We chose Malmo, Sweden for its proximity to Copenhagen Airport for our Monday flight to Norway.

It looked interesting enough to spend a weekend. There’s not the charm of Arhus but still an historic city and we were staying in Lila Torg, the lively plaza filled with cafes and bars.

Best of all, it was suddenly warm and sunny weather, welcoming us to spend time outdoors. First stop Friday night was a hipsters bar filled with people and music ( why are Michael Jackson’s hits still so popular abroad?)

Malmo has no lack of excellent restaurants and we happily scored hard to come by rezzies at a chic Asian Fusian place called Quan. What we didn’t expect was that Quan was actually our hotel’s restaurant. An easy to follow be, delicious start to our weekend.

Saturday, after a groaningly huge breakfast (including herring and lox), we walked all over our side of town, passing historic houses, a 15th Century church and entered the largest park in town—The King’s Park.. Think stone castle with a moat, boaters dallying down canals, gorgeous, Monet-esque botanical gardens, picnics on tree-dappled lawns…and a Punk Rock Concert!

Who’da thunk there’d be punk?

As we wandered the huge and resplendently green King’s park, we heard noises of an incipient concert near the castle cum museum. We followed our ears to a tent entry and asked a guard what’s happening. Apparently an all day punk concert ending with Van Morrison.

The tattooed, black clad and mohawked entrants were clearly not our crowd, but we found a hillock just outside the gates where other “freeloaders” were hanging out. We sat down on the grassy knoll to enjoy a bit of live music with them!

From there we shared the best fish and chips I’ve ever had at the quaint and tatty historic fish huts “fiskehaddoran” just inside the park. From sea to table!

We returned to our Elite Hotel Esplanade for r&r then off on another long walk to an outdoor trattoria where we feasted on pizza and pasta.

And on Sunday. We rested. Traveling is exhausting and we needed to slow down! Late breakfast, walk to The Modern Museum. Rest. Walk to Former 1625 granary transformed to a design house just steps across our plaza. Get gelato. Rest. Dinner at Ruth’s, a few doors away.

We will come back and pack for our flight to Stavanger. Go to bed early after watching something on Netflix or HBO from Andy’s iPad.

A perfect Sunday, don’t you think?!