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