Tag Archives: crime

Taking Time Out in Scandi-Noir Country

Off-Season Relaxation in Ystad, Sweden

Needing a break from art and design museums, we decided to get off the highway for two nights in Ystad, Sweden after we crossed The Bridge (yes, the one in the Scandi-Noir television series) and headed south from Malmo.

Just as we were leaving Aarhus, Denmark, the skies turned dark and ominous and we drove through heavy burst of rain and hail. The green-tinged sky looked as if tornadoes could drop out of it at any moment.

Fortunately, the weather cleared by the time we reached the border of Denmark and Sweden and we had a pleasant drive for the rest of the day.

©Deborah Harmes. Tornado-like clouds forming outside of Aarhus, Denmark in autumn.
©Deborah Harmes. Signs on the E20 heading into Copenhagen, Denmark, then across “The Bridge” into Malmo, Sweden.

Below is the Oresund Bridge — the one featured in the Swedish-Danish co-production television series The Bridge. Some tips for those who travel this way, there is a Border Force booth that is manned by police at the end. For the first time since we’ve been travelling in mainland Europe, we were required to produce our passports — and the fee to cross the bridge is over €50. That was a bit unexpected!

©Deborah Harmes. The Oresund Bridge — just under 8km or 5 miles long. This structure spans the Oresund Strait, a body of water between Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmo, Sweden. Best known to fans of the Scandi-Noir television series “The Bridge.”

I needed to catch up on some writing and photo editing and a couple of days by the Baltic Sea in the off-season sounded quite relaxing. It was — and we ended up staying for five and a half days, not two.

Fatigue had caught up with us. After two-plus weeks in England, we had crossed the North Sea on a Stena Line ship, debarked in the Netherlands, and driven on to Germany. Our next stops were in Kolding, Denmark for a visit to the Trapholt Museum and to Aarhus, Denmark and the AROS Museum.

Getting in and out of the van multiple times a day, whether to have a meal, see one of the sights, or just stretch our legs, was getting really tiresome.

The cottage I had rented more than met our expectations — it exceeded them with the attention to detail that the owners had paid when they renovated it. We had a fully-equipped kitchen and could cook for ourselves, removing the need to go out to restaurants or bring back sandwiches or salads. The beds were comfy, the neighbourhood was quiet, and the hot tub on the back deck was a genuine bonus.

©Deborah Harmes. Cottage in a seaside setting in Ystad, Sweden.

For someone who is so research-minded, I had done ZERO research into things to do in the area. So it was a very pleasant surprise to discover that there was a movie and television studio in Ystad — Ystad Studios — where the 40-plus episodes of the Scandi-Noir crime series Wallander had been filmed. Portions of the series The Bridge were also produced there. Some of the sets from each of those shows, plus some movies we had never heard of, had been preserved to form a tour. What fun!

©Deborah Harmes. The main Film iSkane building of Ystad Studios in Yestad, Sweden. This was the headquarters for the 40+ episodes of the Swedish crime series, Wallander.

Off-season travelling often means less-crowded conditions. But we never anticipated having the entire studio tour area to ourselves. Below are some images from that tour. And yes, I know it’s cheesy, but we both enjoyed sitting in one of the leather chairs from the Wallander series and taking pictures to capture the moment.

©Deborah Harmes. Wallander’s Mail Slot at the Ystad Studios tour in Sweden.
©Deborah Harmes. Set of the Police Meeting Room for the crime series Wallander. Ystad Studios in Sweden.
©Mark Harmes. Deborah Harmes sitting in the fictional crime detective Kurt Wallander’s chair at the studio tour in Ystad, Sweden.
©Deborah Harmes. Part of the small display for The Bridge-Bron at the Ystad Studios tour in Sweden.
©Deborah Harmes. Signed scripts and photos from the cast of The Bridge-Bron at Ystad Studios in Sweden.
©Deborah Harmes. Kenneth Branaugh in the BBC English language version of Wallander.
©Deborah Harmes. Mark Harmes on the set of a children’s sci-fi series at Ystad Studios in Sweden.

An added bonus to staying put for several days was that Mark finally had a chance to ride his new bike someplace other than the congested roads of Essex in England!

©Deborah Harmes. Mark Harmes riding his bike through the woods and beachside roads of Ystad, Sweden.

NEXT UP — some views of the Baltic seacoast at Ystad, Sweden.


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©A Wanderful Life 2007-2022
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London Is Holding Its Collective Breath

London is holding its collective breath right now and hoping for the best. It’s quieter here on the streets of Hackney bordering Stoke Newington tonight. According to the Guardian journalist who is blogging online live, the swathe of roads near here is being manned by forces from the Manchester Metropolitan Police complete with their large vans. The relative silence means that nothing feels as sinister as it did last night.

Thank heavens! Perhaps we’ll actually get a full night’s sleep for the first time in several days. Perhaps everyone will. That would be quite splendid. And may this sense of peace spread to every affected neighbourhood in London. Everyone has been on edge for days now and those levels of stress can be devastating to health and well-being.

It was reassuring to hear the Prime Minister say this afternoon that the number of police on the street would be increased from last night’s number of 6,000 to 16,000. I felt such sympathy for the police personnel on the ground last night when the sheer number of rampaging looters had them outnumbered many-fold. It was a perfectly dreadful spectacle to see the rioters actually chasing the police up the street with bricks, bats, bottles, and knives. Shocking stuff!

Things were even worse last night than the previous one and we wondered if we were going to have to just dash out of the house if the mobs came up the road and attacked the houses or cars on our street with fire-bombs and petrol. The live coverage on the BBC was not reassuring as we watched building after building all throughout the city being set alight by the mobs. And on this very street, waves of young men wearing hoodies rode by on their bicycles whilst talking into mobile phones. A mere few blocks from here, young men who looked and dressed just the same were seen on television lobbing bricks and bottles at the handful of riot police who were forced to retreat up the street due to the sheer numbers of their attackers.

We both walked around today like zombies from fatigue. We had to get up again and again to check on what the noises were outside. The sirens were racing by at the end of the street and the BBC and police helicopter were RIGHT over our block for hours.

Some of the merchants in our area finally decided that enough was enough and dozens of merchants down near the Hackney mall formed an impromptu group and chased the mobs of mainly young people in their teens and twenties down the street — but that civilian action didn’t unfold until after 10 PM last night and rather a lot of damage had been done by then. Some of their small shops may never recover from the theft and damage and I rather doubt that all of the affected shop owners, homeowners, and renters who have been impacted by this violence will have adequate insurance coverage to begin to get back on their feet. It’s a mind-boggling dilemma to witness young people acting out to such an extent that they may have destroyed their own community’s ability to start afresh.

Hopefully I will be able to move back to lifestyle and travel news rather soon. But the events of the last few days are serious issues that affect lives, incomes, well being, safety, health, and the morale of a country. I would dearly love to see Britain regain a firm foothold rather quickly.

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