Crime tourists

I’m really very disappointed in you. Not one person last week who could tell me why the trains from Copenhagen airport go to Ystad.

It appears that certain parts of Sweden are at the receiving end of vast numbers of criminally minded tourists. Such hordes clearly need to be directed as quickly and efficiently as possible. Hence the sign for Ystad, which is not all that far away from the airport, and maybe staff got tired of everyone asking.

Ystad is a good place for you to go on holiday. It’s as beautiful as my own part of southern Sweden, and if you go to Ystad I won’t have to put up with you where I go. But do remember it’s not Yshtad.

Funnily enough it would seem that people only start travelling after the crime in question has been filmed, so not much imagination or curiosity for somewhere from the printed page alone. Wallander has been marching round Ystad for many years, but as soon as you send Kenneth Branagh over, the rest will follow.

Now Stockholm follows suit, after the Stieg Larsson books and the first film. You can do Millennium walks between the various addresses where Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist do their stuff. I had hoped to see the film during this visit, but it’s on so late that the broom wouldn’t find its way back to bed afterwards. Let’s hope it’s still on next month.

Stockholm tourist people are even expecting visitors to be tempted to come after watching Let The Right One In. Hah.

The fact that poor Sweden has a currency that does as badly as the pound, means that British visitors can afford to come. So come. But I would like to point out that the place was worth a visit pre-Branagh. And there are a few other areas other than Ystad and Stockholm that are quite nice.

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