St Johns Kyrka, Malmo Hus and the Aquarium (Saturday 9-Nov)

Saturday we decided to get out of the house. It was purely to have an explore around Malmo and not because the kids were getting cabin fever and driving us nuts... honestly.

We started our day around 1pm, because we decided to have a slow start - not because Keir decided to sleep in until 10am..

We still didn't have our car (it comes Thursday) so we picked a nice local place to explore, somewhere easily within walking distance.

On Friday evening (after work) we had headed down to Triangeln (the Triangle) where there is s a big, old church - St John's Church, built in 1903.  It's not quite as old as Sankt Petri Kyrka (St Petri's Church) near Central Station (built in 1300s) but it's quite impressive:

We ended up heading to Emporia at Hyllie and buying some new shoes and a soccer ball for the boys.

So for Saturday we needed somewhere local and somewhere we could kick a soccer ball.  We remembered Kungsparket (King's Park) near Malmo Hus (Malmo Castle) having some nice spaces, so we thought that would make a nice work.

On the way, we came across one of Malmo's iconic sculptures "Non-Violence":

We came across a pretty cool fountain in Kungsparket, that kids enjoyed:

Heading into the entrance of Malmo Hus.  Malmo Hus was founded in 143 by King Eric of Pomerania.  It was demolished in the 1500s and rebuilt in 1530 and used as a stronghold for Denmark.  (Skane - this region of Sweden - was part of Sweden until 1658 when it was ceded to Sweden as part of the Roskilde treaty).  When it ceased being of strategic value it became a prison for w hile.

 A map of old Malmo, including Malmo Hus (Closest to camera.) You can also see the spire of St Petri's church at the back.

 Malmo Hus was converted into a museum and at the end World War II it was used to house survivors of the concentration camps - as commemorated in the plaque below.

 

 

The kids loved this well/sculture, thinking it looked like the Entrance to the Chamber of Secrets from Harry Potter.  "Without the sinks.." Tomas made sure to tell me:

We went into the Malmo museum which cost 80sek for us all (about $15) this included a taxidermy exhibition, aquarium and access to the tecknik musuem (but we didnt make it there due to time).

We couldn't take photos in the museum but we did get a couple of photos in the aquarium at a shark display (Although photos of our kids being eaten by sharks is becoming a common theme)..  Until we were told off for using our flash...

The jaw is a fossil from a megalodon (an extinct dinosaur era shark) but Tomas still didn't seem phased by being eaten by it.

By the time we got out of the aquarium we were feeling a little homesick (thanks to a Cane Toad exhibit) and it was almost 5pm and getting pretty dark.  The Teknik musuem (which houses a jet and submarine) was just across the road and included in our ticket, but it closed at 5pm so we didnt have the time.

We made it home in time to make a quick dinner and had an early night.

Alana's Post - On our way to Malmo Sweden

Our first flight from Adelaide:
At 10 thirty PM to Dubai it took about 13 hours. I got to sleep once, I slept for about 3 to 4 hours but the rest of the time I was on the computer screen on the back of the chair in front of me. The second flight I started off watching a movie then I changed to the downward camera then the forward camera the back to the downward camera. As soon as we took off I could see houses and paddocks. Dad let us have our iPads so we have been on then all day. We had breakfast today that was cool and we had different things the second time I had coco puffs and fruit salad it had watermelon rockmelon and grapes .

This is me on the plane waiting to get off and dad said "it will be about 3 more hours so I set a timer!

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 Dad's note:
The Plane had both Downward facing and Forwards facing cameras that the kids could select from the entertainment screens on their seats.  Since we mostly flew at night, there wasnt much to see, but on landing and take-off it was cool to see the houses and runways below and in front.

The kids were encouraged to sleep for the night flight from Dubai - they managed to get a few hours sleep and I think Kris snuck a couple of hours in too.  I (who bragged about being the experienced flier) had some problems - I broke my eye socket at rugby a few weeks before and it cracked the bone between my sinus and my eye socket.  So for the whole flight I couldnt regulate the air pressue in my head and I ended up with horrible motion sickness, which I've never had before.

Alana took this photo waiting in the airplane at Dubai ready to get off - we had 3 hours between flights, but they went pretty fast.  The kids sat and played their iPads while Kris and I had a few minutes rest before we did it all again on the flight from Dubai to Copenhagen.

The kids got breakfast on both flights - hence Alana's comments about the breakfast the second time.  The boys meals were set to Vegan as we needed to ensure that they didn't get any dairy.

No Death Curses at the dinner table! - Random Swedish Adventures

Ok so the title was something I had to say to my kids today while we were eating dinner...  Its the sort of thing that you never imagine yourself needing to say until you have kids - joining other such examples as:

- Don't put that in your mouth,
- Why is the toilet green,
- That isnt supposed to go up your nose, and
- Seriously if you dont leave it alone, it will fall off.

We managed to find Harry Potter on television (English with Swedish subtitles) and the kids watched that while Kris and I prepared dinner - Spaghetti and Knottbuller (meatballs).  Turns out the kids like the meatballs (like you get in Ikea) and they sell for 18kr per kg - which us about $3..  Of the 13 days we've been here, we've had them 3 nights.  Anyway we made it to dinner and the kids start chucking death curses at each other from Harry Potter - fortunately they still cant do "avada kedavra" properly, so instead we get "Advadaka, Advadaka", which probably just causes mild discomfort or burning behind the ears. And then of course mini Hermione (Alana) does the perfect reproduction of "Its Wingardium Leviosa, not Wingardium Levi-oh-sarr".  If Harry Potter was real I dont think any kids would ever make it there, they'd be dead from siblings death curses or in Azkaban by now...

Currently we are in temporary accomodation until the house we will be renting is available (27th Nov).  The place is an apartment on the 5th storey of an block right near Malmo Central station - while we're definately going to get fit climbing the stairs, it is very convenient for public transport and only a 10 minute walk from my work (where I start on Monday). The only real issue we have is that there's really only two bedrooms (There's a lounge, bedroom 1, bedroom 2, a toilet, a bathroom, a sitting room and a kitchen/dining.)  That means initially we had all three kids in the same room.  That really didnt work as they slept well the first night because they were exhausted but we were ready to try some death curses of our own when they were still talking at 11pm the following night.  So we moved Cameron into the sitting room and he's been sleeping great.  Alana and Tomas have good and bad nights - since we've mostly spent the last two days at home (Kris came down sick with the cold I had) they've not burnt off enough energy and hence don't settle well for sleep.  Kris just threatened that the next one she hears talking will be sleeping on the balcony.

The view from our apartment is pretty cool - there's a building site (which I think is building the next extension to Malmo Central Station), but there's also some cool old buildings.

This is the old Post House that is out of our south window:

Central Station has been pretty handy - there are 8 platforms and trains going as close as Triangeln Hyllie (Pronounced Hilly-ah) which is the site of the big Emporia shopping centre and as far as Copenhagen, Stockholm, Gotheburg and other parts of Sweden.

This is "The Green Thing" as the kids call it - the building that is being constructed between ours and central station:

Currently Sweden is taking in thousands of refugees from the wars in Syria and the Middle East.  They come via Europe to Denmark and then take the train across to Malmo.  There's a big Red Cross gathering point near where we are and all of our immigration paperwork is delayed due to the flood of immigrants.  Sweden has been very welcoming and there are lots of signs near Malmo Central Station like the one below (It reads - Refugee? Welcome to Malmo in a variety of languages):

One thing I love about Europe and Sweden is the age and majesty of some of the buildings.  We came across this church on our walk back from the shopping centre - it's St Petri' Kyrka - Saint Petri's Church.

And we also found this sculpture - it's titled "Immigraton" and has a group of people on a giant fish.

Overall, Sweden has treated us well so far - we've been on a few little exploration trips and we've worked our way around the shops for food and other neccessities such as power adapters and ipad chargers.  Pretty much everyone speaks English if you do, and some even have apologised for starting in Swedish.  We've definately got some work to do on our Swedish but we're working hard - in the background I can hear Kristine's iPad "Springer, Springer" which means "to run"...

Expensive Cheese and the shoehorn - culinary adventures in Sweden

As we start to fit in and get our feet on the ground, we find that we want to start to do a bit better than vegemite sandwiches and basic dinners. What we really want is some nice cheese. The first shop we visited, we picked up some Edam. It was pretty expensive (about $20 a kg) and wasn't too bad, but what we wanted was the finest of the cheesy comestables - Cheddar. There were a few blocks in the fridge isle of our local ICA but they were about 120sek a kg ($20). We were tempted, but then Kristine saw something glowing blackly like the depths of night in the deli counter. It was a black waxed cheddar - Black Bomber by name. The price tag showed 29.99kr per kg (about $5). We made our way to the counter and the lady at the deli sliced off a few slices with a golden (well metal) cheese slicer, handing them over like they had been grown by yak-tending monks in the Himalayas.

It was awesome! We could hardly believe that this awesome tasty cheese was only 29.99sek for a kg, but hey, who understands these crazy Swedes. We asked for half of the block that she had - about a kg. She double checked and that should have raised a flag but we were shopping in Sweden and self sufficient and feeling invincible. When she cut off a big chunk she wrapped it, carefully tagged it and handed it to Kris, who chucked it in the trolley.  We'd gone about five steps when I checked the price on our 900grams of Black Bomber - 299.99sek ($50)!  Arrgh!  I told Kris and she rushed back to check.  The poor deli lady explained that the price tag didn't say kg it said hg which was 100g, so the price was 30sek/100g not per kilo.  She did offer, quite nicely, to take some back, but we smiled politely, emptied our wallets onto the counter and carefully placed the cheese in the trolley like a baby in a stroller.

Black Bomber

Our next culinary experiment came that night as we served traditional Swedish kottbullar or meat balls. While I helped prepare dinner by sitting at the table playing on my iPad (hey someone has to do it), I heard Kristine say "I hope this isn't a shoehorn.." Of course I turned around to see her serving the mashed potato using one of the odd utensils we found in the kitchen drawer.  It worked perfectly, but I still think it was a shoehorn - see the pic below and make up your own mind:

Our day in Copenhagen (part 2) (Keir)

After leaving the Christianborg Palace, we joined CanalTours for a boat trip through the habour and canals of Copenhagen, seeing some of the sights.

Setting out - the boats were very long and flat so they could go under the many low bridges

 

  The new Opera House - it has a Maple centre in the shape of a heart

Opera House with maple centre visible

The dome of Amalienborg Palace

 

A better shot of the dome.

 The spire of the Church of Our Saviour - Christian IV ordered this built for Chistianshavn and it was finished in 1682.

A wider shot of the spire

This is part of the Copenhagen Royal Library, known as "The Black Diamond/Den Sorte Diamant"

A glass dome artwork

 

 

Facade on a canalside building

These next few shots show the spire on the top of the old Stock Exchange, it is made from the tails of four dragons twisted together.

This is the front of CF Tietgen's house.  He was the director of the privatbanken fron 1857-1897 and was prominent in alot of business ventures for Denmark.

 One of the ships  on the canal

 The tour went under lots of low bridges.  At one point Kris reached up to touch the roof and Tomas turned around and said "No touching the bridges! Its the rules.." Sure enough it was. Bad Kris

 A replica of the Statue of David outside the Danish Royal Cast Collection - Langelinie Promenade.

 An old crane - formally used to lift the mast sections from boats and ships

 

 The reception area for foreign dignitaries.

 Wider shot of the reception area

 Holmen (The Islet). This was the site of the former Naval Base - Cannon salutes are fired from the Batteriet Sixtus for special occassions.

 Copenhagen's Little Mermaid - made in recognition of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale.  It has had its head stolen twice.

 Decorative Roof

 One of the many bridges

 Once the harbour tour finished, we did a bit of wandering, and found this goose:

(the white one, not the one in the Onka's jacket).
The 'Nordic Goose' was created entirely from recycled buckets

Next we headed to the Tycho Brahe Planetarium but we didnt have time for the 3D movie and the displays were a bit of a letdown.  So we headed for our final destination - Tivoli Gardens Amusement park.  The park was created in 1843 and was apparently the basis for some of Walt Disney's ideas for Disneyland.  It houses several rollercoasters and rides, including the Wooden Roller Coaster from 1914, which still has a brakeman on board the train.  We didnt pay for a ride card as it was already getting late, so we just explored the park, which was themed up for Halloween.

 The big Palace - This was lit up by hundreds of small lights

 The winner and runner-up of the biggest pumpkin competition

 One of the main streets in Halloween Theme

 The Tivoli gates and massive hanging pumpkin

 One of the main dislays - but everything was covered cobweb, spiders and pumpkins

 One of the main walks

 Well we had to come all the way to Denmark, but we did finally find something with Kristine's name on it... now to find mine somewhere..

 The big lake in the middle of the Gardens, including the pirate ship

 The Tivoli Pirate ship

The two jackolanterns looking out from the Tivoli Hotel

We left Tivoli around 6pm and caught the bus back to the Copenhagen airport and then the train back to Malmo.  By the time we grabbed some quick take away for dinner we were all very tired.  The kids slept in until after 7am the next day and I got up around 9am.

We're definately going to have to return to Copenhagen another time to visit more of the attractions and maybe try some Tivoli rides.