Day 45 Copenhagen, Denmark

A tour of two kingdoms - Denmark to Sweden, was the title of our tour today.  It was another long tour taking 7.5 hours.  We were collected from the dock at around 9am and once we boarded the bus we had around 1.5 hours before we reached the Swedish town of Malmö.  To get to Malmö we had to travel across the Danish Straits via the Øresund Link that includes a bridge, tunnel, artificial island and spans a total of 15.9kms.  The bridge alone is 8kms and is an engineering marvel that is a four lane bridge and two lane railway track.  It is very high - 204 metres - to allow ships to pass under.

 Our bus driver took us for a scenic drive around Malmö that was Danish until 1658 when it became Swedish and ended the war between Denmark and Sweden. It certainly is a mish mash of architecture as are most European and Scandinavian countries.  We went from this

to this in a matter of kilometres.

When we arrived into the old town square, and after a quick tour to help us find our way around, we were left to organise our own lunch.  We were trying to find somewhere that sold authentic Swedish food, in particular Swedish Meatballs, but couldn't find a single place that sold them.  Plenty of Italian and Indian restaurants though.  We tired of looking and just wandered into a pop up Kebab joint.  It was either that or KFC 😑.  The menu was written in Greek but there were pictures so we ordered a kebab bucket each, and in hindsight we should have shared one because they were huge. The buckets were full of fries, mayonnaise and wafer thin slices of beautifully marinated lamb.  Probably should have also added a token salad to make it a slightly healthier meal.

After lunch we walked around the square to walk off some of that food.  It is an interesting place but every city we have been to over the past few weeks is centred around the town square with the town council in the main building.  There are actually two town squares, as the residents of Malmö declared at the time that one was not enough.  

At the designated time we all meet up again and boarded the bus to Lund.  Lund is a university city with quite a remarkable cathedral dominating the city skyline.  Lund University is alway ranked within the top 100 universities worldwide and in fact this year it is 72nd.  It is of course Swedens most important.  While all the others took a guided tour inside the cathedral, Philip and I wandered the lovely streets and parklands around the Cathedral.  We were stopped by a group of four female uni students who had a list of things they had to achieve and one was to high five a complete stranger.  We were it.  It was very much like our scavenger hunt that we participated in onboard a few weeks ago.  I wish I had taken a photo of the girls.  They were lovely and their English was impeccable.

It was time to rejoin our tour group and re-board the bus for our return trip to Copenhagen.  It didn't take long at all but then again I think I dozed for a little while.  Our last point of interest was Amalienborg Palace that is in fact four palaces set around yet another square. All are as magnificent as the next.  King Frederick and Queen Mary and their children live in the most important one and all the others are residences for various members of the Royal Family.  There is also one residence that is set aside for visiting dignitaries.  None of the Royal Family are in residence today.  We watched the armed guards marching around the perimeter of the square, presumably to guard against unwanted guests.  Some guards, in different uniforms, marched right up to our tour group and ordered us aside.  Our tour guide said that she had never seen that before.

I will leave you with this photo of the very unassuming apartment that Mary Donaldson lived in before she married the then Prince Frederick.  If only those walls could talk…..