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July 2016 from Christiansborg Palace
Maybe it’s not too rare to see two countries in one photo, but these two don’t even share a border.
Denmark is in the foreground, the island Saltholm is in the middle of the Øresund, and Sweden (with Malmö’s distinctive Turning Torso) is in the distance.
Scandinavian flags at half-mast in Malmö, Sweden (July 2011)
Today’s photo comes from a visit to Sweden just after the 2011 Norway attacks in which 77 people were killed by a white supremacist.
The oldest building in Malmö, clocking in at nearly 700 years old, is Sankt Petri Kyrka. Some parts are “only” 600 years old.
I didn’t have my wide-angle lens with me at the time, and this place is far too large to fit into a single frame at 24mm on a crop sensor camera like my D500, so this is actually three photos merged together.
Malmö Museum exhibition of pig-headed humans
I had been through Malmö, Sweden a number of times on the train. Once I even went outside the train station, but it was raining so hard I couldn’t really see anything. With just a few days left in Scandinavia, and nothing else to do after several consecutive days of poor weather in Copenhagen, we decided to head over to Malmö with the hope that the weather would get a bit better. It didn’t.
What do you do when sightseeing in lousy weather? You go to museums. We went to Malmö Museer which is connected to the 15th Century Malmöhus Castle. Neither were spectacular in the rain, and I’m guessing they aren’t in good weather either.
Malmo Museum was the wackiest museum I’ve ever encountered. The exhibits are not in English; not that that would make much difference. The exhibits are seemingly random. Walk in one room to find natural history, the next is about a concentration camp, the next is an aquarium, and the next may very well be an art gallery featuring pig-headed humans. This place was absolutely bizarre, although I don’t think it intended to be such which made it rather sad.
Malmö Museer "No Shit! Eco Design" exhibit
This was about the only sign in English, and it rather well sums up the craziness of the place.
Malmö, Sweden half-mast flags for Norway tragedy
I spent today in Malmö. Like Denmark, Sweden is flying their flags (and those of Norway) at half mast.
Malmö flags of Sweden and Norway fly at half mast
Gothenburg has Scandinavia’s largest mall. The thing is absolutely huge. But malls aren’t fun to take pictures of so I didn’t. The shopping spills out of the mall and into countless, cute, cobblestone streets. Unless you are earning a living in Swedish Kronors or Norwegian Krones I can’t imagine really wanting to shop here as those of us with U.S. dollars can’t get much bang for our buck.
Gothenburg reminded me a bit of San Francisco, and the above picture may give you one indication of why.
In front of the opera house flew the four Scandinavian flags. Maybe someday, when the U.S. dollar is worth something I will get to take another trip to see Norway and Finland. Right now things in those two countries are even more expensive than Denmark and Sweden.
Gothenburg has a canal that rings the city center. We took an hour long canal tour which was very nice. We plan to do the same in Copenhagen this coming Sunday.
Gothenburg was filled with very cool statues and parks. The batteries in my camera died early in the day so I don’t have many pictures of them though.
This was the only picture I got off from our canal tour before my camera’s batteries needed recharging. After the tour we walked around the Haga area which was very pretty before scrambling back to the train station to head back to Copenhagen.
The train took us back through beautiful countryside with occasional views of the ocean. Towns included Kungsbacka, Varberg, Halmstad, Helsingborg, and Malmo. We may head back over the border at some point to visit Malmo from more than the seat of a train.