We did have a lovely day today in Malmo and have all concluded that this is a really lovely City.  It is small enough to be able to walk everywhere but big enough to have all the City facilities you expect to find.  It seems friendly, relaxed and laid back.  The sunshine and bright blue sky definitely helped make today one of our favourites of our Scandinavian sojourn.

My eating this month has definitely been vegetarian rather than vegan.  I partly blame being on holiday but in truth, I find it hard to be vegan, even though I am convinced it is a better way to eat, for health, for the environment and for animals.  Sticking to any type of diet is hard on holiday but I decided to try eating vegan all day, to see how I got on and because once back at home, I am being really strict again.

Breakfast was easy, plus I knew what to expect so was prepared when I went downstairs.  I began with fresh fruit.  Followed by black coffee, orange juice and granola with vanilla soya yogurt and strawberry compot.  We did a lot of walking today.  After dropping the bikes back, we walked over to the Ribersborg Kalbadhus, the Cold Baths or Kallis as the locals call it. It has been opened since 1892.  It seems to be open all year round.  

This is a classic wooden bath house, where women go in to the right and men to the left.  In here you can have a sauna, swim in the sea, sunbathe or just relax on the wooden decks.  Being such a sunny day, it was very busy and I enjoyed the experience very much.  Harvey wasn’t old enough to go in ( he didn’t want to anyway) and Lara didn’t want to so they had drinks and waited in the sunshine on the open air sun deck.  Obviously I took no photos inside the baths but this is inside the building in the restaurant area.   

 Next was a long walk to Mollevang Square where I understood there to be a large market selling fruit and a variety of foods from around the world. In particular, there were lots of places selling falafells, allegedly.

 We walked past lovely old buildings and through parks.  
  To the square, by which time we were quite warm and I was thirsty after my sauna at the bath house.  Luckily there were lots of places to buy a drink.
The falafel places I had read about seemed to be inside kebab shops,so we had some fruit instead.  This man was giving away sweet juicey watermelon – thank you very much.  

Dill pickle anyone?  

 There was a lot of ripe and cheap fruit to buy and in the end I had a nectarine. 

    
 Next stop was a park nearby called Folkets Park, which had a large cafe so we settled in for lunch.

  I had checked  that there was no dairy in the lentil and beetroot salad I ordered but there was a small amount of cheese in it.  I ate it anyway but the lesson learnt was that it is difficult being vegan and travelling in a country with a different language.  I guess the thing to do would be to write out that you are following a restricted diet and list the foods you want to avoid so you can show it to waiting staff.  Then they can read it in their own language and you are not dependant on their English abilities.
   
The coffee was good and strong and as we planned the afternoon’s activities, we saw that we had done all the things on the must see/do list that we wanted to. 

 Apart from the mini golf and a drink on Lilla Torg.  So,we cracked on.  

    
 The mini golf was great fun (and not just because I won 😃👍) and when we handed back the clubs, I did indulge in an ice-cream.  Ben and Jerry’s make different flavours for the Swedes.  Many are the same but some are different and this was fantastic. 

   We walked a lot more, back towards the hotel.  Past statues,  

  Past lots of fountains,  

   a very quirky memorial in the form of sculpted shoes,  
 They were life size, as (nearly) modelled by Harvey!  

 We continued walking, past so many open air spaces where people could enjoy the sunny Saturday.  

   We finished our walkabout around Malmo at Lilla Torg, a pretty cobbled square with some buildings dating back to the 14th century. 

    
    
   One of my favourite shops. 

 Cold beer and peanuts  
 and a game of cards were a splendid end to a lovely day out.  

 I had already failed the challenge of eating like a vegan so I failed again at supper time.  The lentil and tomato soup must have had milk or cream in it.  

 The mayonnaise, cheese and butter with my main meal were another fail.  I wasn’t very hungry hence the small portion.  

 I finished with a tiny portion of chocolate brownie, another non vegan food.  This is a teaspoon on a side plate so it really was very small.  Can you travel and stick to a vegan diet? Yes of course you can, but it requires discipline and planning ahead.  I am good at planning but hopeless with discipline.

We finished the evening with another round of cards in the hotel lobby.

We head home tomorrow after what has been a very interesting and in the main, extremely enjoyable holiday.  The jury is out on whether our favourite city was Copenhagen or Malmo.  It was not Gothenburg which was worth a visit but not somewhere I would rush back to.  I would like to go back to Copenhagen as we were only there for 24 hours.  When I do go back, I am popping on the train to Malmo to go to the cold baths again.