Malmø

Malmø is a fairly large city in the far south of Sweden, not far from Copenhagen. I've never known a skyline more dominated by a single building. From the train coming over from Copenhagen all you see is this one twisted spike. I'm told that a lot of money changed hands over getting planning permission for it.

I shall say here that the standard of cobbling in Malmø is above the norm in Britain. So many cobbled areas in Britain are blighted by a cheap repair done with tarmac.

[Left] Some Malmøvian cobbles.

The views out to sea were great. It must be a good place for photographing skies. Denmark is not far away, and coasts have many of the best cloud formations.

Odin testing his herring-pickling ray.

In one museum were lots of modes of transport, including all the usual trains, cars, 'planes etc., but most significantly, this pair of Victorian roller skates. Made in London. I suspect that stopping must have been a shade more challenging than with modern skates, but I bet their top speed was pretty impressive.

This is the castle. As you can see it belongs to the time of cannon. It was built of red brick in 1434 and had the round towers/batteries added in 1537-42. Inside is a museum of a few things, including how blinking awful it was to have lived in the past.

The area on the ground occupied by this cloud-tickler is surprisingly small. Apparently, the apartments didn't sell, so it is now mostly rental accommodation.

Of course the Swedes have big factories too, but theirs are pastel pink (to match their crockery cupboards) and cleaner than it is possible for a factory to be.

Malmø has large areas of Ikea flat-pack housing.

What shall I call this shot? "The end of the lines"? "The car won"?

Newcastle also has a skateboard park, only ours became covered in graffiti almost immediately.

A massive bike park with a more massive car park behind, and not one single bike or car. Still, it was a Thursday I suppose.

The centre of Malmø has some nice buildings, including some medieval ones.