This post is written by Katie about her journey by train from Berlin to Hamburg on the way to Copenhagen.

I used the +city feature on my train ticket from Berlin to Hamburg to take the S-bahn from the end of the walking tour to Berlin Sudkreuz.

I had left my backpacks in the smallest left luggage lockers at Berlin Sudkreuz, so I went to reclaim them.  Then I made my way to track 6.  I arrived at the track about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure, so I had plenty of time to look at the train map and move towards zone F to board.

The EC train arrived about 1 minute after the scheduled departure.  I saw that all of the 2nd class cars except the last car had compartment seating.  So I was very happy to be boarding at the last car!

Seating in EC 174 to Hamburg.  Normal, comfortable seats like what you would find on an ICE.

The last car was really crowded though – there were very few empty seats.  I managed to find a seat, but it was in a row for ‘express reservations’.  I knew I did not want this seat for the entire journey – since I could be kicked out if someone decided to reserve the seat at the station.  Luckily many people exited at Berlin Hbf so I was able to switch to an unreserved row before new people boarded.

Leaving Berlin Hbf, my car was about 70% full.  We stopped at one final Berlin station, which the train became about 80% full.  There was still luckily an empty seat next to me.  However, when we stopped at Wittenberge, no one exited but many people boarded.  A guy sat in the seat next to me, and then proceeded to try to push past the arm rest while we both tried to work on our laptops.  His laptop was smaller, so he really had no excuse!  Luckily, he fell asleep quickly.

Besides a few kids running around the train car, it was pretty quiet in our cabin.  We reached Hamburg Hbf on time.