Neon Neon

Gothenburg has lots of it, because it gets dark so early I would have thought.

Gothenburg views, pt 2

Gothenburg views, pt 1

Back to Sweden

My Frederikshavn hostel had the tightest breakfast schedule I have witnessed in my short travelling career to date. Standing at the desk, handing back my key shortly after the appointed 10am check-out time, I spotted the sign on the door: 'Breakfast, 8:30-9:30'. No room for error there. All was not lost however, and I stepped out into the morning sun, wandering in the general direction of the ferry terminal. 10 minutes later I passed a small cafe on the town centre's main street, Danmarksgade. It was called The Farmor's [sic] Fast Food Cafe, and there was a rattling, hanging sign outside: 'Brunch, 7.90KR'. I quickly reckoned that this'd do me just fine, marched hopefully in, and ordered said Brunch. And after some coffee, orange juice and a solemn gaze through that morning's Football pages, this appeared in front of me:


Half an hour later, full up and happy I was on my way again to the boat. It was a new experience for me to be able to walk up to a ferry and check in as a foot passenger as easily as it was either side of this crossing. No arduous, ungodly 8-hour car journeys from Dartford to Holyhead or Fishguard to come over to Ireland here; the variety my Dad so enjoyed subjecting us to when we were kids. The simplicity of being able to leave one hostel, walk down the road and get on the ferry to Denmark, and then do the same thing the next day to return to Sweden was a new one for me. Not a traffic jam or stomach-churning motorway service breakfast in sight.


It didn't look like there was anyone about when I first arrived, but I was able to catch the 11:50 sailing back to Gothenburg, which got in at 15:15. There are usually three other daily crossings to Gothenburg from Frederikshavn - 14:30, 20:00 and 22:45 - and the trip takes around three and a half hours.

Aab Aalborg vs Celtic

I was really lucky to get along to the game due to the size of the Energi Nord Arena, Aab's home ground. The crowd on the night was less than 13,000; a sell-out supposedly although there were a lot of empty seats scattered about the ground. The travelling Celtic support had only been allocated 600 tickets in the corner of one of the small stands behind the goal, the stadium as long as it was wide. Local touts hanging around the pubs were offering tickets for 1000DKK a throw, about €140 - hence all those seats with no-one in them.


Ticket and programme from the game - they don't make them like they used to.



It all went wrong, yet again, for Celtic as it appeared an elusive away win in the Champions League was on the cards. Leaving the ground after the game, it seemed like the Danish supporters couldn't believe the way the game ended either. As a result of the win Aab stick around in the UEFA Cup while Celtic are sent packing from Europe this year, back to domestic football with the small matter of a winning a fourth consecutive league title to see to.

Newspapers from Frederikshavn the next day:

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.

Trip to Gothenburg

I spent a few days in Sweden and Denmark last week. I stayed three nights in Gothenburg, and went across the water another day where I visited Frederikshavn and Aalborg.

I found a cheap return flight to Gothenburg quite a while ago; I went ahead and booked it with the goal of getting to the Champions League match between Aab Aalborg and Celtic in Denmark last Tuesday night.

I left for Sweden last Sunday, a year to the day that I returned from working at the WorldSkills competition in Japan. Since that trip, I've done very well... thanks mainly to an inter-rail ticket in the summer I have travelled in and around the following countries: Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Poland and Holland. Sweden and Denmark are another two to add to my list, England and Scotland too if I wanted to be.....


I am still working on a site where I can collect together all the things I picked up on over the summer months; there's a lot of it. In the meantime a few bits and pieces can be found under the 'Travel' label, here.