Lund

Lund is more than just a city: the municipality that bears its name reaches southward and eastward into lush agricultural land and protected patches of forest.

Skåne’s second largest city, Lund has always been and will likely forever be associated with its university, whose influence can be seen and felt in the architecture and culture of the place. The genteel and traditional yin to Malmö’s bustling (post-)industrial yang, Lund provides the more lofty intellectual aspects of Skåne’s southwestern metropolitan zone—or at least that’s what it likes to think of itself. (Malmöites may hold rather different opinions, of course.)

But there’s much more to Lund than the sacred groves and ivory brick towers of academe, which are most obvious (or is it inescapable?) in the “old town” at the center of the city. The bookish bohemia of Östra Torn, the folkhemmet utopia of Klostergården, the tech-centric towers of Brunnshög… and that’s to name just a few of its distinct little enclaves! If you can cope with the heat, come during the summer holidays, which—despite recent changes to the regulations around annual leave, particularly in academia—still run pretty reliably for six to eight weeks immediately after midsommar: the students have all gone home, the locals have mostly retreated to the family stuga, and the city’s delights are a whole lot more accessible as a result. (Just don’t forget to hydrate and use your parasol…)

Lund is more than just a city, however: the kommun (or municipality) that bears its name reaches southward and eastward into lush agricultural land and protected patches of forest. You can day-trip it out there with relative ease, of course, but you might want to consider basing yourself in one of the eastern villages for a few nights. Be warned, though—you may fall in love with the Skånian landscape!

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