Less than two hours from Copenhagen

Östra Göinge less than two hours from Copenhagen.

If you land at Copenhagen Kastrup airport you are only 30 minutes from Sweden and an hour and 45 minutes from Northeastern corner of Skåne where you can sit in a canoe at lake Immeln, take a boat trip along Helge river, visit Kristianstads biosphere area, enjoy a fantastic Indian meal, hike, fish or cycle along designed tracks.....and did you know that Absolut vodka is produced in Åhus? I did not!

Early spring in the evening by river Helge.

Sunset over Knislinge town.

Breakfast at the terrace with Ms. T

We arrived on the last day of March to sign all the documents for our villa and started organizing many practical things (person numbers, car registrations, bank accounts etc.) and received one load of goods from Finland 1st April and another together with the car from Andalucia later the same week. A big hand to Niemi & Niemi and Roslagen for good service. A person number really is a must before you can get organized because before that you do not exist. To get a job e.g. is not going to be possible without it. Nor can you open a bank account. The Swedish immigration system is indeed well structured to welcome foreigners. All instances give you exact advice and procedures are swift. It took us a month to get everything sorted out. One thing that worried us was the access to cinematic opera performances from Metropolitan (and others). We soon discovered that Osby Borgen has a nice theatre and it is only 30 minutes away. We already had Cosi Fan Tutte one evening. Excellent service with a sparkling drink to go.

We also needed to learn the surrounding area quickly. Kristianstad is a lovely city that offer every-thing needed though it has only 35000 inhabitants (some 80000 in the immediate neighborhood). A large and modern shopping centre in Vilan-Härlöv provided us with necessary items for gardening, painting, decoration and anything needed. Kristianstad also has GREAT restaurants; grilled meat and Indian are big favorites. The libraries in Kristianstad and Broby served us with computers when needed. At Broby we also meat Anna-Stina who kindly approached us and now is, alongside our neighbours Bengt, Conny and Mats with their wives, good friends offering a way into the local community. Yesterday we had a cup of the tea with Gerd and Ingvar at their place. The welcome here has been fantastic.

Wanås manor.

Part of Wanås art collection; Richard Nonas.

Springtime at Wanås.

Wanås manor with gardens and large woodland is only 2,5 km's from us so we have had the possibility to visit this area a few times. There was a castle here already in the 15th century. Today they display contemporary art, run a shop and ecological cafés. Everyone is welcome to walk in the large beech tree woodlands that host a number of sculptures, note e.g. the red ball in the tree above. 

The above is a brief description of what Östra Göinge and Kristianstad has to offer in general but we will be back with more to tell later on. Next will be visits to Bäckaskog, Hovdala, Christinehov and Sealand. 

Wansår manor park.

How are we doing so far?