Dinner in Malmö

 

Our last night in Copenhagen, we went to dinner in Malmö, Sweden.   To get there, we took Øresund Bridge. It is not just any bridge. At 7,845 meters (25,738 feet), it is Europe’s longest road and rail bridge (the rail is on a second level below the road) and a pretty impressive engineering feat. To keep shipping lanes unobstructed and avoid interference with planes from the nearby airport, the first portion of the bridge is a tunnel!

 

The tunnel

You emerge from the tunnel on an artificial island (created from the earth dug out for the tunnel).  From there, the suspension bridge starts.

Artificial island created from the earth excavated for the tunnel

The bridge from the island

View of the Øresund Strait from the backseat

The bridge made getting from Malmö to Copenhagen quick and easy (you can still take a ferry). It created a renaissance in Malmö and some people who live there commute to Copenhagen. Prior to that evening, my knowledge of Malmö was almost entirely derived from The Millennium Trilogy, sorry Sweden.

Beautiful landscape on the way to Malmö, it is traditionally an agricultural area.

We had dinner in the Old Town. It was great to walk around the old streets and window shop. There were lots of very trendy looking people grabbing dinner and drinks outside.

We drove from Denmark to Sweden, ordered in English, ate Spanish Tapas and followed it with Italian espresso. Next time, we will try to be more international, but it’s definitely not a bridge to nowhere.

Padlocks of Love – “Luccheti d’Amore”

When we were in Copenhagen, Denmark, we walked across the Brygge Broen, a bicycle and pedestrain only bridge.  When I saw these locks, I had to stop and look. I’d read a story about padlocks from the Pont de l’Archevêché on the Seine in Paris. They disappeared in the middle of the night after the city of Paris said they were concerned about their effects on their architectural heritage. People were upset over their disappearance and the locks “magically” reappeared.

Although this custom has allegedly been around since before WWI, it has become much more widespread. An Italian book that was made into a movie Ho Voglia di Te (“I Want You”) was released in 2006 featured the “Luccheti d’Amore”. In Italy, the movie became like Twilight in the U.S. increasing the padlock’s popularity. As the locations for and numbers of padlocks have risen, their notariety has grown. They are now widespread and getting media attention. Some are even listed in travel guides.

Other places where this occurrs include:

• Rome at the Ponte Milvio (Italy)
• Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne (Germany)
• Ucluelet on a fence of the Wild Pacific Trail (Canada)
• Ponte Vecchio in Florence (Italy)
• Venice’s Rialto Bridge (Italy)
• Luzhkov bridge in Moscow (Russia)
• Pécs (Hungary)
• Mount Huang (China)
• Volodymyrsky Uzviz Bridge in Kiev (Ukraine)
• Tumon Bay (Guam)
• On the Measarski Most in Ljubljana (Slovenia)
• Hiratsuka-shi (Japan)
• Warsaw (Poland)
• Brooklyn Bridge in New York City (USA)
• Fountain in Montevideo (Uraguay)
• Kelvingrove Park, Glascow (Scotland)
• Tower Bridge, London (England)
• Bridges in Riga (Latvia)
• Nomasaki Lighouse on the Chita Peninsula (Japan)
• N Seoul Tower (Korea)
• Wine Train Station in Napa (USA)
• An Overpass in Fengyuan (Taiwan)
• Umeda Sky Building, Osaka (Japan)
• NoDa?

Some people decorate or write on theirs.  50 years!  Everyone should be so lucky.I don’t think that I am a particularly romantic person, but seeing 50 years written on one is really touching. Who knows, maybe we will put one up in our travels? On the other hand, this seems to be the new trendy thing, so maybe we won’t.

I don’t think that I am a particularly romantic person, but seeing 50 years written on one is really touching. Who knows, maybe we will put one up in our travels? On the other hand, this seems to be the new trendy thing, so maybe we won’t.