We were in the mood for another road trip before winter fully comes. As I researched things to see within a short drive, I found that many tourist attractions in Sweden are only open in the summer. By October, most of the attractions have shut down. That's too bad because we've actually been having lovely weather. Anyway, we decided to drive over to Malmo (there should be a funny o at the end of that--the official name sounds like er--but this computer doesn't have the Swedish keyboard installed yet.) Malmo is the third largest city in Sweden and about an hour and a half from where we live. It is right across the sound from Copenhagen, Denmark.
Our first stop in Malmo, was at The American Store. M had heard from classmates that you could buy Poptarts there, so we had to check it out. So the following pictures give you an idea of typical American foods that you don't generally find in a Swedish grocery store.
 |
| Poptarts-- the reason for our visit |
 |
| Rather than powder drink mixes, you can buy a concentrated liquid called saft that you dilute with water,. You can buy pudding but I haven't found jello. |
 |
| Haven't seen frosting or chocolate chips in your normal stores. Luckily frosting is easy to make and their baking chocolate is really yummy---you just have to chop it up. |
 |
| I haven't found any sort of graham crackers here. :-( |
After looking at the prices--everything in the store cost about $10 a shot-- we decided we didn't miss American food all that much. There was no way I was going to pay $10 for a graham cracker crust or a small box of Teddy Grahams. :-) We did splurge on one box of poptarts and one can of pumpkin (for Thanksgiving next month). Our other thought, after looking at the contents of the store, was no wonder Americans tend to be overweight. :-)
 |
| Typical street scene. No, we didn't hit the McDonald's. Fast food is expensive here! |
 |
| City square |
We brought cinnamon rolls for lunch and sat in the square to eat them. Then it was on to the Malmo Museer-- a complex of museums built around an Renaissance castle, Malmohus.
 |
| Crossing the bridge into the entrance of Malmohus |
 |
| Malmohus has a defense tower like this on each corner. |
 |
| Looking out at the bridge and moat from a castle window |
The castle and attached buildings hold a number of different types of museum exhibits. There is a big natural history section with taxidermied animals, an aquarium and fossils. There is a section on archaelogy. Because it is in the old castle, the layout is very twisty and turny. We hurried through the above sections wanting to get to the history of the castle.
 |
| A cool model of old Malmo |
 |
| Decorative wood pieces from old buildings |
Like most fortresses in southern Sweden, Malmohus changed hands a few times in the wars between Sweden and Denmark in the 1600s.
 |
| Inside one of the corner towers |
 |
| From the circular towers, canons could shoot out in most every direction |
 |
| The royal hall |
 |
| Bed in the King's Chamber |
 |
Detail of the bed's headboard |
 |
| They had a number of furniture pieces with gorgeous inlaid wood designs |
By the time we'd seen this much of the museum, the boys were ready to move on to one of the other museums in the complex-- the technology museum. So we parted ways and sent them off to looks at planes, trains, boats and automobiles, while the women visited the art exhibits. Then we joined back up at the technology museum and played with the science experiments together.
 |
| They had rooms set up showing furniture of various time periods. |
 |
| Southern Sweden is known for its excellent glasswork |
 |
| A fun photography exhbit |
 |
| One of the biggest attractions at the technology museum-- an old submarine that you were able to crawl around inside. It looks much bigger on the outside than it feels on the inside-- you literally had to crawl. |
 |
| You see different makes of cars and planes at European museums. |
 |
| We all had fun playing with the hands-on science experiments. This is someone's hair magnified. |
The Museums were a good deal-- 30 SEK (about $5) for adults, free for kids 15 and under-- admitted you to all the museums. And we never even made it to the photography museum or the old wind mill and gardens. Winter hours were only from 12-4 and we ran out of time long before we ran out of things to see.
