Sweden “Cindy I think we bought a Volvo, no a Timeshare, no just two bikes”

A fast day trip to Sweden and the Swedish Police are still looking for us.(More on that later).  We started out the day great.  We went to the train station and got two round trip train tickets to Malmo Sweden, about a 35 minute train ride from here.  We got the 11:43AM train and were in Malmo by 12:18 PM.  Cindy read up about the sites we could see in Malmo and said we could rent bikes to tour the city.  I thought that was a great idea.  So we stopped at the travel info bureau at the train station and they gave us a map of all the bike routes throughout the city and directed us to the bike rental companies.  We were set for a great day. We picked up the bikes at the bus station and headed out for our planned sightseeing journey. The bike routes are fantastic.  The next photo shows you what they look like.

You can see the bike trail with it’s own set of traffic signals  and Cindy waiting for the light to turn green. 

Our first stop was going to be the chocolate factory and since it was Saturday it closed at 2 PM.  Well with our trusty map (in Swedish) and great street signs we made many wrong turns until finally at 2:10 PM we gave up the hunt for the chocolate factory. (I was heartbroken.)

Next on to the Turning Torso.  This is tallest building in Sweden and the tallest residential building in the Nordic countries. It is 54 stories and 190 meters high. The building does twist and the top floor is turned 90 degrees from the bottom floor.

Well it was easy to find this building even without a map.  Cindy read in a tourist brochure about a movie (narrated in English) we could view that told about the construction of the building and showed you what the inside of the building looks like. The event center next to the Turning Torso was supposed to be the place where you could watch the movie for a cost of about 5 dollars each.  We got to the event center at 2:50 PM and they told us that the movie was now being shown on the top floor of the Turning Torso building, along with a tour of the building at 3 PM. Off we go back to the Turning Torso. We got to the reception area and they said we could get in with the last meeting for the day (note I said meeting not tour). We jumped at the chance to see the movie and view the building from the inside.  The receptionist sent us over to another desk where they write down our name and advised us they would have a presentation in Swedish but the movie after will be in Swedish with English sub titles. Well what the heck we are only in Malmo for one day lets do it.  Then he said that will be 390 kronor for the two if us (about $65.)  OK we are backed into a corner what do we do?  I figured I guess we get one he- - of a tour & maybe refreshments with it. So up we go to the 54th floor. We have the meeting, conducted in Swedish with about 20 other folks and I got this feeling that maybe this is a timeshare presentation. Maybe that is what the $65 bucks was for -- a down payment? After the meeting we were shown the film (it seemed to be the same information that was covered in the meeting). We finely got the gist of the meeting. They were trying to sell apartments in this building!  So we bought two! After we got done with the meeting they led us out into an area with a bar and coffee and pastry cart. Oh this is what the $65 bucks were for!  WRONG they were charging for drinks and pastries.  The next few photos are some taken from the top of the building.

    

My new timeshare

Ok, now we are down to our last 60 Swedish Kronor. So no lunch for us. It is now about 4:30 PM and Cindy said that she read about a castle not far from where we were. She said the visitor center closed at 4 PM but we could still see and take photos of the castle. So off we go and sure enough we found the castle and snapped a few photos of the building.

Sometime during our bike ride I asked Cindy if she knew what time we had to have the bikes back. She said she didn’t know but she had the contract and she would check that. Nope no time on the contract and it’s at a bus station so we guess we are good to go for awhile.  Now it is about 5PM so we decide to head back to the bike rental store and turn in the bikes and catch the train for Copenhagen. Well we get to the bus depot at 5:15 PM and the whole building, including the bike rental store, is locked up tight for the night! We try the phone number on the contract and no answer. We go to the tourist information booth and that is closed. Now what do we do? I guess we take the bikes on the train back to Copenhagen and bring them back in the morning. Yes here we are hauling two rental bikes (with Swedish rental stickers all over them) to another country. Well we snuck them into Denmark without being arrested for transporting stolen property and tomorrow we hope to take them back and return them without the police locking us up! If our next blog entry is a request for bail money you know things went bad.  If the Swedish or Danish police call you and ask about us, just say you never heard of us!!!

 PHOTO OF CINDY WITH TODAYS BOOTY, THE BIKES