Helsingborg

Saturday 20th August 2016

Today is our final port before returning to Copenhagen to drop off the passengers that only signed up for the Baltic Cruise and take on new passengers who will join the Copenhagen to New York leg. We are not sure how many will join, but have heard that there are only 590 of the 1900 on board continuing on to New York.

We arrived just off Helsingborg at around 7.30 am and dropped anchor as this is the only tender port on this part of the cruise. There is no cruise terminal in Helsingborg, and we are now located at the entrance to the Baltic Sea and can easily see both Sweden and Denmark from our ship.  They are only 4 km apart at this point, and the territory here has been hotly contested over history, as whoever owns it controls the entrance to the Baltic Sea. In early history, ships had to pay to enter the sea and if they failed to they would be fired upon by fortresses on either side of the entrance and sunk.

From what we have been able to find out about Helsingborg, we do not expect we will need a full day ashore to see the highlights, so are not in a hurry to get off the ship and race ashore. We eventually caught a tender for the short trip at around 10 am.

It is overcast, having had a bit of rain overnight, but the weather is holding out for us and the temperature is reasonably mild. Generally the days have heated up in the afternoon, with a T shirt providing enough warmth once the morning chill passes.

Once ashore, we are greeted by the local tourist volunteers , who provide us with maps and any assistance we require with regard to where to go.

The town is very clean, with wide streets and flowers in bloom everywhere, quite a spectacular sight, but where are the people ? Without the passengers off the ship, the town is practically deserted, and it is a Saturday !

We faithfully headed off with our map, and ticked off the listed highlights as we went, the first major one being the town hall. Opposite the Town Hall on the ocean side is a large square with The Dunkers Kulturhus at  the waterside end. The square was decorated with large flower pots.

Culture Centre

Town Hall

Alongside the Town Hall is a boulevard, with a Statue of Field Marshall Magnus  Stenbock who led the Swedes to victory against the Danes in 1710, at the beginning of the boulevard.

It leads to what seems to be the main shopping area, and at the end of which is a set of stairs leading up to a fortress, Karnan, that is located high above the city.

We walked down the boulevard and climbed up the stairs to get a birds eye view of the city and surrounds. We had a clear view of our ship, and the Danish Coast just behind her.

Next on the walking tour was St Mary’s Church, a short walk from the stairs that led up to the Fortress.

It was coffee time and we found a small café that had wifi where we stopped for Fika (as they call it here), a cup of coffee and a bit of relaxation (without the sweet pastries) and caught up on our email and the blog.

Our little wifi cafe

There were few other highlights other than it is a very pretty city, albeit a bit quiet, but spotlessly clean, and beautifully decorated with plants flowering all over town.

Not sure what this place is all about

Our walk took us around in a bit of a circle, and eventually, back along the waterfront, where the most imposing building is the train and ferry terminal. There are ferries running backwards and forwards regularly to Denmark.

A walk out to the breakwall gave us even better views of the Zuiderdam at anchor, when the peace and quiet was broken with the sound of backfiring car engines revving furiously.

Denmark Ferry Entering the Harbour

MS Zuiderdam with Denmark in the background

We went back to the town hall area to see what was happening and to our amazement, there were hotted  up cars doing burnouts in front of the town hall, much to the amusement of the locals. Rather than being a bunch of hooligans it turned out to be an organized event. So much for our image of this quiet, sleepy Swedish Town !

We then headed back to the tenders to go back to the ship, having seen it all (or enough anyway).

Interesting Fountain Opposite the Town Hall

As we were waiting in the queue , two you Swedish kids dressed in traditional dress were handing out roses to the ladies farewelling them as we got on board. What a nice touch !

We were back on board by 1.30pm and had lunch on the ship. The rest of the afternoon was spent having a rest before pulling up anchor at 6pm, for a short sail to Copenhagen, where we expect to berth at 8pm.