Back to Sweden: Malmö & the Moose

Luckily for us, our drive back home from Copenhagen took us through Malmö, Sweden. I have been hoping to visit Malmö, ever since we visited Lund (they are about 20 minutes apart). We only had time for a quick stop today, but at least we can say that we've seen a bit of Malmö.

If you wait long enough, the eye blinks. No joke!

To reach Sweden from Denmark, we crossed the Øresund Bridge. It starts as a 4-km-long tunnel on the Danish side leading to an artificial island. (Fun facts: The island was made out of rock and soil unearthed while building the tunnel and bridge. They named it "Pepper Island" to match a natural island nearby called Salt Island. Those funny Danes!) The crossing continues on an 8-km-long bridge that feeds into the city of Malmö.

First stop in Malmö: the Turning Torso, the tallest building in Scandinavia and the first twisted skyscraper in the world! It's not that tall by worldwide standards, but fun to see nonetheless. Just as we were leaving, a big bus pulled up and spilled out a gaggle of gawking tourists, so I guess we weren't the only people interested to see it.

Almost got all of us in it!

Torso looming over nearby playground

On the way to our next stop, we saw a playground that was too cool to pass up. We walked through an elementary school campus to get to it. The school's playground had interesting play structures, fruit trees, berry bushes, and a little brown bunny scampering among the low plants. The city playground had a space theme (what, no boats?!) and devilishly steep tube slides. The park seemed enormous, and it was surrounded on all sides by swanky apartment buildings.

Too cool for school

"Who's ready to leave?" *crickets*

After dragging the children away from the playground, we went into the gamla staden (old town). We stopped to peek inside St. Petri's church when we passed it along the way. It's a gothic style church built in the 1300s. 

Who doesn't love a flying buttress?

Gorgeous white interior

Ornate designs against the stark walls

Facade selfie

Finally, we made it to the Stortorget (main square) and stopped for a fika. Now that we're back in Sweden, we are required to fika regularly! Good fuel to start the mega-drive back home to Tjärno.

I didn't get a good shot of the square, but this person did!

Climbing on the fountain

Fountain heart. That's how you know it's in Sweden.

Swedish fika makes everyone happy!

Chai latte. As delicious as it was beautiful.

Dear Malmö, you are lovely and interesting and our time together was far too short. May we meet again someday!

***

BONUS: Close to the end of our drive home, I saw a black speck in my peripheral vision and yelled, "MOOSE!" We knew that there were wild moose here, but we had basically given up on actually seeing one. 

See that black speck? Neither did my family.

Jeremy admitted later that he thought there was only a 50/50 chance that I'd seen a moose. Even I admitted it was most likely a very dark cow. But we turned the car around and sure enough, there was a moose!  It was munching on the grass in some family's big yard. We took a million terrible photos of it, and Jeremy wisely forbade anyone from getting out of the car to get closer. 

That's a wild Swedish moose!

It took us 5 months to find you, moose, and you were worth the wait. You felt like a perfect "welcome back" gift from Sweden to us!