Day 15

Off to Malmo today.  It’s about -5 degrees and snowing slightly – perfect sightseeing weather!  Getting to Malmo from Landskrona is a piece of cake.  Bus to the train station (same one I catch to work), then 30 minute train ride to Malmo’s central station. 

Most of the trains that run through Landskrona station are either heading further north to Gothenburg (second biggest city in Sweden behind Stockholm) or south to Copenhagen, so they’re a bit nicer than our trains in Melbourne.  They have comfortable chairs with adjustable headrests and the they’re grouped in fours (one pair facing forward, one facing back) with little tables in between.  More like v-line than connex.

Arrived at Malmo around 12pm with Jan there waiting.  Took a walk into the city to have a bit of a look around.  The city has a series of man-made canals or channels running through it, with the biggest circling the oldest part of town.  Stopped and had a quick lunch at a little asian take away called ‘China Box’.  Had rice with fried chicken and vegetarian spring rolls with sweet and sour sauce, quality was about what you would expect from a bain-marie.

Headed back to Jan’s car then drove down to see the ‘Turning Torso’, which was built as part of an architectural exhibition back in 2001.  All the houses around the area were also built for this exhibition and now make up one of the most expensive ocean-front suburbs in Malmo, West Harbour.   Reminded me of Docklands in Melbourne, would be beautiful in summer.

 The Turning Torso, Malmo

Drove down to the ‘bath house’, located at the end of a long pier.  This is where crazy people take short dips in the freezing water before jumping back into the sauna.  Apparently Sharon, the lady who wrote the article about me at work, has done it before but you wouldn’t catch me getting in there!

Saw kids ice skating on a frozen canal, some playing ice hockey.  Looked like fun, but no skates for me so headed off.  One more stop at the ‘castle’ (which is now a museum), a drive by the new IKEA (second largest in the world) before making it to Jan’s house. 

Dinner was great, pork and mushroom casserole with rice (similar to Beef Stroganoff) followed by a delicious apple crumble with vanilla sauce.  I had seconds of both!  I spent the night trying to get his daughters, Nina (16) and Hannah (14) to speak English with me but they were both too shy to give it a shot.  They could understand me, but answered in Swedish and either mum or dad translated.  They were impressed that I could understand Nina’s Spanish homework though.

Left about 9pm and got back to the apartment around 10.45.  Wished Jodie a happy Valentine’s day before heading to bed.  It was good to see the city with a guide that could point out or explain things we saw along the way, but I took a lot less photos than I would normally have.  Might head back tomorrow.