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Published: December 7th 2007
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After spending a day in Copenhagen (refer to the previous post), we decided to spend our 2nd day by travelling north to Helsingør, cross the sea to Helsingborg (Sweden), go south to Lund & Malmö, and then return to Copenhagen by train. Initially we wanted to get the "Around the Sound" ticket, which allows 2 days of travel around the Oresund region. However, at Nørreport Station, we were told that the "Around the Sound" ticket was only available in Sweden. In the end, we had no choice but to buy a single ticket from Copenhagen to Helsingborg (including the ferry from Helsingør to Helsingborg). In Sweden, we would buy a single ticket to Lund / Malmö, and later we would decide whether we would take bus or train back to Copenhagen.
Because of the long walks in Copenhagen on the previous day and the lack of sleep the night before in Stansted Airport, all of us overslept. We originally planned to go for breakfast at 7am and leave the hostel at 8am. But in the end, we were 2 hours behind schedule. (We only left the hostel at 10am.) After boarding the train at Nørreport, we realised that the track
Bicycle Parking at Nørreport Station
(Copenhagen is indeed a cyclist's city...) at Helsingør station was under maintenance and we had to take a rail replacement bus from Snekkersten to Helsingør... We finally arrived at Helsingør at 11:10am. It was a sunny day, and the weather was perfect for a visit to the famous Kronborg Slot, the castle where Shakespeare set the story of Hamlet. The castle was indeed beautiful, but due to time and budget constraint, we didn't enter the castle to view its interiors. We spent quite some time taking photos of the castle's exterior, as well as the coast. (It was a clear day and we could see Sweden on the other side of the sound.)
At 1:30pm we decided to leave Helsingør and made our way to Helsingborg. The ferry-ride from Helsingør to Helsingborg took only 20 minutes (which we found too short because we were lured by the facilities on the ship, such as the shop selling Scandinavian products and souvenirs). Upon arrival at Helsingborg, our initial plan was to find an ATM to withdraw some Swedish kronor, and then buy train tickets to Malmö. Using the ticket to Malmö, we planned to make a short stop in Lund. However, things began to go against our
wishes. First, we were unable to find an ATM in the station. (Actually we saw an ATM in the arrival area, but we didn't see the logo of Visa or Mastercard on the ATM and we didn't dare to use it.) So we decided to ask for the price of the train tickets first before finding an ATM. We asked the staff at the ticket office how much it would cost to go to Lund. She printed out the tickets, told us the price, and asked us to pay. (But we had no Swedish kronor at that moment!) Then we asked her what was the price of a ticket to Malmö, and whether we could buy a ticket to Malmö and make a stop-over in Lund. She said no, and she impatiently asked us whether we want to go to Lund or Mälmo. We told her we would come back later, and she looked a bit pissed because she already printed the tickets to Lund and now she had to cancel the tickets... (But in the first place we had no intention of buying tickets! We just wanted to ask some questions!)
So we decided to look for an
ATM. We left Helsingborg station and walked along the street. Finally, we spotted a bank around 200m away. After we withdrew some cash, we made our way back to the station. There were 2 trains to Lund and Malmö every hour, at 10 and 27 minutes past each hour. When we reached the station, it was 14:30, and we missed the 14:27 train... So we had no choice but to stay in Helsingborg for another 40 minutes and catch the 15:10 train. After some discussion, we decided to skip Lund and go directly to Malmö, as it was a Sunday afternoon and we guessed most shops and attractions in Lund would be closed. On the contrary, Malmö is a big city, so there should be more shops open.
We spent half an hour walking around Helsingborg and taking photos. Then we went back to the station, bought tickets on the machine, and took the train. The train ride took 50 minutes... By the time we reached Malmö, it's already later than 4pm. The sky began to get dark, and as we walked around Malmö, we were feeling depressed. 99% of the shops in Malmö were closed, the sky was
getting dark, the weather was getting colder and colder, and the strong winds seem to make things worse. Nevertheless, we braved our way to the Malmö castle. We only managed to see the castle across the moat. (It's pretty obvious that the castle was closed.) We managed to catch a glimpse of the "Turning Torso", the highest building in Sweden, but we failed to take a proper photo of it because it was too dark. We adjusted our cameras to night mode, but the photos turned out blurry because we couldn't find a flat surface to stabilise our cameras. (And the chilling cold made things worse by causing our hands to tremble.)
Feeling hungry, we made our way back to Gamla Staden. Only a small number of restaurants were open. Judging from the theory "a more crowded place is a better place", we saw a grill bar with many customers and we entered. We sat along the bar, facing the kitchen shelves, a hot plate and a hot grill with fiery flames. We felt "defrosted" in the restaurant after walking outdoors in the cold for more than 1 hour... The food was not cheap (Scandinavia is never cheap), but
nevertheless we ordered proper meals because we were starving.
After dinner, we walked back to the train station. On the way, we saw a supermarket which was still open, so we went inside to buy some Swedish food (we didn't buy much because everything was expensive). At the train station, we had 20 minutes to spare, so we visited a convenience store and bought more Swedish food... Then we took the train back to Copenhagen. The train travelled on the famous Oresund bridge, but unfortunately we didn't see a thing because everything outside the window was pitch-black. We alighted at Nørreport and went back to our hostel. I was a little disappointed that I didn't manage to visit Lund, and I went to Malmö at the wrong time (a Sunday evening, when 99% of the shops were closed). Nevertheless, we had good times in Helsingør and Helsingborg, so I didn't feel so bad. If I have the time and the opportunity, I can come back to Southern Sweden and visit Lund and Malmö again.
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