Weekend Getaway to Helsingborg- August 2022
After a couple of days in Lund, we had expected to make a weekend trip to Stockholm, wanting to check out Sweden‘s largest city (and for me, specifically, the ABBA museum). However there was not a train ticket to be had for love or money. Swedes, like everyone else right now, are traveling up a storm this summer, and long distance tickets had been booked for months. I’m not sure why they don’t hook up a couple more bogies to these trains but a train to Stockholm was not in the cards for us. The 4 1/2 hour train ride would be a 6 1/2 hour drive, which seemed excessive, and we figured last second plane tickets would be pricey, so we decided to get to know Skane, our region, a little better.
Helsingborg, a sea town just up the western coast, seemed the perfect answer. Helsingborg also happens to be located at a very narrow part of the Oresund Strait, and a mere 20 minute ferry ride to Helsingor, it’s Danish sister. This is, if you remember your high school English class, the site of Elsinore, Hamlet’s castle.
A Former Financial Center, Now All Swanky Hotels
So on Friday afternoon, we hopped on a local train from Lund’s station and 30 minutes later, we walked out of Helsingborg station to a lovely, seafront promenade. Our hotel was only a couple of blocks away and on a street that had all been banks back in the day. Named the Vault, our hotel was one cool spot, next to the steps up to an old castle and with sea views and a fun pedestrian area below. It was a gorgeous, warm summer weekend, and everyone was bound to enjoy as much of it outside as possible. Dinner was out on a pier, with a glorious sunset just after.
Saturday, we got on the ferry and crossed over to Denmark for the day. You can see Kronberg Castle over to the right as you cross the strait. Helsingor has a sweet little village feeling near the ferry port. It was lunchtime, so we worked our way through the Old Town until we found a big Biergarten in a square. A fun, lovely al fresco lunch with all the Danes and Swedes basking in a beautiful summer weekend. We continued our meander through the Old Town, checking out a couple of churches and catching a wedding party outside one of them.
Like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, We Go To Elsinore
Then we headed towards the castle…it was hard to evoke any of Hamlet’s angst on such a pretty day but if we didn’t have to make it back over the strait by the 10pm ferry, we could have bought tickets for a production of Hamlet right there at the castle. Imagine that! Might have to come back some day just for that opportunity. Instead, we settled for a lovely waterside stroll all around the castle’s periphery.
Stopping for dessert and coffee and a busking act or two, we returned to the ferry and back to Helsingborg for more neighborhood rambling and dinner in an incredibly old half timbered bistro.
The next morning, we hoofed it up to the castle above our hotel, and Dan climbed the tower there for views way up high. There was a lovely neighborhood and lots of parkland up around the castle grounds. After this most satisfying weekend away, we headed back by train to our temporary home in Lund with one more week to go in Swedish adventure.
