Day 20: Gothenburg

A Tale Of One City, Two Faces!

I’m again sitting on a train as we take an afternoon, two hour run down the coast to see our niece Eden where she lives in Bastad. Eden has lived in the EU for quite a while and seems to have found a place that she enjoys. She has been in Sweden 3 years and has decided to settle here just outside Bastad with plans to renovate an older barn and convert it into her home. A nice project when she’s not working.

While on board I thought I could pass the time putting a blog post together about our 2 day stay in Gothenburg, or as it’s referred to in Sweden, Göteborg.

On our first day the weather was really poor with cold grey clouds and periods of rain. The streets were fairly empty of people and I just didn’t pick up a very positive vibe. I think I only took about 4 outside photos. Very unusual for me!

The descriptions we’d read about the city when sorting out our route didn’t seem to add up. For example, the fish market was supposed to be revamped and full of piles of fish. It was renovated, but instead of the masses of fish there were just new restaurants selling expensive fish.

Not accepting what her eyes were seeing, AM wondered if we were in the right place. We were. The brass figures told the tale, but at least I had a photo of them to add to my ever growing collection from all over Europe and other parts of the world.

We walked quite a while, racking up the kilometres, but it felt forced. The best thing I saw was a barber shop window with a sign that read, live music!😅

We did stop for a hot drink and enjoyed the place so much (it was inside and warm) that we stayed for lunch. Hot tasty tomato soup with thick slices of bread, salad and dessert. Self serve. From there it was back to our hotel for some down time, still catching up after all wedding fun. We had been out the night before to a specialty beer pub for dinner, but decided to keep things simple. It was raining so hard that we picked up Japanese food from a small restaurant across the street. We ran there and back!

This morning we woke to rain, but by the time our breakfast was finished the sun was threatening to come out. And from time to time it did, and it made all the difference in the day. Many more people out, stores busier and best of all the colours popped!

Much more interesting to walk today.

We stopped for a piece of the famous cinnamon buns which are huge! The cafe that serves them is just about as well known.

We wandered the market and the stores in the old town of Hagar.

We saw a 4 mast square rigged ship in the distance and headed in that direction. I knew that Sweden had a ship of this type and that it was big!

The farm where Eden works as the head chef in their restaurant and produce store.

Then all too soon we were back at the train station saying our goodbyes. This was our third meeting in the EU. We had previously met in the Netherlands, Ireland and now Sweden.

By the end of our stay Gothenburg had revealed a bit of its character,and with the benefit of a bit of sunshine, it was just that much better.

Tomorrow we train south to Copenhagen where we have a hotel arranged very centrally. Looking forward to wandering there!

Geoff🇩🇰 🚞 🌆