Gothenburg for the day

Gothenburg for the day

I got up this morning after a good night’s sleep, packed up my stuff and went down for breakfast.  The night at the Elite Plaza Hotel included breakfast the next morning and it was excellent!  It was a huge buffet with everything you could think of.  I loaded up, dropped my bag off at the front desk and headed out to explore for the day.  I took my drone with me thinking I would find a nice looking place to fly it, but that just never happened.  Gothenburg is a nice city to walk around, and probably a nice city to live in, but it’s not an attractive city.

I walked up to an old fortress on a hill in Haga called Skansen Kronan.  I figured that since this is the highest point in the city, it would give the best view.  It did I guess, but the view just wasn’t very good looking.  I didn’t think it was worth flying the drone from up there, so I just kept walking.  I walked through the Gothenburg University part of the city and got to a square with a massive bronze statue.  It was on the tourist map of things to see, but I didn’t really get the hype.  The square is called Gotaplatsen with a statue of Njord holding a fish.  

I walked down one of the main streets in Gothenburg, crossed the river and arrived at the fresh food market called Saluhallen.  This is the number one thing to see in Gothenburg according to TripAdvisor, and it didn’t disappoint.  This is a really nice food market selling all kinds of traditional Swedish foods.  I bought a pastry to have for dessert, but I needed to have lunch first.  I went to the most popular place in the hall, which appeared to be mostly local business people on their lunch break.  I asked what the most popular dish was for lunch and it was… *surprise* …meatballs!

I had my lunch at Kages Horna which was good, not the best.  But it was cheap.  My meatballs and a soda came to 98 kr (£8), the most reasonable meal I’ve had in Sweden.  During lunch I saw that there had been a street art festival a few years ago and some of the pieces were still up so I tried to search some of them out.  I found the first one right near the Saluhallen that was a bird kind-of thing.  I found the next one around the corner from my hotel at another popular lunch place.  It was a small square down an alley that had a few food trucks in it, and it was loaded with university students and workers having lunch.  The street art here looked like some colourful braided hair on a couple of buildings.

I then saw that there was another piece of street art on a building down by the river so I tried to find that.  I walked around for a good 25 minutes looking for it and couldn’t see it.  I asked a couple of people and one person knew what I was talking about, showed me where it was, and told me they painted over it last year.  Oh well.  By the time I figured that out it was time to head to the hotel to get my bag and then get the Flygbussarna to the airport.  I got on the bus right next to the food hall and it was a quick 20 minute trip to Gothenburg Airport.  

My flight took off on time, it was an easy flight home, and then I went directly from Edinburgh Airport to a pub in town to have a birthday meal with Keith, Hayley and Jo.  They all treated me to dinner which was a nice treat and now I’m home getting unpacked.  It was a good birthday trip.  I’m glad I went to Sweden even though I’m in no hurry to rush back.  It was expensive and I didn’t think there was enough to do as a tourist.  I’m sure it’s a great place to live, but just not one of my favourite places for a weekend of travelling.

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