Heading back to Malmo

The weather has been kind to us again so we made the most of a morning discovering the area of Stockholm we had been staying in before our 12pm room checkout. We had breakfast back at the bakery we had found on our first morning. The area is lovely and the pastries delicious.

We then walked south-west to a park called Tantolunden which is at the northern end of the Södermalm island . This is a very large hill dotted with the most beautiful personal allotments. Most of the plots had little shacks on them, lots of berry fruit and vegetables and beautiful flower gardens. The relatively short growing season seems to make these plants grow very fast.

The allotments are on council land but are managed but a number of societies spread out right across Sweden. The system was established in 1919 although allotments have existed earlier than that. The societies own the land and individuals own the houses/sheds on their site. It is the societies who control the sale and purchases of the properties to keep it more affordable and equable.

After a further walk we came to a an area in the park with a few people exercising. This was adjacent to a Little Bay which had a swimming area. The water was cool but surprisingly warmer than I expected. There were plenty of people partaking. There was also a boat marina.

We strolled back to the hotel almost feeling like a local. At the hotel we had a shower and packed our very full bags. By now we were experts at using the Metro so wheeled our bags to the station then onto our regional train to Malmo.

The train was very comfortable but more bumpy than the Finnish trains. We were out of the city quite quickly and as expected lots of trees and large fields out the window and again no sign of livestock.

It was blustery and wet when we arrived in Malmo, We changed train to get off at the closest station to Emily’s called Hyllie. Onto a bus where Grant met us with the cargo bike to save us trundling our bags back to the house. It was so nice to have a lovely home cooked meal, a sofa to sit on and a washing machine.

Our Stockholm experience
- mostly clean with lots of high density apartment living
- the main tourist attractions are an easy walk if you stay in town.
- the locals make the most of the long summer evenings
- traffic is quiet and relaxed. Bikes are king. Pedestrians need to be alert all the times.
- try to ignore the prices. The exchange rate kills us. But we’re on holiday!Read more