Planning a trip to Koge
Getting There
By Train -- Take the S-tog extension from Copenhagen, with service every 20 minutes throughout the day (trip time: 35 min.). You can also reach Køge by train from Roskilde (25 min.), and there are also rail links with Næstved (35 min.).
By Bus -- Bus no. 21 departs for Køge frequently from Copenhagen's Central Railroad Station.
By Car -- From Copenhagen, head south along the express highway E47/E55. Motorists from Roskilde can take Route 6, connecting with Route 151 south into the heart of Køge. Parking is available at Torvet (but only for an hour at a time); you'll find less restrictive parking at Havnen, north of the yacht harbor.
Visitor Information
Guided tours of Køge are arranged through the Tourist Office, Vestergade 1 (tel. 56-67-60-01; www.visitkoge.com), open year-round Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm; June to August Saturday hours are 9am to 2pm; off-season, Saturday hours are 10am to 1pm.
Getting Around
By Bicycle -- While at the tourist bureau, you can ask for a free brochure published by the Dansk Cyklist Forbund (Danish Cyclists' Union). It's in English and outlines five biking tours of the nearby area, ranging from a 40km (25-mile) tour that features Vallø Slot, to a 6km (3.75-mile) route that visits the grave of Danish philosopher Nikolai Frederik Grundtvig.
For bike rentals in Køge, contact HH-Cykler, Nørre Blvd. 59 (tel. 56-65-06-10; www.hhcykler.dk), costing DKK75 ($13/£7.50) per day, plus a deposit of DKK450 ($77/£45).
The Great Belt Bridge
Zealand's Link to the Continent
On June 14, 1998, one of the world's largest bridge links opened on the west coast of Zealand near the town of Korsør. Queen Margrethe II was here to cut the ribbon shortly before driving across the 18km-long (11-mile) Great Belt Bridge. After 10 years of construction, Zealand is linked to the mainland of Europe via Funen, which already has a bridge link to Jutland on the mainland. From Jutland, you can drive south into Germany.
The bridge has cut traveling time across the Belt by more than 1 hour compared to the ferries, which ceased operations with the opening of the bridge. At a speed of 105kmph (65 mph), crossing the Great Belt into Funen now takes only 10 minutes. By contrast, crossing by ferry took 1 hour, not including the waiting time at the port and embarkation and disembarkation from the ferries. For crossing the bridge, a one-way fare for a private car costs DKK205 ($35/£21). About 23,000 cars now cross the bridge each day.
The rail link across the Great Belt was opened in 1997, and since then Danish State Railways has seen a 60% rise in passenger volume on trains across the Great Belt.
Besides joining east and west Denmark, the bridge link across the Great Belt represented the first stage of an improved infrastructure between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. The Øresund Fixed Link between Denmark and Sweden opened in 2000, establishing even more vital links between Copenhagen and Malmø, southern Sweden's largest city. With three million people living within a 50km (31-mile) radius of the link, the region has the largest population concentration in Scandinavia.
For more information about the bridge, call tel. 33-93-52-00.
