Wednesday 20 June Travel Odense to Kalmar

We checked out in good time to get the 0815 train to Copenhagen . It was delayed following a train into the tunnel to Zealand.  We had a wait of over an hour in the first class lounge in Copenhagen - very pleasant.  We had reserved seats on the SJ train X2000 which left 12 minutes late and lost our path - signal problems and left Copenhagen under what seemed like a 564 order.

Train to Stockholm at Copenhagen.  The X2000 must be 20 years old now

 Things were better after the airport and the bridge to Malmo, Sweden.  The last time I came this way the train was put on a ferry to Sweden.  Things were better that is until we had a loss of power and an emergency brake application just after leaving Malmo.  I just hate it when the brakes go on hard and stay on until the train has completely stopped.  The engineer has lost control of the brake.  The last time I experienced this was in the Channel Tunnel and the time before that on the Thurso Railway when a log fell down between two cars and parted the brake pipe.

We were about 25 minutes late into Alvesta where SJ had held our train to Kalmar.   This was very much a local train made up of old cars that bounced around on the curves.  However, the first class was fine and we were in no hurry anyway.  At a place in the bush it was announced that we were going to wait 20 minutes for a train coming in from Kalmar.  Lots of people piled off for a smoke break and I walked up to take a picture of the engine.

Waiting for the meet

We had to do something while we were waiting.

 The announcements were made only in Swedish but were translated for us by a delightful man who lived in Goteborg but traveled this way to his cottage.  He was very loquacious - we realized, after he had left to catch a bus at a stop close to Kalmar, that he had consumed four cans of beer on this train alone. First impression of Swedish Railways are that they are unkempt, using old and out of date equipment.  The station work is sloppy.

We finished up almost 30 minutes late but the hotel is only a couple of minutes walk from the station.

This evening we had a walk around the town and ate fish and chips with a local beer.  The beer was pretty good but quite heavily hopped.