Three countries in five hours – England to Denmark to Sweden

Here is where we begin the real exploration part of our trip and what better way to start, than with an exciting day crossing multiple borders. The Travel Bee family were joined for this leg by Mr Travel Bee’s sister and husband for four days of fun in Copenhagen.

It was an early start in England with a 6:45am flight from Heathrow but we knew this way we wouldn’t waste a single minute! Carrying only hand luggage, we disembarked our plane an hour and a half later and were greeted by the friendliest immigration officers ever and for the first time since Covid, we got an actual stamp in our passports (England is all electronic for Aussies)!!

With our travel companions having done quite a lot of research on the easiest ways to get around, we headed straight to the public transport ticket booths located inside terminal 3. Here we were able to purchase a ticket that covered the trains, buses, metro and ferries for the length of our trip. Another city with fantastic and easy to use transport. Next we grabbed a map and we were off.

We caught the train to our hotel, dropped our bags and then hunted out a second breakfast. Not knowing exactly where we were heading, we somehow ended up in the cafe of the Copenhagen Museum. A beautiful old building with plenty of character, good coffee and another friendly and helpful lady. By the time left, we had full tummies, were caffeinated up and could say thank you in Danish.

From here we wandered back to the train station and got on a train headed for Sweden! You see, we had a plan……. At 3:15pm the Malmo RedHawks were playing Örebro HK at Malmo Arena. We were going to watch our first Ice Hockey match!

Copenhagen and Malmo are connected by the Øresund bridge a 16km road and rail link which actually consists of a bridge, artificial island and tunnel. The bridge is on two levels with the road on top and the train line running underneath. It is very clever and quite an engineering feat.

I have previously had the pleasure of crossing this bridge some 20 years ago by car on the upper level, so it was a little different being on the lower level. Just as it was 20 years ago, the day was dull and grey making it difficult to appreciate quite how spectacular the bridge actually is.

Within a mere thirty minutes we had transited from central Copenhagen to Sweden and with the help of yet another friendly Danish lady we disembarked the train right in front of Malmo Arena.

As it turns out, we could not have picked a better day to go. Firstly, inside the arena was dry and relatively warm. Secondly, for some reason unknown to us, it was a free game! All we had to do, was join the queue (much shorter than the Tower of London but similar weather) and at 1:45pm the gates opened. As we passed through the gate, we were given a ticket with a seat number. Easy and free!

Thirdly, Malmo won in extra time!!! By this stage we were fully fledged Malmo supporters two even kitted out in Malmo hats. We were munching on popcorn, cheering and clapping along like we had supported them forever. It turns out Malmo were bottom on the SHL (Swedish Hockey League) ladder. This was a much needed and very exciting win.

The Travel Bee’s very much enjoyed their few hours in Sweden and were all quite bemused by the UFO building adjacent to the stadium. The Hyllie Water Tower stands tall and eerie in the grey mist. Housing 10 200 cubic metres of water this tower was designed in-keeping with the large number of UFO sightings in the area!!

A very interesting and exciting day.

TTB