Gothenburg - Frederikshavn - Aalborg

When I booked flights to Gothenburg either side of the Aalborg-Celtic match, it appeared quite simple to make the trip over to Denmark by ferry and train/bus. Nearer the time I tried to find out a bit more about times and prices for the trip, needing to know I'd be down in Aalborg with time to find a ticket somewhere. I couldn't find much, in fact it was only after Google threw up this blog that I found any proof of a train line here at all.

But Top Fixer, Copenhagen-er Christine Scoot of WorldSkills put me right, sending me on these links for the trains and the boats (here's another good one.) To somebody else looking up a similar trip this may be of some use, in the same way I was pleased to discover news of the existence of trains in Jutland from the blog above. Anyway, in the end, it was a simple trip.

Boats to Frederikshavn from Gothenburg usually go four times a day, at 08:00, 09:30, 16:00 and 18:45. The terminal is along the Andreegatan main road to the west of the city centre, a few blocks north-west of the Haga district. I was staying in a hostel close by, and went down the day before to buy a return ticket in the terminal. This cost €47, 155SEK each way as a foot passenger and some other booking fees on top. Shortly after 7am the next morning I was back for the first boat of the day.



The crossing takes around three and a half hours; I was in Frederikshavn before midday.


The train and bus terminal are a five minute walk from the ferry terminal here, and I soon had my feet up on a train down to Aalborg (60km away). A return ticket cost me 135DKK - approx €19. I got the InterCity train for Copenhagen; there are also other trains that run Frederikshavn-Aalborg, and it appeared there were one or two trains for Aalborg every hour. Frederikshavn is the starting point on this InterCity line; the train reaches Copenhagen around six hours later, stopping in Arhus, Odense and Roskilde along the way. From Copenhagen the same train carries on to the city airport; it would be possible to fly to Copenhagen and catch a train from the airport all the way to Frederikshavn, and why not keep the ball rolling and catch a boat to Gothenburg, if you felt that way inclined.