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An hour by train from Malmo, YSTAD sits at the end of a ride through rolling farmland. The train station is by the docks, a murky area that gives no hint of the cosy little town to come. In the nineteenth century, the town's inhabitants made a mint from smuggling, a profitable occupation in the days of Napoleon's Continental Blockade. Quite apart from coming to see the crumbling medieval market town, you might well be leaving Sweden from here: ferries depart for the Danish island of Bornholm and for Poland. The narrow, cobbled streets wind up to Stortorget , a well-proportioned square, at the back of which sits the grand Sta Maria Kyrka , a church which has been added to continually since its original foundation in the fourteenth century. The red-brick interior displays heavy, decorative tablets lining the aisle walls and enclosed wooden pews - the end-pieces sculpted with flowers and emblems. The green box-pews at either side of the entrance were reserved for women who hadn't yet been received back into the church after childbirth. From the church, take a walk down Lilla Vastergatan , the main street in Ystad in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with neat pastel-coloured houses. At no. 28 you'll find Galleri Z, which looks like a furniture store, but upstairs has a superb gallery of contemporary art exhibitions. Walk back through Stortorget and it's not far down to the old Greyfriars Monastery and museum (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun noon-4pm; 20kr), a thirteenth-century survivor in a pleasant setting which contains the usual local cultural and historical collections. From the train station , cross the tracks to St Knuts Torg, where you'll find the tourist office (May to mid-June Mon-Fri 9am-7pm, Sat 11am-2pm, Sun 11am-6pm; mid-June to mid-Aug Mon-Fri 9am-7pm, Sat 10am-7pm, Sun 11am-6pm; mid-Aug to April Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; tel 0411/776 81, turistinfo@ystad.se ). The square is also where buses from Lund, Malmo and Kristianstad will drop you. There are several hotels in town, the most charming being Sekelgarden , Stora Vastergatan 9, a family-run former tannery dating from 1793 with a great courtyard (tel 0411/739 00; GBP25-30/$40-48). The hostel (tel 0411/665 66; GBP5-10/$8-16) has one branch inside the central station and another 2km away at Sandskogen, where there's also a campsite (closed mid-Sept to April), with cabins for rent (under GBP5/$8) - take bus #572 or #304. For light food , The English Book Cafe, Gasegrand, down a tiny cobbled street off Stora Ostergatan, is an evocative spot for homemade scones in an eighteenth-century courtyard, though this charming place may be closing down (check with the tourist office), while Kaffestugan Backahasten , at Tvattorget, is the place to head for deeply filled sandwiches and light lunches to eat outside, surrounded by ducklings in the heart of the town. For dinner , try the popular Lotta's (Mon-Sat 6pm-1am), which serves the best fish and meat dishes in central Stortorget.
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