It's bit windy here, but I suppose that isn't surprising as we're right on the coast. Friends back home have enquired if there is snow on the ground and “minus how much is it there?”, but as yet we're yet to feel the kind of chill you feel on a terrace in mid-January.

So far Helsingborg seems a pretty and quiet city, quiet until the majority of the Blue hordes arrive today anyway. A small and pretty town similar in some ways to Ipswich. We arrived by train at the Knutpunkten, which is sadly not a meeting place for Viking fans of the Ramones and Clash, but is the harbourside area where you'll find the station and the ferries over to Denmark. More by design than judgement our hotel is just across the road and is more than comfortable. There is a little homily on each door, ours reads “One can experience much by doing nothing” A sentiment I wholly agree with.

The town itself is a bit of a labyrinth of cobbled streets with tallish townhouses much like those in Cambridge. At the end of one of the main streets is a statue of local hero Magnus Stenbock on a horse. Stenbock has a few things named after him in these parts after leading the Swedes to victory over the Danes in a battle for Helsingborg in 1710. There is also a plinth with no statue upon it in the harbour and a sculpture in the town which is presumably a testament to Swedish liberal attitudes to sex with two naked women flouncing about together completely starkers.

There's a castle and a few other impressive building including the St Maria Kyrke as well as hotels aplenty, not purely down to the charms of the town itself. The ferries across the Oresund to Denmark (4 km, Helsingborg provides the shortest crossing) mean that people flock from across Sweden to nip across to Denmark, get hammered on the boat and then drag back as much ale as a Volvo can carry.

We popped into town for a beer or two last night and found it quiet, much like Ipswich on a Tuesday night in fact. Beer prices were a bit of a shocker, my half-litre was about £2.50-ish, although the hotel bars are apparently cheaper. Having said that we had a meal out at a cosy little Italian on the outskirts of town and that was surprisingly cheap, about a tenner for the two of us. There are a few signs for Forex around, but these prove to be places to change money rather than establishments selling insipid Australian beer.

A few Helsingborg scarves to be seen around town and the stadium isn't a bad walk from the centre. The Blues' visit is not without competition in the entertainment stakes. The Glenn Miller Band are also in town, although most of them must be in their mid-120s and using their instruments mainly for support.

Having been to Sweden before I had forgotten that shops and banks don't operate the queuing system we do but utilise the scheme some delis in England use, whereby you take a number and wait for it to be called. Unless annoying women in the bank decide that's not for them. Fortunately a multi-lingual volley from the bank-teller (Swedish and English) and me (English and for some reason pidgin German [I was confused]) sorted her out.

Today we're going to take a trip to Copenhagen. On our return the streets of Helsingborg should be filled with more of the Blue Army.

Photo: Action Images

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