Meeting Your Trip in ODENSE or FREDERICIA — 2009

On this page, you will find information about meeting your trip. Topics include...

We suggest that you print these pages out, and bring a copy with you to your trip.


When and Where:
Unless you have our “Daily” Baggage Transfer service, you will meet us at our usual Odense hotel (the one on your trip itinerary — we stop in Odense about half way through the trip), at 9a on the trip’s start date, or later by prior arrangement (to accommodate those arriving in Copenhagen the same day via inter-continental flights).  This is the meeting point even if you have not spent the night in Odense!

Odense is a mid-sized town on the island of Fyn, a 90-minute train ride from Copenhagen.

If you have our “Daily” Baggage Transfer service, you will instead meet your group in Fredericia, another 30 minutes to the west on the same train.  Look to the right as you come out the front door of the station.   We will be fiddling with bikes somewhere in that parking lot....

You will depart Odense / Fredericia by bicycle.  You thus have the issue of changing into your cycle clothes.  If you have spent the previous night in Odense, we suggest that you come down to breakfast dressed for cycling.  If you are arriving by train on the trip departure morning, here is a hint:  the bathroom on the train is probably cleaner than the one in the station :-(

If you are having us move your luggage, please have it ready for shipment when you arrive at the meeting, whichever meeting you are targeting.  The whole group must wait until the Coordinator has dealt with the baggage in one way or another, and neither they nor you will find the spectacle of your re-packing in a parking lot very entertaining. 



Included in Your Access Package, if you subscribed to it:
A train ticket to Odense or Fredericia, a seat reservation on any train which requires it, and a detailed timetable of the train for which you are reserved, if applicable.

Travel Documents will have been sent to you at home, prior to your departure, unless you are arriving via Paris.  In that case, they will be supplied by our Paris office (opening hours).  You will receive either a train ticket, or a railpass with accompanying explanation regarding its use, and a schedule for the train that you have reserved.



Getting to the Trip
The following routings are described. You may follow the link to jump directly to yours, or just scroll down.


From Copenhagen, or Copenhagen’s Kastrup Airport
Express trains run every half hour from downtown Copenhagen to Odense (on the hour and on the half — there is actually an additional, faster service at 10” before the hour), every hour from Kastrup Airport.   Trip time from downtown is 90 minutes, add 20 from Kastrup.  Fredericia trains operate from downtown on the hour (plus the fast one, 10 minutes prior).

The Kastrup train also serves downtown.   That means:   it first goes downtown, to the main Copenhagen station, and then continues to Odense and Fredericia.   If you just miss a train out of Kastrup, you may take a shuttle train to downtown, and catch one of the other services to Odense.

While seat reservations are not required on Sunday morning services, these trains are often standing-room-only as they depart Copenhagen.   Seat reservations can be made at any time up until train departure for 20 Danish Crowns, about $4 US / 2.5€ at current exchange rates.



From Arhus
Express trains run hourly, no reservations are necessary.



From Esbjerg
Express trains run hourly, no reservations are necessary.


From the Rest of Continental Europe
If you are coming from the south, you will almost certainly be on the overnight train with your coordinator.  Branches of this train come from Switzerland, from Bavaria (Munich), and from Köln (connections from Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam).  Your coordinator will typically be on the Köln section, as will the bikes.  This train has a pleasant bistro car for a light evening meal, or a breakfast beer.  Why not?  Everyone else is having one.



Practical Information

About Odense
A very pretty place, and the town center has lots of charm.  If your Saturday night hotel is here, exploration is easy: anything you would want to see is within walking distance.

If you arrive only on Sunday morning, and immediately depart, don’t be frustrated:   we return here later in the trip.

Finding Your Hotel, if You are Spending Saturday Night in Odense
The hotel we most commonly use, the “Dormir,” is a short walk from the station.  Turn right on the street in front of the station and follow it for two long blocks (three blocks if you count the pedestrian crossing as a “block”).  Turn left onto HANS TAUSENS GADE.  The hotel is just ahead, on the right.

About Shipping Your Luggage
If you are having us transfer luggage for you, either through the trip, or just one-way to the end, please have it ready to go when you meet your coodinator.  Though it probably does not need to be said, “ready to go” does not mean “I just have to get my bike clothes out, and change, and put my other clothes in, and do I really need this? and if not can I put it in my transfer bag, and....”  It takes your coordinator a while to deal with the luggage, and everyone is held up while s/he does so.   If they are additionally held up while you repack, it will make for a long, boring and cranky start to the day.