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| Street scene in St Germaine en Laye |
Cate had the usual leisurely start to the day. Birgit wanted to take Cate to St Germaine en Laye so they drove there from La Celle St Cloud. They visited the pavilion associated with the castle that housed the room in which Louis XIV was born. After inspecting the place, they repaired to the restaurant in that pavilion for lunch. The restaurant is spectacular, with views of the Seine and across to Paris on the horizon. The Eiffel Tour was observable above a small hill.
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| The castle at St Germaine en Laye | Cate at the castle |
Birgit and Cate enjoyed a luxurious, lengthy lunch, served by young waiters treating them like royalty. They then walked around the grounds enjoying the spectacular scenery, the enchanting castle, and the warm summer weather. Eventually, the warmth tired Cate a bit, so they did some shopping in the boutiques attached to the grounds, mostly for Lena's birthday.
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| Birgit at lunch in the pavilion at the castle | The view of the Seine valley from the pavilion cafe |
The drive home was through the town of St Germaine en Laye. Cate feels that St Germaine is a beautiful, olde worlde town.
In Malmo, the day started gloomy and overcast after rain overnight, but throughout the day it cleared so by the afternoon, it was a lovely summer's day in Sweden.
Vanessa's plan for Tim today was touring around Malmo, mostly the old city, though it included a visit to the signature new tourist attractions in the city too. So, after a slow start and an energising breakfast, we went into town on the bus and deposited Tim's bag at the railway station.
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| Malmo Central Station (old side) | Malmo Central Station (new side) |
We then got the bus further north and west to get out at the Turning Torso, a remarkable architectural masterpiece built next to the sea in an area that is very like the Kingston Foreshore in Canberra - apartment building four or five stories high, built along a shoreline with winding lanes and pocket gardens between the rows moving away from the shoreline. (Your correspondent does not recognise a location in Sydney with which to draw a parallel.)
| The 'foreshore' district in Malmo |
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You can see the famous bridge from that part of Malmo too - as the photos totally fail to prove!
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| The Bridge - in the distance | The Bridge - still distant, but at least visible |
Better photos of the bridge at Malmo
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| By Alex | From a postcard |
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| Boat harbour at foreshore | Houseboats on a canal at foreshore | Old-style boatshed fish-shops |
We then walked back around the Malmo Castle and through the gardens behind it. There are two parks adjacent to each other next to the castle: the Castle Garden and the Kings Garden. We walked through the Castle Garden (was the consent among the locals). This is the original entry to the city/town and the gardens are both cultivated into 'garden rooms' representing different styles of gardens, and a productive vegetable garden. And, just outside the garden area, they have a windmill!
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| Malmo castle | A windmill! |
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| Garden rooms | Productive garden |
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| Garden beds (note the dryness) | Canal separating the Castle Grounds
from the Kings Grounds |
From the gardens, we entered "the old city", the original town of Malmo. It is a beautiful town, with mediaeval roots, and Tim was instantly in love with it, having a total soft-spot or mediaeval European architecture and town building. We wound through the streets heading for a couple of key places that Vanessa had in mind. We visited MJ's (Master Jacques) where there is a 'secret garden' bar that was spectacular, then through narrow, cobblestone streets to the "small square". Vanessa maintains that Malmo loves its squares and is basically built on a set of them dotted around. Apparently, they were mostly used for markets and executions, in the old days. Just cafes and shops these days!
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| Street scenes of old Malmo |
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| MJ's atrium bar |
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| Quaint old buildings in old Malmo |
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| The 'little' square |
We looked around inside the inner courtyard of one of the oldest buildings in the city square, backed by a warehouse built in 1870. The next stop was in a coffee house for the Swedish tradition of "fika" (which is apparently a
viral world-peace thing now!) - basically, coffee, cake and chatting. This coffee house is a favourite of the two girls and serves the best carrot cake in town - it was fantastic!
We set off again, eventually, to head to King Gustav square, where we saw the Griffin - symbol of the city - which was a little underwhelming like "the little mermaid". Then we had lunch at Gustav Adolf Restaurant on the recommendation from "the Frenchman" through conversations on the phone. Lunch was fabulous for Tim not least because of the wonderful company of Vanessa and Alexandra.
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| City 'mascot' - The Griffin | Nes and Alex hugging the City |
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| Gustav Square |
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| Street art in "large" square |
After a leisurely lunch, we wandered to the "big square" past several places that both Alex and Nes had worked at various times (we'd passed Alex's current place of work when we were at Turning Torso). Tim acquired some souvenirs and then we all walked back to the railway station to collect Tim's bag.
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| The girls at Espresso House |
We had a coffee in the cafe at the station - Espresso House, a chain store like Starbucks of Swedish origin that serves systemised coffee at too-high prices, but it was ok - and while we were there, Antoine showed up. So, the whole crew escorted Tim down to the train to go to the airport and waved him goodbye from the platform. It was sad. Too little time had been spent in each other's company, but it was also happy because we'd had the chance to spend time together at all!
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| Who won the World Cup in 2018? |
Tim flew back to Paris and was reunited with Aunty Cath, Birgit and Eric. This wonderful adventure is nearly over. Frankly, it's probably the right amount of time. Tim, for one, is pretty tired from all the touring and excitement.
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