Friday 31st July 2015 Day 10

We had a close up view of the building known as the Twisted Torso, which has been mentioned earlier.

Fantastic view of the Oresund Bridge.

Better still, they have sturdy wheels and we can simply pull them along once you have flicked out the handle. The main bag is 57 litres, whilst the day bag, which is attached (and can be separated) is 17 litres. As this is our “home” for the next year, along with decent walking shoes, they were without doubt, our most important purchases.

Malmo pub, complete with decent beer brewed in the Arctic circle.

Malmo's main square

Note: 
Desperately trying to catch up on the blog, but travel has been hectic and exhausting! Now actually on Day 30! Will endeavour to catch up in China!

As our train to Stockholm wasn’t until mid afternoon, we wandered around Malmo’s parks for a while and then explored a whole new area that had been reclaimed from the sea. As with most typically new areas, it was fairly sterile, but it gave us a chance to stretch our legs prior to the 5 hour train trek across southern Sweden.

Our walk did give us a spectacular view of the Oresund Bridge we had traversed by train yesterday This bridge is 5 miles long and then from an artificial island, continues in a tunnel for a further 2 miles. The reason for the tunnel section is to allow tall shipping, avoid interference with Copenhagen Airport and to allow large ice flows through!

Our train journey was very comfortable. Once again, we had booked everything online and as we are doing it this way, we can shop around for the best prices, hence our train arriving in Stockholm at 8.20 pm. We again managed to walk to the hotel.

One observation we did make, is that throughout our Swedish traverse, we saw absolutely no sheep and cattle. In fact, there was very few livestock at all and yet the land looked perfectly suitable! We surmised that whilst summer was suitable,that winters were probably too harsh? What we did see a great deal of (and this continued ALL THE WAY to Irkutsk in Russia,) was silver birch and pine trees.

Our rucksacks here need a special mention. They are Eagle Creek, an American brand that have a life-time guarantee and that surely is going to be tested to the full over the next year! As well as being sturdy rucksacks, all the shoulder straps neatly tuck away and you can carry it as a hold-all. 

Malmo was an attractive city, but most noticeable, was how pleasant the people were. Always accommodating and willing to assist.

Also, when we do occasionally wander into a plush hotel, wheeling our “bags” as opposed to carrying rucksacks, (we are talking two star or possibly one star hotel here) it must create a slightly better impression with the hotel receptionists. At least that's what we hope!

Thankfully, as yet, we’ve been able to wheel them everywhere despite many of the European cities having extensive cobbed streets. No doubt a time will come when we will have no choice other than to carry them.

The hotel in Stockholm was called HTL and very, very trendy! Once again, Kate and I were the old cronies by a number of years! We sat in the bar for a couple of beers but had dinner in our room comprising a couple of take-away salads as once again, Scandinavian prices were extortionate!