"A Swedish Map Test" Alvesta by deptlads

The reason for adding this town is that it has become something of a private joke between us.

On our first trip together (our grand tour) we were due to spend a Sunday in Malmö, en route from København to Berlin.

On arriving in Malmö off the boat (this pre-dates the Oresund link) it promptly started to rain very heavily.

We did not want to spend the next 5 hours stuck in Malmö station, so we decided the best thing to do was get on the first available Swedish Railways X2000 (high speed) train (we had inter-rail passes, so it only cost a small supplement).

Alvesta was as far as we could go and get back to Malmö in time to get our Berlin sleeper. We couldn't find on it on any maps, but appeared to be about 180km inland.

The scenery on the way was quite stimulating; the rolling farmland of Skåne gradually giving way to the boulder-strewn forests of Småland, interspersed with long shallow lakes and marshes.

Alvesta, or what we saw of it from the station, looked pretty enough, and the town obviously has some strong railwy connections as you can see from the picture (it had stopped raining by then!).

Ever since that visit, whenever we see a map of Europe or Scandinavia or Sweden, we always look to see if Alvesta is marked. A map which passes the "Alvesta test" is more likely to win our approval!