Ängelholm

A literal line of thought would surely oblige us to conclude that the heavenly host probably appreciate seaside towns with fine beaches… though perhaps they come instead for the lakes and forests, which are pretty heavenly, too.

Ängelholm translates pretty cleanly as “angel islet”, and so a literal line of thought would surely oblige us to conclude that the heavenly host probably appreciate seaside towns with fine beaches in the northwest of Skåne… though perhaps they come instead for the lakes and forests in the northwestern parts of this kommun, which are pretty heavenly, too. (More so, certainly, than the old E6 highway, though that has certain artificial attractions of its own.)

Ängelholm has a surprisingly and diverse roster of claims-to-fame: on the one hand, it was the first Skånian municipality to offer broadband connectivity to its citizens, way back in 1996; on the other hand, there is the legacy of the “pollen king” Gösta Carlsson, a railway signalman turned beekeeper who founded a business empire on what we might now describe as health supplements, ploughed some of the proceeds into founding and supporting Rögle BK, the local icehockey team, and—perhaps most notoriously—erected a monument in the early 1970s on the site where he claimed to have been visited by beings from outer space in 1946.

Not everyone here is quite as characterful as Carlsson was; it’s a high bar to pass, after all. But Ängelhom does have a lively arts scene, the main engine of which—and an absolute must-see, even if you’re just passing through—is the tradition of sand sculpture down on the beaches.

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