Blogs from Gothenburg, Västra Götaland County, Sweden, Europe - page 7

The flight into Gothenburg is full of beautiful views of trees and the inlets of sea that dot the Swedish coastline. Taking the airport but to the central train station I cross the road to my hotel and leave my suitcase as I can’t check in for a few hours. I walked up through the main square with all the trams and began walking by the main canal which goes through the shopping district. I remember much of this from the brief visit I made a few years ago. After stretching my legs I picked up the hop on hop off tourist bus which took me to lots of new areas that I didn’t get to see before including the theatre and cultural district and up to the Gotha Towers hotel which is this spectacular glass ... read more

So, this is it. It's time to leave the cold and dark in Sweden for six months of sunshine and adventures in San Diego, California. For those of you who have known me for a longer time, I kept a similar blog when I did my exchange year in lovely Potosi, Wisconsin back in the days. I still smile when I go back and read my entries and look at the photos from then, so I figured it would be a fun thing to do something similar once again. Not only does it make for a good memory, but it makes it easier for me to keep you guys updated without having to spam Facebook or send out mass emails. Yes, the blog will be in English. There are some of you who haven't learned enough ... read more

For breakfast we enjoyed the Radisson Blu's fantastic Scandinavian spread. After breakfast we were picked up by a Volvo chauffeur and driven out to the factory, where we enjoyed Volvo's very warm hospitality (in exchange for buying a car). Our car was rolled out to us, and then we had the opportunity to tour the factory. This is a tour that is open to the public, and it was very interesting. Afterwards we enjoyed a nice meatball-and-potato lunch (a la IKEA), and then it was time to brave the Swedish highways in our new car (gulp)! I had mapped out a Swedish grocery store en route to Oslo because we understood that food in Norway (well, everything in Norway) was expensive. Not that food in Sweden is terribly cheap, but even Norwegians will pick up groceries ... read more

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000167 EndHTML:0000031208 StartFragment:0000000457 EndFragment:0000031192 Leaving Stockholm for Gothenburg (Goteborg) June 28: We boarded the SJ Train in Stockholm at 16:10 for the three and a half hour trip to Gothenburg passing flat farmland and forests with some light industry along the way. My sister Laurie lived in Gothenburg when she was a young adult and was eager for me to meet her friends, experience the places she loved and where she lived. According to my sister Gothenburg was a small fishing town on the sea (but she has spent most of her time in NYC and so small is relative.) This country girl was surprised to end up in quite a large city, in fact I later learned that Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden and the largest seaport in the Nordic countries. ... read more

On a wet 22nd of June we went to the Midsummer celebrations at Öckerö Hembygdsgård (local folklore centre) in Gothenburg's northern archipelago. Öckerö is linked to Hälsö (to the north) and Hönö (to the south) which in turn is liked to Fotö... read more