Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Indian Ocean 2012
A different side of Sweden
Lying in bed after a good night's sleep, but not yet ready to get up, I pondered where the previous day's journey had brought me to. This was only my third time in Sweden and the previous two visits had both been to the country's capital city, Stockholm. I was now in Gothenburg (Göteborg in Swedish, pronounced something like YEU-te-bor-yeu), the country's second city, situated on the west coast. According to what I'd read, it was a gritty working-class town that had made its fortune in shipbuilding and was now trying to find a post-industrial future in high-tech businesses, culture and tourism, preferably without losing its soul in the process. It almost sounded like a description of Glasgow. I was looking forward to forming my own impressions and this gave me the impetus to get out of bed shortly after 0730. I had a nice breakfast in the hotel atrium; it was already busy but not overrun with people. Back in my room, I checked my emails, got ready at my leisure and eventually set out around 0930.
My first objective was only ten minutes away: the waterfront area, which included the city's opera house. Arrival there proved to be a bit of a turning point for me: unmistakeably, I was really starting to like this place. I spent some time just wandering around and taking in the sights, whether land-based or on the water. There's something quite therapeutic about looking at moored boats and it didn't do any harm at all to feel the unfamiliar warmth of the sun's rays on my skin.
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On heading back
towards the city centre, I soon realised that I had
approached by a different route the City Museum / Christina
Church area that I had strolled in the previous evening. Not
wishing to repeat myself, I veered off past the little
Lutheran cathedral and followed a different canal round to
the start of the city's well-known and mostly photogenic
main street, The Avenue. I strolled along the famous street
in the morning sunshine, eventually reaching the Concert
Hall and Art Museum. It was 1050, ten minutes prior to the museum's opening time. I took a seat on a bench and waited. |
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| ABOVE: Named in my honour? Perhaps not. |
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Making my way past the Cathedral to the start of The Avenue |
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| RIGHT: A selection of views on The Avenue |
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Once the museum had opened its doors I paid SEK40 to see the main galleries, deciding to leave out a temporary Warhol exhibit that involved a hefty premium. In my research on the destination, I had detected a general view that the art museum was genuinely worthwhile - and so it proved to be. Not surprisingly there was an emphasis on Nordic art, but certainly not to the exclusion of other works. | |
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| ABOVE: I spent an enjoyable hour or more viewing Gothenburg's impressive Art Museum | |||||
After viewing the exhibits, I had a light lunch in the museum café. When I re-emerged into the outside world, the cloudless skies and glorious sunshine had sadly been replaced by the forecast weather: it had become cloudy and windy. I walked past the university towards the Haga district, well-known for its historic wooden houses, but I thought that many parts of the main city centre had looked every bit as attractive. I easily located the Skansen Kronan 'crowned tower' and made the climb up to it in what was now gentle rain.
| RIGHT: University district, Haga and the Skansen Kronan |
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LEFT: Vasakyrkan, university district and Haga |
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Finally, I moved
on to the very large area of parkland known as
Slottsskogsparken and strolled through it from one side
to another. I eventually caught a number 11 tram all the way
back to Brunnparken, just down the street from my
hotel. It reminded me of the airport bus again when I got on
board to find that the only two payment options on this
occasion were coins and credit cards; I used the latter to
pay my SEK22 single fare. Gothenburg has the largest tram network in Scandinavia and it had been much in evidence throughout the day. The blue and white livery made me think of Zurich, yet some of the cars struck me as having a chunkier profile more reminiscent of classic American streetcars. Either way, it seemed clear that the system was a popular way of getting around. |
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| ABOVE: The huge expanse of Slottsskogsparken | ||
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Arriving back around 1630 left plenty of time for a bit of
relaxation in the hotel, which now seemed delightfully
quiet compared to the previous evening. I decided to have
dinner in the atrium restaurant and liked the look of their
special weekend menu. I had a starter of toast with prawns
and dill mayonnaise, a main course of Angus steak on salad
with a risotto side dish and a final coffee, all for SEK295.
By Scandinavian standards, I thought it represented
reasonable value. As I returned to my room afterwards, I realised that this short Nordic interlude was already drawing to a close. |
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