Boxing Day packed an unexpected punch!

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After a whirlwind tour of Copenhagen, it was onto the third largest Swedish city of Malmo, by rail over the Oresund bridge, and a journey which makes it all so clear as to just how close in proximity these two nations are, despite them not actually sharing a land border. The route was planned, but all had to be achieved in a compressed timescale, so to avoid toing and froing, the first port of call was Malmo Arean, and more specifically the shopping Mall known as Emporia, purported to be Scandinavia's largest. Emporia has the most unique exterior design of any shopping mall you care to mention, and it best described as a curvaceous chunk cut out of a huge rectangular mass of exterior, to a euphorically-eye-catching extent. With such a tremendous exterior, expectations might be riding high as to what treats lie within, but it soon became apparent that this mall occupies the upper echelons when it comes to variety and great balance between shopping potential and ability to impress on the decor scale. Christmas had clearly not been overlooked here, and to prove it, a gigantic tree replete with shiny baubles galore came coupled with a mechanical display of christmas characters done so tremendously well that kids and adults alike would simply marvel at its 'christmas in motion' cartoonesque appeal. The most recent addition to Malmo's city fabric has been the construction of the Turning Torso tower, located portside, which is also officially Scandinavia's highest single structure, made all the more impressive by the fact that it appears to stand out amidst any level of sea mist which might threaten to obscure its view. The Old Town, immediately south of the main station, is where you will find Malmo's biggest cluster of buildings of historical significance, and the City Hall, Stortorget and St Peter's Church are but three fine examples of traditional Swedish architecture which alone easily justify the rail fare from neighbouring Denmark. If it is greenery which you seek, then look no further than Kungsparken, best described as a great oasis of verdant calm in a city hardly traffic-choked and blighted by urban chaos. Given Malmo's relatively compact size, shopping is as well represented as one could possibly hope for, and Triangeln shopping plaza is another worthy addition to its canon, as are a couple of other malls dotted here and there just to complete the set. One piece of curiosity stumbled upon whilst strolling through the charms of the Old Town is an English Shop indicatively named 'The English Shop', which appears to sell more English products than you might have ever imagined to exist, in other words, more English than your average shop of similar size in England! Elsewhere on the 'specialist shops' front, hats off to the owner of Blue Desert music store, which contained enough among the ranks to add to a growing collection of discs by Swedish artists, surely in the top 3 of European nations when it comes to musical talent. Malmo also seems to be sufficiently well represented on the museum front, and the museum of modernism is but one example thereof, sitting alongside Malmo castle and People's Park as city attractions which could, and more than likely should be woven into the mix if you are basing yourself here for at least a long weekend break, in the right kind of season. In a nutshell, Malmo and the Skane region around it typifies the nation as a whole and the kind of wealth which has shaped the urban landscape accordingly, and if eco-friendly cities and finely-tuned attention to detail features are your bag, then a visit to southern Sweden is destined to add a positive edge to your wealth of experiences enjoyed thus far.

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