg main station, where we had passed through yesterday.

From Hamburg main station it should have been a single train all the way here, but there's some major works, so part of it has a replacement bus service. We knew about that, and Alex had it in his plan.

What we didn't expect was the train to Odense wasn't going from the main Hamburg station, but Altona station, a 20 minute subway ride!

Mad panic, rush and we got to Altona to find the train has actually been cancelled, so the tickets and reservation were no good.

Spoke to someone who said we could get another local train to Neumunster, change there for a train to Schleswig, grab a third train to Fredericia where we could pick up the replacement bus.

Of course everyone else who wanted to get to a similar place had the same information, so the trains were absolutely packed. Having run to catch the train, we sat on it for 20 minutes until someone came onto the loud speaker and made an announcement. We did not really understand what was said but given the chaos that ensued, we assumed it was not good news. Everyone crossed the platform and got on another train so we followed suit and waited for the next announcement which we roughly translated as "if you are trying to go to Frenberg, this is not the right train". So we got off the train and asked someone only to be told to get back on. The train left and we still had no idea where we're heading but then a really helpful conductor came around and asked everyone individually where they were going and then told them how to get there. Now knowing the route that we had to follow, we got off at the right station but apparently so had everyone else. There was no place to stand on the platform as it was so packed but we managed to squeeze in. Then came another announcement "the next train to Frenberg is delayed by 20 minutes"! Then another train full of people pulled in and they all tried to also get off their train but by this point, there really was no platform left. Because we were some if the last people to arrive, it meant we were right at the front of the platform when it train finally did pull on though and we got in first. After that, it was pretty plain sailing - another train, then a bus. The first one we sat on the stairs, the second we were split up but got seats and the third we sat in the doorway and stood up.

The replacement bus did give us a seat and was a nice change to all of the recent trains.

A short walk and we're at the next place to stay, a small b&b, so have 2 rooms. They're in the grounds of the house, look like they're in a converted garage but really well appointed.