Day 39: Thu 17 Aug: Jonkoping to Helsingborg

Start time: 8:15am
Stop time: 5:30pm

Drive: 390km
Weather: fine and sunny early changing to a smoggy, dull afternoon, rain in the evening, 14 to 23deg 

After breakfast, we walked to our cars at the town square, loaded our gear and drove away. First stop was a stretch-the-legs and pit stop at Vrigstad a little town with yet another beautiful grand church. Our next stop was at Vaxjo a bigger place where we took on some caffeine at Maccas. Onwards we pushed south until we "discovered" Rashult, the birthplace of Carl Linnaeus, the 18-century scientist who formalised the modern system of naming organisms. The oversized model insects and birds along the walk into the village would have been fun for the kids, big and small. A bit early for lunch so we pushed onto Osby where we sat beside a lake (no shortage of these in Sweden) and ate our bread rolls. 

As we got closer to Malmo where we wanted to view the monster Oresund Bridge which joins Sweden and Denmark, the traffic increased. By the time we got to the beach to view the bridge the traffic was down to a crawl. Disappointingly, the smog and lack of sunshine meant that the view was pretty ordinary. 

Back in the cars for a rather slow trip to Helsingborg where we are booked in for three nights. We are also handing the cars back here tomorrow much to Greg's relief. He's vowed never to drive in Europe again. Not that he has a problem with driving, he just feels that you miss out on so much by driving compared to cycling. And, he hates having to pay for parking.

We went to drop the car off at Hertz (not due until tomorrow) only to find that we had missed them by one minute, they closed at 6pm. So, we just parked it in one of their spots, pre-positioned for the morning. Walked back to the hotel where we caught up with washing and admin until Mick and Kate took us to their dinner choice, O'Leary’s Pub / Restaurant (same chain as in Fredrikstad). It was very nice. One of the latest nights we’ve had on the trip so far - 9:30pm!


Monster ravens at Rashult


A couple of interesting characters at Osby



#30, our first room, Hotel Tornet Helsingborg





Room/apartment 53, complete with balcony




View from our balcony


Lovely church at Vrigslads



Street flowers at Vaxjo

Tiny village of Rashult, birthplace of Linnaeus

Linnaeus

Monster bees at Rashult

Lunch stop at Osby

Medieval building on the way to dinner in Helsingborg

A rather damp walk home from dinner

Bridge between Sweden and Denmark

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