Around 10 A.M, we took the tender from the ship to the port and got my passport stamped. Dennis and I found a map of the walking trails around the city. We passed a park with waist-high tulips. I had never seen such large and colorful blossoms. The Swedes must like flowers: homes had them in the windows
We meandered through the forest on the Longensberg Promenade to Paisjokvarn to the north of the City, about 2 miles and returned on a coastal path. We doubled the number of stairs that we climbed in Dover (over 900 steps). Once back, we toured the city.
We walked on the oldest pedestrian street (Kullagatan) in the Nordic countries. In the marina, was an open house for a Swedish vessel that may have been a submersible, we could not read the panels. Lots of military and arms.
As we approached the statue of Magnus Stenbock (see below), the town hall clock started to play the noon songs, one of which was “America the Beautiful.” The three songs played repeatedly for ten minutes. The statue depicts the field Marshal who lead the Swedes in the final victory over the Danes in 1710.
The money unit is the Swedish Krona, so everything looks expensive. Two beers cost 125 SEK. I nearly choked when I found it that was $20. That was about 10 times more expensive than getting a domestic beer in the supermarket. This is a port city so I expect prices of dining, transportation, and entertainment to be higher than other Swedish cities, but I think this was gouging. Otherwise, how can the Swedes afford to live in Helsingborg? Looking into store windows I was surprised that clothing on display was not priced.
We contacted T-Mobile to get our phones to work. Evidently, when we called before the trip to confirm that our phones would work in Europe, the person we spoke to disconnected that service. Not surprised, she was the one who said Europe was not one of the countries that had a contract with T-Mobile, but did confirm that each country we listed was part of the deal. What are we teaching–or not teaching—our kids?
It started to pour so we never finished our walk. Just as well, Dennis has sore legs from Dover’s walk. For lunch, we tried Swedish coffee (rich and strong) and sandwiches. Mine was an open-faced Swedish meatball with beets. It was tasty, but I think Dennis’s might have been better. He raved about the chicken salad sandwich.
It felt good to return to the ship and get out of our wet clothes. Though we had rain jackets, our pants and shoes were wet.