Month: May 2023

An apartment complex built in 2005 in Malmo, designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Called “Turning Torso”, sometimes called “Twisted Torso”.

The kardemummabullar pastry of soft sweet dough delicately dusted with cardamom called out for a smooth cappuccino.  This palate pleasing combination was appreciated in a park cafe with the dulcet singsong of Swedish accents in the background.

These busts were seen offsetting each other at the entrance to a university building in Lund.  Neither one is in a joking mood.

My aunt Ruth married Roger Sutherland, son of a Swedish Minnesota farmer, who had a job working for the Feds in the Department of Agriculture.  They had four daughters, blond, athletic, and self-assured.  My friends loved it when my “Swedish cousins” came to visit.  At family get togethers, my father would argue with Roger who had the best…

Post by Ella. The Skissernas Museum – Museum of Artistic Process and Public Art. I’ve never seen anything like it. All the work that goes into creating public art: the sketches, models, schematics, the prep work, where does it all end up? Some brilliant person at Lund University had the idea to collect all these works….

Post by Grubb. The fantasy world that I thought would be Malmo actually turns out to be an open-air museum in Lund called the Kuturen in Lund.  Stretching over two blocks, buildings replicating structures that Scandinavians have lived in since the Middle Ages are laid out in a village format and open for inspection.  It was like…

Post by Grubb Along with graveyards, Ella and I enjoy the quiet seclusion of a good crypt.  The Lund Cathedral, an early 12th century Nordic monument to Romanesque architecture, has a crypt made up of stone arches, carved sarcophagi, and several like “the giant Finn and his wife.”  Legend has it that the giant helped build the…

Post by Grubb. I didn’t know what expect from Lund, a university town northeast of Malmo, about thirty minutes by train.  But after spending most of the day there, I’m a definitely a Lundsfan.  The university is over 400 years old, so it has the cloistered charm of a scholarly retreat where the ponds are quiet and…

Post by Ella. A brief mention for food. I have no pictures. But breakfast was provided by the hotel and what a spread it was. All kinds of breads and cheeses, jams, muesli (thinking of you Wynette and Charlie) with all kinds of add ons like lingon berries, sunflower seeds, etc. juices and smoothies. Eggs….

Post by Ella No pictures of yucky food, I promise. The entrance ticket is a barf bag. And if that isn’t enough, there is a tasting bar at the end where you can play Disgusting Bingo. And partake in a Chile Challenge where the heat ranges from 1.2 million scoville units to off the charts…

Post by Ella We always get some cash from an ATM on arriving in a new country. On this trip, we needn’t have. So far, no cash required anywhere. In fact, payment by card (digital or physical) is preferred and in some places, required. And if you use a physical card, it is always just…

Post by Grubb. Leaving Copenhagen this morning, I wanted to make note of how safe the platforms were due to the glass walls that only opened to allow passengers on and off the train when it was stopped.  No Anna Karenina moves here.

Just a few photos to get an idea of the place.

Post by Grubb. After our train ride over the bridge from Copenhagen to the Malmo Central station, we took a hike over some canals to the More Hotel in the Vastra Hamnen district.  Although the weather was beautiful, I found myself blundering along the wide thoroughfares periodically stopping to check my whereabouts as if Ella and…