The idea
Usually one plans traveling for like "places I wanted to see for ages" or "beautiful recommendations" or "nice culture to explore". Not over here in my family. This year my teenage daughter came up with "Mama, since I have been a scandi-fashion lover my favourite brands and shops happen to be in Malmö / Sweden. Can we please go there for vacation?". What she means: "Whenever I go shopping with mum and there is vacation she is as generous as hell". Well. Shes is and so we travelled to Malmö.
I had no idea from that city, where to go, what to do, how to prepare - so I just booked a ferry and hotel rooms that seemed to be somehow close to the water (because being close to the water never can be wrong) and off we went.
The Ferry
As a baltic soul I love to be at / on / in the water, so my first choice of traveling usually is a boat if possible. Since I have lived next to a harbour its quite easy to just find someone to quickly bring me and my luggage there. At the harbour house, a transfer bus brings you directly into the ships belly.
One nice way to travel to scandinavia is going by a ferry (here it is the TT-Line from Travemünde, Germany to Trelleborg, Sweden)
Even though it was just an 8-hour-trip we got a cabin so we could rest and store our baggage.
Best beautiful weather to travel!!
During the ferry trip I started to google what we could do in Malmö other than just shopping. Turned out: exactly in the same time there happened to be Europes largest street festival. Oh my goodness. Should we be excited or scared???
Festival Malmö
Main stage - one huge concert every night
Every night there was a concert on each of the four stages spread over the city. And guess what - no matter what kind of music, the mood and the athmosphere always have been amazing!! People were kind and peaceful, the air was vibrating by the sound and the gentle evening breeze.
Daytime sightseeing and shopping in the old town of malmö
Seaside Malmö
Because I cannot (or do not want to) celebrate every night, we also picked some e-Scooters to explore Malmö outside the festival area. I already mentioned that I love to be somehow next to water, so we headed to the coast. Here we have been awarded for all the hard shopping efforts and hurting feet: Beautiful view, even over to Copenhagen, Denmark!
Bay of Malmö: Can you see the Öresund Bridge far on the horizon? This is the direct connection do Copenhagen
Isn't it just gorgeous?
Recommended Malmö
The endless shopping offered an unexpected support for my unprepared journey. In one tiny but gorgeous shop named "Miloii", wich my daughter had on her to-do-list, the owner and I had a nice chat so I asked her, what places we should see to get good coffee and fine food. Her eyes began to shine and she quickly wrote down some places for seafood, coffee, wine and asian cuisine we all visited after her recommendation. Guess what? All great tipps - we had the best time there!
The shop owners list of places to visit - you can figure it out by yourself ;-)
Copenhagen
Of course its a rule: Once you are in Malmö you have to quickly visit Copenhagen. Why? Because its just like 30 Minutes by suburban railway!
In Copenhagen its totally easy to just be there and enjoy the city by renting an e-Bike (same principle as for e-Scooters) and then go for it.
Most recommendable spots to visit:
1. Amalienborg Castle (Primary residence of King Frederik)
2. Christiansborg Castle (Parliament of Denmark and Supreme Court)
Sorry, no pic, but to be honest, its just another castle)
3. Dannebrog (The Kings Yacht)
What I also like in Copenhagen is that there are bike paths EVERYWERE and that everybody is so chilled. Like, even at the Kings Castle and around his yacht - no Soldiers, no ban miles, no securities. The Danes simply trust each other and that feels so nice!
Malmö next time
To be honest, the festival somehow crossed my plans to have a nice sight seeing tour with cultural education besides shopping. I was not prepared for that, although we really enjoyed the entire trip! But now I am hungry for the real Malmö. When we needed some allergy medication we had to enter a pharmacy and found this:
This just gave me the idea of what I may have missed. Since Malmö is one of the oldest European hanseatic cities that has been a very important trading hub between Europe and Scandinavia I would like to visit again and then focus on medieval buidings, museums and other historical places. By e-Scooter for example we passed some beautiful parks with amazing statues but had no time to watch closely.
So my plans are serious: I'll be back, beautiful Malmö!!
