None is particularly exciting, with the exception perhaps of Varberg, but most offer a decent chance of finding space on a good beach. A few kilometres dovra the coast, the ancient lands of Skane begin, one of the earliest settled parts of Sweden and scene of constant medieval conflict over sovereignty with Denmark. As the southernmost region of Sweden, Skene's swathes of rolling grassland and pockets of forest are fionted by characteristic, windy beaches. Although Skine was finally ceded to Sweden in the late seventeenth century, the Danish inheritance died hard, and is still preserved today in a local accent that's thick and often incomprehensible to other Swedes. If you've come from Denmark, there's much that seems familiar: the surviving castles and architecture, even the traditional agricultural methods bear close comparison. It's Skine's ports that attract most interest Helsingboig, a stone's throw from Denmark, and Malmo, still solidly sixteenthcentury at its centre, vidth the medieval cathedral and university town of Lund an obvious and enjoyake stop between the two. The attractive Sktoe coast stretches eastwards, through medieval Ystad, as far as Renaissance Kristianstad. Beyond Kristianstad, you'll hardly notice that you've crossed the border from Skine into Blekinge, such is the uniform nature of Sweden's southern coast. A succession of small coastal resorts, the county culminates in the oncegreat navd centre of Karlskrona, Sweden's second city in the eighteenth century. Today it relies strongly on its memories, as does the infinitely smaller walled hamlet of Kristianopel, at the edge of Blekinge, fortified by the Danes to protect against seventeenthcentury Swedish attacks. Getting around Getting around the region is easy, either using local buses (detailed throughout the text) to hop fiom one coastal town to another, or by cutting across from the west to east coasts on the regular trains that link Malmo and Helsingborg with Kristianstad and Karlskrona. Express trains also run down the west coast from Gothenburg to Helsingborg and Malmo (and on to Copenhagen), and a local fei service Unks the towns of Karlshamn and Ronneby. If s also worth noting that a whole raft of international ferry services link this part of Sweden with DenmarK Germany and even Poland see Travel Details", at the end of the chapter. South from Gothenburg: Kungsbacka and Vajlerg The train is barely out of the suburbs of Gothenburg before it reaches KUNGSBACKA, 30km to the south, a smaU, quiet town with its roots in the thirteenth century. The only day it's really worth stopping is the first Thursday of the month when a bustling market sprawls around the town's ageing square, emise Kungsbacka's gentle river can make it a pleasant enough spot for a stroU, or you could head 15km south to the curious stately home of Tjolo Qesigned by a Swede at the turn of this century in Elizabethan style for i owner. Its a surprisingly pleasing marriage of rough hewn rock and.