A 24 hour birthday spent in Malmö

Due to my long blog paus, I haven’t shown any photos from our two weeks in Sweden over the Christmas holidays. It’s now been a while since my sister turned 30 but I just came across the photos from the birthday celebrations as my parents are coming to Brussels on Friday and have been taking shopping orders from the rest of the family. Apparently my sister-in-law really liked a cheese that we ate while celebrating my sister and now we are trying to figure out (among the methods to remember was looking at photos!) which one it could be (maybe tomme de savoie, one of my favourite cheeses!?).

It wasn’t easy to find a birthday surprise activity for a 30-year old which should also accommodate a 7-month pregnant woman (my sister-in-law, due in one week!!), a 16-month old and be available on the 1st-2nd January when a lot of restaurants, hotels etc are actually closed! And not to forget the weather in January… In the end my father and I decided on a programme that we hoped the rest of the family, and especially the birthday girl, would enjoy. I think we succeeded quite well!

1) check into a hotel in Malmö on New Year’s day. The 7½ of us took the train to Malmö without telling my sister the final destination.

Scandic Hotel S:t Jörgen was a great option – the newly renovated hotel rooms are much fresher and nicer than on the photos (!!! it seems that they have actually updated the website since then…) and it’s smack in the middle of the city on the main pedestrian street.

My sister’s photo
2) Organise an impromptu pre-birthday drink in the biggest hotel room as most restaurants in the city were closed on the 1st January! We brought cheese (see above…), wine, champagne (I think it was cava actually), grapes and snacks. Music was provided with an iPhone and V danced for us.

3) Yummy hotel breakfast with all the trimmings, including gluten-free bread and muffins for my sister-in-law and a play room for V, who of course thought it was more fun to run around the breakfast room and talk to other guests… (his speciality is to walk up to strangers and just stare at them – at the airport in December he actually looked so longingly at a woman’s sandwich that she asked if she could give him a bite… poor starving boy)

4) Check out from the hotel and walk for 15 minutes to Malmö castle (Malmöhus) which hosts Malmö museums

5) Visit the exhibitions, including the fish finger (fiskpinne)  😉 Sign says: “With its rectangular shape the fish finger is adapted to freezers all over the world”

6) Try to keep track of the 16-month old… he really liked the stuffed animals! The rest of us liked the temporary exhibition of old school posters (see photo on my sister’s blog) and some of us [female family members] enjoyed the one on 1920’s fashion. We’ll save visiting the famous submarine for when V is a bit older!

7) Have a delicious lunch at Årstiderna in the Kockska house (the oldest house in Malmö if I am not wrong, which our grandfather helped renovate in the 1960’s). Bring entertainment for the youngest family member…

Finish off the day with some shopping before heading home. The birthday girl ended her birthday with cocktails at the Grand hotel in Lund but that’s another story.

My sister has also written about her birthday on her blog…