A Softer Side of Scandinavia
Copenhagen has been a destination capital in Scandinavia for centuries, but since the summer of 2000, it has also been something else: a gateway to Europe. The Øresund Bridge is a 16 kilometer fixed link between Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmö. Together, they form the largest metropolitan area in Northern Europe. Though it’s just 30 minutes from Copenhagen, Malmö provides a very different experience. Cross the bridge and you’ll see a softer side of Scandinavia.
Malmö is the third largest city in Sweden, with a population of 265,000 and said by some to be the fastest growing in Scandinavia. There have been waves of immigrants here from at least a dozen countries since the 1970’s. Walk the streets and you’re as likely to hear Danish, English, Serbian, Polish or Arabic as you are Swedish. The city includes a large university, several museums, fine shopping and dining like any other urban center. But there is something different about the Swedish approach to life, here in the southernmost part of the country.
Take for example one of Malmö’s most recent claims to fame, the architectural prize-winning wonder Turning Torso, the tallest building in Scandinavia. It is the centerpiece of the Western Harbor of Malmö (Västra Hamnen), located a quick taxi or bike ride from the central train station. The 54-storey tower includes 147 apartments as well as 4,000 square meters of commercial space. Walk into the lobby (manned 24/7) and you are surrounded by sheets of marble, wood and glass in the most modern of styles that virtually sing of Scandinavian cool. The nearly silent high-speed elevators whisk you up to stunning views of the sound. It’s an undoubtedly urban experience. If you step outside the lobby, however, you might be apt to pause to listen to the tinkling sound of water from the fountains all around the base of the tower. Something else you might notice is the sound of the wind. These are not sounds you typically expect in a city’s hotspot.
Turning Torso is located in one of the trendiest and quickly expanding areas of Malmö. There is a long stretch of waterfront cafes and restaurants that have concepts similar to those found on the famed Nyhavn in Copenhagen. And yet Västra Hamnen manages to provide almost pastoral moments. Along the waterfront of the harbor, there is an unusually long two-level boardwalk with built in benches where people sit with their café lattes and have a chat, or read a book, or gaze upon the Øresund Bridge sitting across the water in all its glory. The further you go from the entrance to the harbor the quieter it gets. There are diving spots in the water, and long stretches of green paths for walking, running, biking, rollerblading and more.
Nonetheless, Malmö is by all counts a city, with city pleasures to enjoy. There are museums of art, natural history, science and technology, and photography. Among Malmö’s museums is a place called Ebba’s House, described as follows by City-Guide Europe:
“The smallest museum in Malmö is situated in a small family house, left untouched since around 1910. When entering, one steps right into the Olsson family´s home as it looked back then. Everything is there, the furniture, the wood stove - so typical of that time, the zinc sink and the outhouse.”
There is something tender and touching about a country that values and preserves this small bit of family life, even as the city around it grows bigger and more modern. Perhaps more urban, and yet still somehow approachable, is Malmö Konsthall, a large exhibition hall for contemporary art with long opening hours and free admission. Just outside this modern temple is a playground for children where all of the jungle gyms and climbing equipment are made of silver spirals.
Malmö offers plenty of shopping along charming cobble-stoned squares and walking streets, not unlike Copenhagen’s Strøget, but on a much smaller scale. You can find Dolce and Gabbana, Max Mara and Gucci as in any other metropolitan area. The boutique ABCD (32 Baltzarsgatan) is a good start for high-end labels. At Västra Hamnen, the newly expanded shop Kit of Elsinore (Rodergatan 2, www.kitofelsinore.se) is also increasingly upper market, carrying Chloe, Missoni, Diane von Furstenberg and Paul Smith as well as the latest Scandinavian designers. With hip tunes playing in the background and PYTs (Pretty Young Things) shoulder to shoulder, you feel like you’re in London, or perhaps Stockholm.
But it seems the trend in newer boutiques in Malmö is toward the well-edited collection of Scandinavian-made, often hand-crafted items. A great example is the popular Davidshall Torget, a square located just a couple of blocks west of the walking street Södergatan, and just before Triangeln. Here you can find half a dozen clothing and house ware boutiques most of which focus on products designed and made in Sweden or Denmark. It is almost as if with every step Malmö takes in the direction of expansion and growth, there is an accompanying motion, an insistence, on the importance of locally sourced goods and contribution by the local people.
There is innovative cuisine to be had in Malmö. At the higher end of the scale, and walking distance from the central station, there is Hipp Restaurant (Kalendegatan 12, www.hipp.se), serving Swedish cuisine with a French influence. With its towering ceilings and crystal chandeliers, it offers an elegant dining experience. The restaurant also includes a nightclub for after hours people-watching. Another restaurant in Malmö turning heads of late is the recently relocated Bloom (Pildammsvägen 2, www.restaurangbloom.com). Head Chef Ebbe Vollmer worked with Marco Pierre-White & Gordon Ramsey at the Harveys in London, and as the restaurant’s web site states, the latter two are “arguably the two greatest contemporary chefs in Europe.” Maitre d'hôte Iggy Vidal has nearly 30 years of restaurant experience including work in a U.K. Michelin star restaurant, their credentials are high-brow. And yet Ebbe has been seen more than once on the streets of Malmö just off the plane from Paris, his face nearly obscured by a giant crate of ingredients he sourced himself to ensure that his restaurant offers precisely what he believes to be the best available foodstuffs. Restaurant Bloom was once located in a hotel in Malmö. Today, they have their home at the border of a lake in the city’s largest park, Pildammsparken.
The city of Malmö is, among other things, a reflection of its surroundings. Less than one hour’s drive from the city center, you can reach quiet little beach towns with charming coffee shops with homemade pastries and interesting teas. Interspersed are fishing villages where fishmongers sell their catch directly and locals sit in the sun munching on shrimp and dill sandwiches. Inland, there are dozens of places where you can pick your own apples, blueberries or strawberries at various orchards and farms. Kilometers of coastline offer a kalbadhuset (bath house) in nearly every town, including the longest pier in Sweden in Bjarred. Here you can have a sauna and then in the Swedish tradition, take the plunge into the icy northern waters for a full body awakening. Golfing and horseback riding are also national pastimes with many celebrated venues to visit. Perhaps it should come as little surprise then that Malmö offers a variety of urban delights with a softer, gentler tone. You can walk the city from top to bottom, but you’re not likely to forget the color of grass or the scent of the sea.
November 2007