Malmö; Sunday, 12 April, 2015

The hotel was clearly close to full overnight as Breakfast was heaving and I only just managed to find a table. After a quick breakfast I headed out of the hotel and over to the station to pick up the train North out of the city.

First stop of the morning was the city of Helsingborg. Until the opening of the Øresund bridge between Malmo and Copenhagen the ferry spanning the 4Km channel between Helsingborg and Helsingør in Denmark was Sweden’s fastest connection to mainland Europe and prior to that had been a key battle ground between the two nations as they plied for supremacy over the this part of the world.

Consequently the city had an impressive castle, much of which as gone, but parts of the bastions and the main tower still stand and are worth having a look around. From the top of both the views are spectacular, particularly across the straights to the castle of Kronborg, AKA Hamlet’s Elsinore in the Danish town of Helsingør.

After climbing the tower and having a wander round town I decided, as a return ticket wasn’t very much at all, to hop on the ferry over towards Helsingør, mostly so I could get a good view of both cities from the water. I had about 20 minutes to wander around Helsingør before I hopped back on the ferry and headed back to Sweden.

Back in Helsingborg I picked up the afternoon train back down the coast, through Malmö and on round to the port town of Ystad. The town is vital for another link to Denmark, this time to the Island of Bornholm which lies off of Southern Sweden but is part of Denmark. I had a bit of a wander around town, but by now the weather was starting to deteriorate rapidly and any chance of a light evening disappearing behind increasingly threatening clouds I wandered back to the station and thankfully was sat on the train back to Malmö when the heavens opened.

It was still drizzling quite heavily when I got back to Malmö so I decided rather than going to find a restaurant I’d just eat in the hotel and then turn in for an early night.