Mini Friendship Exchange with Sweden 2024

Exchange visit between District 1070 in the UK and District 2400 in Sweden

Dragsö in the center of Karlskrona, Sweden.
Photo by Jesper Cederholm on Unsplash — Dragsö in the center of Karlskrona, Sweden. Photo by Jesper Cederholm on Unsplash

The first phase of the exchange between the Districts started with District 1070 visiting Sweden on13th to 17th June 2024, with the return visit planned from 12th to 16th September 2024. The region within District 2400 was in Scania (Skåne) in the south of the country and involved our party being hosted by families in Kristianstad and Karlskrona with the change over taking place on the 15th.

Our exchange was an experiment in that it was a first in District 1070 that effectively took place over a long weekend. There has been some difficulty in obtaining support among some of our working and heavily committed members for longer periods of time, such as the two to three weeks required for more distant locations. It has been suggested by some potential participants that this is too long for them to take part in. So the outcome of this exchange may well influence future opportunities for visits to other countries in Europe.

The first issue in arranging a visit to this part of Sweden was that most flights between our two counties involve transfers within Europe that greatly extend travel time. Our visit therefore undertook a flight to Copenhagen in Denmark and then train travel over the Øresund Bridge.

An hourly train service from Copenhagen airport directly to Kristianstad in Sweden took ninety minutes; as long as the average flight time from the UK to Copenhagen. In order to make to best of our time in Sweden we all had to take early morning flights from Stansted, Heathrow or Gatwick.

Due to illnesses and hospital appointments within our original party we arrived as a group of six. Two from Blaby RC, plus a friend, one from Market Harborough, two from Northampton West.

Both of the cities visited in Sweden had their origins in the 17th Century. Kristianstad was planned and built in the reign of king Christian IV of Denmark, starting in 1614. This was in the Scandinavian war between the two countries in which Scania was became part of the Danish kingdom.

The result of this was that it was purpose built on a grid system of streets within fortifications similar to those found all over Europe at this time. The populations of the towns of Vå and Åhus and their charters were moved into the city alongside the Danish garrison.

As a result the city has been given a distinct character which is evident in its architecture and culture. It remained a military centre until the 1990s, after which some of Sweden’s armed forces were disbanded. Today, the city has a modern council building that has incorporated the facades of the original buildings and the surrounding river and water meadows provide parkland settings for recreation formed over the original fortifications. The amenities in this area include a theatre and nature centre; the latter being where we met of hosts.

Kristianstad Aurora Rotary Club is, as the title suggests, is a breakfast club where we attended their Friday morning meeting at 07.30. We were asked to make short presentations about our individual clubs before having breakfast and their discussion about projects that they were involved with. Their degree of understanding and speaking of English made it easy for us to communicate, but we were unable to reciprocate in Swedish!

The Holy Trinity Church is fine example of Baroque architecture in the Lutheran tradition. This was a feature in the original design of the city.

Some hosts lived in Åhus, some 15 minutes drive from Kristianstad. The heart of this town was a square surrounded by traditional architecturally designed public and domestic buildings, including the church. The timing of our visit was intended to coincide with the summer solstice, a time of celebration long proceeding the adoption of Christianity in Sweden. We participated in an outdoor meal in local woodland and later at the home of the hosts in Åhus.

We transferred by rail on Saturday morning to the second city, Karlskrona. This entailed a further 90 minute train journey going eastward along the coast. Here we left the train at Ronneby a few stops before Karlskrona so that we could take lunch will the hosts at a village farm-based restaurant.

The city of Karlskrona was also created as a result of the Swedish-Danish war in the 17th century. It was also built on the grid system with wide roads and numerous buildings in classical architectural design. It was constructed during the reign of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during the 1640s it was designed from the beginning as a naval dockyard. This included a training college and shipyard with land-based fortifications. Today it is a UN Heritage Site. The urban area is spread over a number of islands in an archipelago opening into the Baltic Sea.

The Rotary club hosting us was another ‘Aurora’ breakfast club, which claimed to be recruiting more members from the working community. The hosts however were drawn from those who had already retired. These included the District Governor Elect, Ulla Ståhl and her husband, who retired from the navy with the rank of Commander. His last role being that of a lecturer at the naval college. As of the beginning of the Rotary Year 2024-2025 Ulla was taking on the expanded District D2395 .

Our itinerary included travel by a ferry service that connected different locations and one that gave views of the main urban area from a different prospective. Once ashore we had a tour of the original settlement conducted by a UN Heritage Guide.

Lunch was taken in the Maritime Museum however our visit to this was curtailed due to an accident that had taken place at one hosts’ residence whereby the husband was effectively run over by their car on their steep driveway and he had to be taken to hospital. He suffered a broken shoulder blade and the car had to be rescued from the garden of the house opposite. We were all relieved to learn that he was discharged later in the day and returned home. His wife, a RFE hostess, the Rotary Club’s President was unable to rejoin out tour until that evening at the farewell party held at DGE Ulla’s home.

In the interim, we enjoyed a visit to the beach area and the views out over the Baltic Sea. One commercially important export business was also visible from the pier; that of the brewery and warehouse of ‘Absolut’ vodka, all of which is made in Karlskrona.

Our return started a little after 10.30am on Monday with a three hour rail journey back to Copenhagen airport. The rail travel in both directions provided an opportunity to see the landscape of Scania and the largely rural nature of this part of Sweden. Although Malmo is a large industrial city, there is rather less manufacturing activity evident than could have been expected.

This ’flying’ visit was interesting in what was seen and experienced and in connecting Rotarians within the two countries. We will be welcoming the return visitors in September and will put together a programme that demonstrates both the history of our District and current developments.