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Early Start, Late Trains

Early Start, Late Trains

Published on 19 June 2026 
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If you want to read about this trip from start to finish, instead of in reverse order, click here!

Taking trains through Germany is always a bit of a gamble nowadays. To improve my chances of getting home the same day, I planned quite an early start. But not as early as it eventually started… 

The train I originally booked was supposed to leave from Copenhagen at 8h22, which was already quite early for my doing. But some weeks ago I received a message: my booked train would leave even earlier, at 7h39, so bye bye breakfast plans! I knew the DSB Lounge København wouldn’t have any food, so breakfast on the train it would be then! I even had to get one myself before departure, since there was no restaurant or cafe car on the DSB train to Hamburg. 

While I planned sufficient time for my transfer, as soon as my obligation to only use booked trains—Zugbindung—was lifted, I also booked a seat on an earlier train, just in case… I would have missed that train, if it wouldn’t have been delayed even more than the train I came in on! 

There wás a restaurant car on my ICE to Köln Hbf, but no-one ever came by to take orders, and when I headed to the restaurant get something myself, the queue was so long I couldn’t even see the end of it! 

Funny story—but not really—during a long, unplanned stop in Osnabrück Hbf, the later ICE I was supposed to be on, pulled up at the platform right next to us… My train still arrived in Köln quite a bit earlier, though!

They eventually did come around to take food orders, so a little after five o’clock, I finally had some Bratwurst for lunch! 

While arrival and departure times in Köln kept playing leapfrog for a while, in the end there was a comfortably gap between arrival of the train from Hamburg, and departure of my trusty ICE 10 to Brussels Midi. We left 33 minutes late, but at least I was on it, for the last stretch home! 

And that marks the end of another trip!

C-C-C-Copenhagen 

C-C-C-Copenhagen 

Published on 19 June 2026

The last full day of my trip! And it has everything: croissants, a castle, a Copenhagen museum, a craft brewery, coffee, crunchy onions, and crisp beers…

Since there didn’t seem to be any nice breakfast places nearby, the prospect of enjoying a croissant while seeing the city from the tenth floor, and a rather strict schedule in the morning, I had my breakfast in my WakeUp Copenhagen hotel. 

The strict schedule was enforced upon me by my Rosenborg Slot ticket: whereas all other tickets I bought in advance just specified the day, for this one I had to pick a specific ten minute slot, and risk being refused entry if missed… It was worth the hassle though, because the castle was a lot more connected to Danish royalty than I realised, and some of the items on display are still occasionally being used by them! 

The time-sensitive part over, I could relax with coffee at La Cabra, and a standing lunch with a spicy grillmedister hot dog from one of the Den Økologiske Pølsemand stalls. 

I then headed to Københavns Museum, a museum I somehow only noticed the day before as I passed it on my way to another museum, but was definitely worth a visit. 

Back in the centre, I checked out the Torvehallerne. I already knew the Mikkeller & Friends Bottle Shop would be there, but I also seized the opportunity to have frikadelle smørrebrød at Hallernes Smørrebrød. 

My brewery of the day was BRUS, where To Øl CPH has a small brewkit, and a lot of nice beers brewed right there, or wherever To Øl brews in bigger volumes. 

Too Old To Die Young was just a five minute walk from there. While it still exists as a brand, the bar didn’t really have a connection to any brewery, or at least not anymore, so they explained to me.

Then it was time to solve the mystery of the Koelschip, or is it the Mikkeller & Friends bar? Well, it’s still not any clearer, but I received a stamp for each in my Mikkeller Passport, and was able to claim my first free beer here. 

A quick coffee and a sweet snack at Coffee Collective, but across the street I noticed a craft beer bar I had not heard of yet: Haven. Well, I had to pop in there as well, of course!

My last beer stop in Copenhagen was Peders, another atmospheric basement bar. Since the next day would start way too early, I then called it a night. 

Danmark!

Danmark!

Published on 17 June 2026

A new day, a new country! Well, actually Danmark was the only one of the Scandinavian countries I had actually been before, although I didn’t see much of it, and I definitely didn’t try the craft beer bars then…

But before I even got there, I still had a couple of hours to go on the MS Nordic Crown. Since the sun rises quite early that far north, so did I, and before eight, I was already enjoying the very extensive breakfast buffet, again in the Kull restaurant. 

Since I had already packed my bag, I had plenty of time to observe the arrival process. It certainly seems to be precision work!

Finally back on land, I hopped on the train for a couple of minutes to get to my hotel. To my delight, Wakeup Copenhagen already had a room ready for me. That meant I wouldn’t have to come back to check in, saving me quite a lot of time.

Just down the street was one of many Original Coffee outlets, which satisfied my coffee needs for the morning. 

Then it was just another short walk to the National Museum of Denmark. There I learned that Danmark once was quite a bit more imperialistic than I ever realised. 

After a coffee and a rye bread smørrebrød with chicken at Sonny, I headed all the way to Mikkeller Baghaven, which was not even on my original itinerary, because it was quite far…

A bus and a metro—with a light show in the station—then brought me back to another hip part of town, for a coffee at Prolog Coffee Bar. 

Just around the corner was Fermentoren, an awesome, quirky beer bar I would love to have in my neighbourhood. 

But I really had to go to Warpigs Brewpub for at least some of their locally brewed beers, and some of their Piggy Poppers.  

For a proper dinner I went to Chicky Grill, where I had Flæskesteg (roast pork). Love a bit of pork crackling!

After that I was up for a few more beers: one at Mikkeller Bar Viktoriagade—they didn’t have more than one that appealed to me on the menu anyway, but I did get my stamp—and a few more at the half-in-Tivoli-embedded Anarkist Bar. 

One more…

One more…

Published on 16 June 2026

A last half day in Oslo, before setting sail to Copenhagen… That’s just enough time for one more museum, one more coffee, one more Norwegian lunch, and one more Norwegian beer bar! 

Like any day, it started with breakfast. This time I went to Rent Mel, so well integrated in the hotel, it not only gave a discount, but it even had an entrance to it from within the hotel lobby! 

The museum of the day was the Historisk Museum. While the highly recommended The Viking Ship Museum Museum of the Viking Age is closed for renovations until 2027, some of its artefacts found a home here, for now. 

For lunch today I finally—since apparently they are closed on Mondays—made it into the Mathallen. First, coffee at Solberg & Hansen. Then, the Tipsy Moose Burger at Helt Vilt. To finish, a last Norwegian beer at Hopyard, which according to Untappd—Here Come the Vikings!—was exactly the 150th Norwegian beer I ever had. 

Then it was time to check out of my hotel, an into my Go Nordic ship for the night, the MS Nordic Crown. I was welcomed in my Commodore Class cabin with some bubbly, and after the ship set sail, I headed to the aft deck bar for some Svaneke beers, and to enjoy the views of Oslo disappearing in the distance…

Soon it was time for my pre-booked dinner in restaurant Kull. On a table near the window, I enjoyed my Duroc spare ribs with Nordic BBQ sauce and chips, and my selection of Nordic cheeses. 

After dinner I had one beer in the Anker pub where there was a musician playing, but the main show was outside: a sunset at sea…

An Oslo Odyssey

An Oslo Odyssey

Published on 15 June 2026

Time for some history and some more culinary discoveries today! And for the last time this trip, a run… 

There was no breakfast served in the hotel, but in same building there were a couple of options available. My first morning in Oslo proper, I went to Spor av Nord, for an egg salad sandwich and a kardemommebolle. 

Then I was off to the Norsk Folkemuseum. Like Bokrijk in Belgium, it’s an open-air museum, filled with buildings from all over the country, taken apart at their original location, and carefully put together again in their new home, thus saving them for posterity. 

Back in the city centre, it was time to try some of that famous brown cheese—brunost—and apparently it is quite good on a waffle. So I went to Haralds Vaffel, and asked for the ‘superclassic vaffel’. Not bad at all! 

Tim Wendelboe is a well-known name in the coffee world apparently, so obviously I had to have a coffee there!

And since just the waffle was not quite enough to be considered a whole lunch, I also stopped at Syverkiosken for a pølse med lompe, a hotdog in a potato flatbread.

Before my last run, I still had time to try two more bars: Brygg Oslo and Café Fiasco. 

But then I really had to get back to the hotel, change into my running kilt for the last time this trip, and catch a tram to the run start. Since it was Oslo H3’s run 2001, it took inspiration from the famous Kubrick film, and was titled “A Hash Odyssey!” We were very lucky with the weather this time, and had some great views over the water.