Copenhagen
Bizarre Train Story
09.03.11 Filed in: Travel
After a successful business meeting, my colleague and I went back to „Copenhagen H”, the central train station, to catch the train to the airport.
We checked the electronic billboard, the next train would be at 12:41h on platform 5. Down to platform 5 we went. Sure enough, the monitor on that platform indicated the same thing. Unfortunately, the monitor displayed some other, later train just a few minutes into the wait. There was some announcement, which the locals apparently understood better than us foreign folk, because quite a few folks went back up the escalator, apparently to change to another platform.
We rode the escalator up as well and checked the electronic sign right next to the entrance to the platform. It now showed the train to the airport to be leaving from platform 26. This was quite a walk - strangely down the same platform we had just left. So back down we went, and we started following the signs to platform 26.
We ended up going up an elevator (that played eerie, cut-off pieces of marching music), over to the next elevator and back down (more eerie music). There we were - at platform 26 (it felt more like platform 26 1/2) - and all alone. The color monitor on the platform did indicate that this was the right one to the airport, so we waited. According to the printed timetable (without platform numbers, mind you), the next train would leave at 13:01h. Fine.
The weather had turned quite soggy and cold, so we stood under a small, roofed waiting area. The departure time came and went, we felt like someone would be hiding behind some pillar for Candid Camera. The next train was due at 13:21h, so we went the same way back that we had come (eerie music and - yes, you guessed it - eerie music).
Once back down on platform 5, we were happy to see that the 13:21h train to the airport was expected to leave on that platform (as per the monitor). Unfortunately, de-ja-vous hit when, just a few minutes before the train was due to leave, the display once again changed. No announcement this time.
This time, however, we had located a monitor that showed a list of the next trains to leave the station, and here, the train to the airport had now changed to platform 4. Up the escalator we went, down the next (it was more like running), and just as we got to the bottom of the escalator, the train to the airport entered the station.
It is good to see that this stuff happens in other countries as well, though I would have preferred not to participate in the little spiel.
We checked the electronic billboard, the next train would be at 12:41h on platform 5. Down to platform 5 we went. Sure enough, the monitor on that platform indicated the same thing. Unfortunately, the monitor displayed some other, later train just a few minutes into the wait. There was some announcement, which the locals apparently understood better than us foreign folk, because quite a few folks went back up the escalator, apparently to change to another platform.
We rode the escalator up as well and checked the electronic sign right next to the entrance to the platform. It now showed the train to the airport to be leaving from platform 26. This was quite a walk - strangely down the same platform we had just left. So back down we went, and we started following the signs to platform 26.
We ended up going up an elevator (that played eerie, cut-off pieces of marching music), over to the next elevator and back down (more eerie music). There we were - at platform 26 (it felt more like platform 26 1/2) - and all alone. The color monitor on the platform did indicate that this was the right one to the airport, so we waited. According to the printed timetable (without platform numbers, mind you), the next train would leave at 13:01h. Fine.
The weather had turned quite soggy and cold, so we stood under a small, roofed waiting area. The departure time came and went, we felt like someone would be hiding behind some pillar for Candid Camera. The next train was due at 13:21h, so we went the same way back that we had come (eerie music and - yes, you guessed it - eerie music).
Once back down on platform 5, we were happy to see that the 13:21h train to the airport was expected to leave on that platform (as per the monitor). Unfortunately, de-ja-vous hit when, just a few minutes before the train was due to leave, the display once again changed. No announcement this time.
This time, however, we had located a monitor that showed a list of the next trains to leave the station, and here, the train to the airport had now changed to platform 4. Up the escalator we went, down the next (it was more like running), and just as we got to the bottom of the escalator, the train to the airport entered the station.
It is good to see that this stuff happens in other countries as well, though I would have preferred not to participate in the little spiel.
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