The newest s-tog in Copenhagen are very state-of-the-art. On my first travel with one of them I just caught myself thinking: Wow, this is Japan! 🙂

Denmark’s capital København [KUR-bn-how-n] is enjoying a renaissance as a European hotspot for travellers who’ve ”got it”. The city has become a kind of ”mini-Berlin” – a colourful place full of street art, alternative modebutikker (fashion shops), cafés and museums. Unfortunately, Copenhagen is (still) a lot more dyr (expensive) than Berlin…

Det er nemt at komme rundt i København. (It is easy to get around in Copenhagen. Notice, BTW, that there are two words for ’easy’ in Danish: nem and let.) The city boasts one of the world’s most evolved systems of offentlig transport (public transportation). You hardly ever have to pay for an expensive taxa (cab, taxi) ride, as most places can be reached by either bus or s-tog/metro.

Once you’ve collected your kuffert (suitcase) at Kastrup Lufthavn (airport, from luft ’air’ + havn ’port, harbour’), it’s time to find yourself a comfortable metro seat. The Copenhagen metro is one of the world’s newest and, so far, smallest. There are only two tracks and it leaves every ten minutes or so, making it really hard to get lost in any way. You buy a billet (ticket) at one of the DSB (Danske Statsbaner – Danish State Railways) skranker (counters). (There’s one at the airport, at the end of the arrival hall.)

If you plan to visit several places, an excellent (and billig, ’cheap’!) option is to buy a klippekort. A klippekort is a ”traveller’s card” with 10 klip or ”punches”. You can buy it for a varying number of zoner (travel zones). Ask at the counter how many zones there are to your destination. (Hvor mange zoner er der til…?) Usually, buying a 2 zoner card is enough to get around in central Copenhagen. (Current price: 150 kroner.) Before entering a bus, metro or s-tog, you simply punch the card in an external automat ([punching] machine). You can punch it several times, if you need to use more zoner.

Where the metro lines end, you can change to an s-tog [ess touw] (metropolitan train). There’s an underground s-togsstation (s-tog station) in every major Copenhagen district. Ask for a free map at the Tourist Information (5 minutes walk from Hovedbanegården – the Central Train Station). Or, even better, ask a Dane! 🙂

Hvordan kommer jeg til… (How do I get to…)
Hvornår kører det næste s-tog til… (When does the next s-tog leave for…)