August 20th/21st 1973

• “Woke up, got in taxi, got on train, got off train, got in taxi, got on train, got off train, got on boat”
• “Woke up, got off boat, got on train, got off train, got on boat, got off boat, got on train, got off train, got in taxi”

Thanks to a glitch at WordPress, this is the second time I have tried to write this post. My initial post was a free-flowing stream of consciousness concentrating on how, even though this 36+ hour journey from Eastleigh to Copenhagen was somewhat arduous, it was nevertheless quite exciting in its own special way.

I prosed eloquently about the trains, about the overnight boat journey on a Scandinavian Seaways ferry and went into somewhat minute detail about how the train would drive directly onto a ferry to cross the Baltic Sea between Germany and Denmark and how that little part of the journey was always – without exception – my most favourite experience of it all. I waxed lyrically about the food, the sights, the sounds and the smells.

Then, without warning WordPress lost it all, obliterating everything for no reason. In addition, in all the time I had been typing – well over two hours – Wordpress did not do its usual incremental 5-minute back-up “save” process

Meaning I lost everything. Without trying to sound too grand, it was maybe some of the best writing I have done on this blog, matching specific memories (yes, rare) to a set of events I just knew readers would find interesting.

Sadly, I know all too well it’s a waste of time trying to recreate it. Any attempt would be tainted with anger and upset at what happened. So, instead I’ll merely expand a little on my diary’s entries about the travel itinerary necessary to leave home early one morning and arrive at my grandmother’s apartment in the early evening of the following day…

We would
• Get an early morning taxi from home to Eastleigh railway station (one of the rare times my Dad would spend £££’s on a taxi service)
• Catch a train from Eastleigh to London’s Waterloo station
• Get our second taxi of the day from Waterloo to London’s Liverpool Street station
• Catch the Boat train from Liverpool Street to Harwich
• Get on the overnight ferry – staying in a tiny 3-birth cabin – arriving at the Hook of Holland as the sun rose
• Get on the train for Copenhagen – which would travel through Holland (Rotterdam, Utrecht, Amersfoort, Deventer, Oldenzaal) and Germany (Oznabrück,  Bremen,  Hamburg,  Lübeck) reaching Puttgarden just after lunch
• The train would split into sections of 4 or 5 carriages and all the bits would be shunted onto a ferry for the (then) necessary crossing across the Baltic Sea
• The ferry would arrive in Rødby in Denmark 90 minutes later where the train would be hauled off the ferry, put back together and returned to its tracks for the rest of its journey (Naestved,  Hungsted,  Roskilde) to Copenhagen.
• The final taxi ride to take us from the (gorgeous) Copenhagen central station to my Mormor’s flat out on Amager Island.

To be honest, this post is so awfully dull in comparison to the one I intially composed I feel as if I should apologise for it. Sorry.

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