In April we spent a weekend in Gothenburg, Sweden (spelled
Göteborg in Swedish, and pronounced something like Yoot-uh-bury).
We rented a car for this trip, so I got my first experience driving in
Sweden. The drive is around 3 - 3.5 hours. It was nice weather that
week, but the day we left it began snowing -- not too bad though.
The drive was uneventful. For most of the trip you are driving through
evergreen forest -- rather similar to driving through parts of
Wisconsin. Driving in Gothenburg itself is more of an adventure -- some
people consider it to be the worst city in Sweden for driving. The
downtown area is set up well for walking and for riding trams, but that
makes it a bit difficult for driving. So we had to go around in circles
a bit before finding our hotel.
Our hotel (the Elite Plaza) was
quite nice. We had tried to find one which was decent and had a
reasonable rate. It ended up being a bit more expensive then we
were shooting for, but not bad. When we checked in, the receptionist
assured us that it was the nicest hotel in Gothenburg. We had a bit of a
problem -- the hotel didn't have any record of our reservation.
But eventually that got worked out and we got checked in. We had the
hotel park the car for the weekend, since it was easier to walk around
town anyway. The picture on the left shows the view of the inside of
the hotel from just outside our room.
After checking in Friday night we headed out for dinner. There are a
lot of great restaurants in Gothenburg. We chose an Italian place where
I had some of the best pasta I've had in a long time. Several of the
restaurants, including this one, had a seating area outside -- covered
and heated, which was good since it was rather cool outside.
Saturday morning we headed out to see some of the museums. First we
went to East India House, which went through the history of Gothenburg.
A lot of it was only in Swedish, but we still got enough out of it to be
enjoyable. It included some china which the East India Trading Company
had brought from China. They also showed the plans for a new tunnel that
is being constructed underneath the central part of Gothenburg which is
supposed to help with their traffic problems. There was also a display
of viking mythology.
Next was the Röhsska Museum of Arts and Crafts. This museum had
some woven wall hangings by a Swedish artist -- many of them referring
to Swedish immigrants to the U.S. There was also some pottery and
paintings and old furniture. There was a room of budda statues. And a
display of advertisements throughout the 1900s.
For dinner we went to Restaurang Gillestugan. They have nightly shows
on the upper floor, but we skipped that since it was in Swedish. We were
in a small room with a group of noisy people, so we didn't get to talk
too much, but the food was good. Sara really enjoyed her salmon with
orange sauce -- she claims it is the best she has ever had.
On our final day we went out to the Maritime Centrum -- a museum
consisting of about 14 boats, including a few which you could climb on
and walk around. The biggest of the ships is a battleship which we were
able to tour. You could walk around on the deck, and also down
underneath to see the living quarters and engine rooms and everything.
It was pretty interesting.
There was also a submarine -- Sara wasn't able to see the inside of
that one because they didn't design the hatches for people who were
8 months pregnant. While the battleship was a bit cramped at times,
I can't imagine being confined to the submarine for any length of
time -- it was quite a small space to live and work in.
After finishing our tour of the ships, we wandered through the mall and
had sandwiches for lunch. Then we walked over to
Trädgårdsföreningen, a large garden area. Most of
the flowers weren't blooming yet, but it was still a nice relaxing walk.
The rose garden is apparently quite nice if you visit at the right time
of year.
Next we walked across town a bit to the Poseidon fountain. It was the
work of Carl Mills, a famous Swedish sculptor (who moved to the U.S. at
some point). The fountain wasn't turned on for the summer yet, so we
didn't quite get the full effect, but it looked nice anyway.
Finally we returned to the hotel to pick up the car and head home. So
they left to un-park the car. A few minutes later the guy came back, and
told us they had a little problem -- he backed the car into a wall or
something and dented it up. So then we got to wait around for a couple
more hours while they contacted the rental company, got a replacement
car sent over for us, and did all of the associated paperwork. So we got
out a bit later than we were planning. But at least nobody got hurt, and
we had nothing to do with it so we don't have to deal directly with
insurance claims or anything.
