The land of the swede II

Well, we made our expected trip to Scandanavia, including Copenhagen and some of southwest Sweden.

Of the few supermarkets that we actually looked into, I think only one tray of swedes (or were they yellow turnips?) was spotted!

However, we enjoyed the rest of the trip so much, the thought of which vegetables were brought to us by Bjorn the Younger or whoever (see last item), didn't have a major place in our outlook.

Starting with two whole days in Copenhagen (the capital of Denmark, for those who are unaware), we saw as much of the city as we could, all of that on foot. Needless to say we were tired by the end of the day, and did not seek out eating establishments too far from our hotel. This was perhaps a mistake, because eating at (touristy) places along the Nyhavn gave us the impression that Danish food was not inexpensive - and we really wondered whether the cash we'd brought for the Swedish portion of the trip would be enough - expecting Sweden to be more expensive.

As far as food was concerned, we were wrong on that score; it seemed to be generally cheaper in Sweden - in the limited number of places we went (not Stockholm, certainly). Our first food in that country was in Lund, where the sandwich we ordered (and were admittedly advised it might be too large for one apiece) turned out almost to be too much split in two - and all for 3 quid!

Other places we visited later did not change that impression - our only regret was that we didn't find the 'real Swedish' restaurant serving meatballs as a main course, though they seemed a frequent part of open sandwiches.

Both countries make a thing of their open sandwiches, but I think the Danes may have brought it to a finer art with their smorrebrod (excuse lack of correct accents) than the Swedish smorgasbord - no doubt the idea behind each is slightly different, but we just enjoyed.

A word about the town in Sweden that we picked to stay in - sounds really cheesy when you think it was selected on the basis of wanting to see the place where the action from most of Henning Mankell's Inspector Wallender series of detective novels takes place - but the fairly ordinary town in Skania that we were expecting (Ystad) turned out to have a large number (about 300) of well-preserved and lived-in timber-frame houses. Despite the cold weather - it was 5-10 degrees, but with a 50mph wind most of the time - these houses were a delight to look at. In the summer, when the trees and flowers are out, it will surely be a beautiful place to visit.

We managed to climb up to their Stonehenge equivalent - the Ales Stones - a 'ring' of standing stones in the form of a Viking ship - legend has it that it is a burial place, or a memorial for lost sailors, among others - in the face of a biting 70mph wind (well 25m/s, which I reckoned as 70mph). 'Twas bloody cold, that.

Anyway, we didn't bring any swedes (vegetable type) home with us, but our memory was that the food in both Denmark and Sweden was excellent. The people (90% of whom we spoke to had better English than many Brits) were unfailingly helpful. Driving in Sweden was a little boring - everyone stuck to the speed limits - even when there were few other cars on the road - which is most of the time, even in the rush hour.

Nice place - would go again.