The Fifth Day

On the fifth day, we said bye-bye to Lund, and turned back north again. While basically following the west coast in both directions, we still varied our route by choosing different small roads where we could, and stopping at different places.

Typical Skåne roadside view...

The red flowers are poppies

For example, on the way down (Day 2), we visited Sofiero palace and park on the outskirts of Helsingborg, but avoided going into the city itself. On our way back, however, we did go into the core of the city - and I'm choosing that word deliberately, because on a hill high above the city center, there is a medieval tower called Kärnan, which literally means The Core. 

This 14th century tower is the only remaining part of what was once an old Danish fortress, which together with another fortress on the opposite Danish shore of Öresund controlled the strait between Skåne (Scania) and Sjaelland (Zealand).

View of Helsingborg from a viewpoint below the Tower

Inside the Tower there is a museum. A lot of steep stairs usually makes me hesitate.... but as initially I wasn't aware that you were even allowed to go all the way up to the top... somehow (one floor at a time) I eventually found myself up there anyway!

View of Helsingborg from the top terrace of the Tower

Have to admit that once safely back on the ground again, my legs felt pretty shaky, though... So instead of walking down further steps straight down the hill to the city center (and then up again...), we got back into the car and navigated our way down there. We found both parking and a café/restaurant without too much trouble; still within view of the impressive tower up on the hill.

From "downtown" looking back up at where we had been...

From Helsingborg, we cut across one peninsula to the next one, where this time we took the long way around its coast.

Vejbystrand (I think)

Torekov, with maritime museum

Hovs Hallar - a landscape protection area with cliffs

And in the evening, we ended up back in Båstad for another lovely evening there (before driving the last few km/miles to the same countryside motel as on our way down, the first night).

The quayside here is one long row of various small eateries, and we chose a different one this time. 

Four Scanian churches from the Fifth Day:
Kattarp, Allerum, Torekov, Båstad

I have lost count of all the churches we stopped at, but am hoping to "revisit" some of them (with more photos and details) in future blog posts. 

 

Our World Tuesday

The Fourth Day

On the fourth day of our holiday trip, we drove from Lund down to the southwesternmost point of Sweden - the two old medieval towns of Skanör and Falsterbo - and back again.

The ruins of an old fortress at Skanör (13th century)

We had lunch at this or some similar place at Skanör harbour, and then went for a walk along the quayside.

 

From Skanör, far away in the distance to the north, we could actually see the Öresund bridge that connects Malmö and Copenhagen. (In this picture I zoomed it in with my camera.)

At Falsterbo, we visited the main bathing beach. (No, we did not go into the water... But I did walk barefoot in the sand for a bit!)

At Höllviken, we visited an odd and unique museum of amber - and various other beach finds. (More or less the whole house is actually built from driftwood, I think.)

We also visited at least four churches on this day. I'll get back to these in separate posts some time...

Skanör Church

Maglarp Church

 

Hammarlöv Church

Västra Vemmerlöv Church

We also had time to see a bit more of Lund. In the morning, before we set off to Skanör, we stopped to have a look at the old Observatory in the Town Park, which used to be part of the Astronomy Department at the University (until it was replaced by a new observatory in 2001). In the evening, we also went for a last walk in Lund to look at (among other things) the main old university building; and finished off with a stroll through the Botanical Garden.

The Observatory

The University

 

Greenhouse in the Botanical Garden, Lund

Linking to Our World Tuesday

On the Road - Skywatch Friday

On the road towards Varberg on the west coast (Monday July 8 - the first day of our holiday). The grey&black striped plastic around the hay bales in the fields (first photo) made them look like giant pieces of licorice candy. 



 
Kallbadhuset (the "cold bath house") at the seaside resort Varberg in the province of Halland Sweden: The present building is from 1903, but there have been similar bathhouses here ever since 1866.