Day 85 - Saturday 27 July - Malmo

Saturday 27 July

Sweden!! We had never been to Sweden, and now we have, for a whole 6hrs.

We caught a train just after 9:00 that took us past Copenhagen airport, through tunnels and over bridges, and we were in Malmo (Sweden's 3rd largest city) about 9:50. We couldn't find a tourist info office for a map, and the money changers were not yet open.  so we just headed off.  By the time we walked to Sankt Petri kyrka, built in C14, it was 10:00 opening time. As with most churches around here, it suffered in the reformation, and the only frescoes remaining are in St George's chapel, known as the chapel of the cloth traders, whose coat of arms is still there.  But there were some good features still there, and some new things too.

 

The lovely pulpit still there

 A visual interpretation of the 'Transfiguration"

 The only fresco left after the reformation

 One of the better burial stones - let this be a warning to you all.

A panel on the font, which I took as being the 'Presentation at the Temple"

From there we walked through the city square, (Stortorget) and into the smaller square (Lilla Torg) which has some nice old buildings from C16. 

 The city hall

 A long way from home

Into Lilla Torg

 Above the double door at the end it said  "altered 1846 - the building was named for the first time in 1580 - rebuilt 1910.

 (While there, we witnessed what may have been a bag snatch.  A woman yelled, and A guy pushed B guy off the bike he was riding. The woman took away the shopping bag B had, and A stayed with B who was complaining of a bashed head, so was made to sit against a wall.  And we went on our way.)  

We went through the Kings Park (where there was a bunch of guys, one dressed like Robin Hood, and the others had bags and props such as a Winnie tP, a blow up guitar, a viking helmet etc - maybe a group having a bucks' day) to the Malmo Castle which was unimpressive from outside, not looking like a castle at all.  Along the footpath there were noticeboards with pictures about a crazy gymnastics inventor from the early 1900s, and the whole place was so weird we were glad that we didn't have any SEKs to get us in.
 

 A strange sculpture, including pigs, a goose on the top and various deers, on top and half-buried.

 The castle, with its round bastions

 We left the park and passed the local RC church, just in case there was anywhere to shop (no), then went back to town to an ATM, (1 x 500SEK note) and bought lunch at a supermarket and ate on a street bench. We were not far from the city's mini version of our 'Mill Markets', so we had a quick look through there and found one large expensive and not special nativity.  I had read that there was another flea market and asked the lady.  She wasn't much help, so we walked for about 30mins to Folkets Park, a family oriented park with playgrounds, paddle pools, and today an African festival happening with a few market stalls, and lots of people. We sat for a while and watched, then at the bus stop asked about buying a ticket, but it was too hard, so we walked back to the station.

 The entrance to Folkets Park.

 Boating on the river

A marching band leaving Stortorget

European trains are usually held in high regard by Aussies, but we have oftern found them less than ordinary. For the last 3 days people are being bussed from C'hagen towards Hamburg, as we were to Lux'bourg, and luckily not from Hamburg. Trains can be quite short, 3-4 carriages, then people are squeezed on for long journeys. There is never enough room for luggage, and big cases have to be lifted to overhead racks, or stacked in the aisles. Tuesday's trip across Poland will be our last Eurail 1st class ride, so we hope we can go out in style.

Day 84 - Friday 26 July - Copenhagen

Friday 26 July

We spent considerable time organising more parcels home (lucky Kathryn). This involved a walk to a non-existent PO, then a walk to Central Station, and a bus home to the supermarket downstairs which has a PO agency.  An envelope of papers cost $20, which wasn't too bad, so we went back upstairs and loaded up all the rest (another 4 letters full for the PO downstairs), and a small box-worth, to their bigger store on the main road.

Then finally, at about 11:30, we headed off to the other end of town to the Little Mermaid - who isn't actually a mermaid with a fishy tail at all.

 Lots of bikes in this town, but the riders are slower, and more polite, and will stop for you at a ped crossing.

She has been there since 1913, except for a recent short trip to China.

We had some lunch on the grass in the park, and got the ho-ho ferry that does a canal cruise. We didn't ho or ho, but we had a nice boat ride.

 Lots of sailing boats at Christianshavn Canal.

 The church of Our Saviour has its tower inside out.  We did not care to climb the 400 to the top.

 Typical apartment buildings

  Swans and babies.

 The bridge on Nyhavn Canal raised to let a boat through.

 The incinerator at the back is world's best.  They have to import rubbish to keep it going.  It has a grass ski run in the slope.

Some monsters, and a sea plane which just appeared.

 A little sauna box by the canal.  I know nothing more.

4 dragon tails curl up to make this tower on the old stock exchange building.

Then we went walking again, through the star-shaped citadel fortress,  (built C17)

St Alban's church beside the moat.

to the Marble Church that isn't,
 

then walked too far on 2 sides of a triangle and really needed to catch a bus back a bit. But my guess was wrong, and the one we got took us in a big loop away from where we were heading, so more walking to find the Christmas Shop, and at last another bus and home.

We have 3 local supermarkets, and only the 3rd sold vegetables and meat in small enough quantities so as to have no leftovers. We had dinner on our balcony after the sun was behind the next block of apartments.

Day 83 - Thursday 25 July - Hamburg to Copenhagen

Thursday 25 July

This turned out to be not quite the day I thought we were going to have. Checking the internet first thing, I found there were no seats to Copenhagen until about 16:00.  I couldn't book them online because of logging in problems, so we raced up to the station without having breakfast.  When we arrived at the ticket office, we were met by a whiteboard announcing there were no seats to Copenhagen.  But we took a number, and saw a nice lady who spent a lot of time on her computer, and we got what may have been the last seats, but at 14:52, not 09:28 like I'd planned. We came back to our hostel all-you-can-eat breakfast, and emailed our airbnb host who sorted us with her checking-in neighbour (host currently in Greece), and we spent the morning at the hostel games room, just veging out with blogger and games.

When it came, the train was a real shamozzle. No-one knew where they were supposed to be. We had no reserved seats to start, then for the 10min ride over the border we had 2nd class numbered seats (but another lady had one of them before we needed them).  Then later we had some 1st class seats reserved.  We didn't know what it all meant, and others obviously had similar problems.  But we managed to get some 2nd class seats, (albeit with a filthy window), 

 A north German wheat field (much the same as all the others)

crossed  the Kiel Canal 

Apparently this was the bridge that Jon crossed on.

 We have passed many allotment gardens, but these were very substantial, with bigger buildings, outdoor improvements, solar panels etc, as if people actually lived there, maybe as a weekender.  Home mustn't be real good if a holiday beside the trail line is better.

 
then the border ("Australia?" said the passport guard), and got as far as Fredericia. Here we had to change trains and platforms within 4 mins, and we just made it.

 

A thatched house in its own wheat field.

A more orderly 1st class ride saw us into Copenhagen by 20:30, then followed a scramble to get some take-away dinner, a taxi ride, and the neighbour with sleeping twins to let us in to our bnb.

Day 82 - Wednesday 24 July - Minatur Wunderland

Wednesday 24 July

Our prime reason for stopping in Hamburg was to go and see the biggest model train set in the world. We have seen it on TV, and on the internet, so here we are. We booked in last night, and the only timeslot available to arrive was 7:30-8:30am, and we were there (after 20mins walk) by 8:15.

It has 9 international areas covering 1500sqm of model area, 15.4km track, 1040 locomotives, 280 moving cars, 263,000 figurines, 389,000 lights. It has taken so far 795,000 man hours to make, and needs 50 computers to run it, and they are extending it further. We were there for 7hrs (incl lunch).

So many photos, I will add some in later.

After that, we went home via St Nikolai's church site.

It was not rebuilt after the bombing raid on Hamburg in July 1943, but the surviving steeple was kept as a peace memorial. I went up in the elevator, but D didn't.

 The wonderful new music hall

St Pietri and St Jakobi steeples
 

 The mosaic in what was the apse of the church

  Sculpture ' The Ordeal', to commemorate the deaths of the 50,000 from the local 'prisoner' camp  who died there.  The base is bricks from the camp.

 In the crypt is a sombre museum display about the bombing, which took place over 8 days, killing 35,000 and destroying most of the city. We thought it interesting that 'they' acknowledged that great damage had been done by Germany in Poland, London, Coventry etc prior to 1943, but there was no mention of the vast numbers of Jewish people who were no longer living in Hamburg.

 St Peter and St Paul from the old church.

This museum is a member of the international Community of the Cross of Nails, which was formed in Coventry, England and promotes world peace. We have also been to the Kaiser Wilhelm church in Berlin, which also has an old steeple, but a new church.