Sweden’s second largest city radiates charm and the diversity of student life. Small designer shops selling famous Scandinavian designs and crafts can be found in many parts of the city. At the same time, the sea and the wonderful, wild little islands are only a tram ride away. These contrasts are what makes the city so interesting, and what promise a varied holiday program for an extended weekend.
We flew on Thursday by SWISS from Zürich to Gothenburg Landvetter. The approach to this small airport already promised a lot – the dark blue waves of the sea, birch forests as far as the eye could see and right in the middle of it all the hilly city with its colourful timber houses. Exactly how you imagine Sweden to be.
The car rental is just a 2-minute walk from the airport, and after an enjoyable 20-minute drive you’re right in the centre of this Swedish metropolis. We checked into the Clarion Hotel Post, located directly between the beautiful Trädgårdsföreningen Park and the pretty railway station. With an inviting bar area and a DJ in the evening, the hotel is a meeting point for students and young people. The building itself consists of an old brick part with generous old-style rooms, and a modern tower with a rooftop pool (filled with heated water, making it ideal for those cold Swedish days). We are staying in the old part and have a splendid room with a view across the park and one of the city’s main canals. The Wi-Fi works superbly but nevertheless, it’s now time to leave the room explore the city.
The first walk takes us past the palm house in the Trädgårdsföreningen to the Saluhallen – the famous market hall with its many delicacies ranging from biscuits to home-made syrups and an excellent cheese stall. Well fed, we continue on to the Feskekörka, which means “fish church”. This church-like building is in fact an indoor fish market and is one of Gothenburg’s landmarks.
After that we continue on to Haga, the most famous part of Gothenburg – small cafés along narrow cobblestone streets and with the city’s oldest buildings, all built from timber and painted in different colours. The sun slowly sets, because the time is approaching 9 p.m. The long days of spring and summer are wonderful – and when the low sun shines through the narrow streets of Haga, it gives that quarter a special flair. We hurry to climb the small hill of the “Skansen Kronan” before dark, and from our vantage point immediately next to Haga we enjoy the last rays of sunshine and the dark orange light over the city’s rooftops. From here you get a good view over the city, its many hills and its different quarters. We then walk in the twilight back to the hotel and retire relaxed to the wonderful hotel bed.
It’s an early start on the Friday morning – we have organised for 8 o’clock a guided tour of one of the stately homes that we want to visit. The “Gunnebo Slott” is actually more of an elegant country residence of a wealthy family than a palace in the Schönbrunn style. The building tells tales of globetrotting merchants and their summer parties in the residence outside the city. The house has been lovingly furnished in its true original style, and the orangery with its exotic plants is also currently being restored. Together with the Chinese ceramics, it bears testimony to the extensive travels of the house’s owner.
Our next stop is another, completely different, stately home in the English style and right on the coast. “Tjolöholm Slott” is surrounded by woodland and a fantastic garden with direct access to the bay. Visitors can enjoy the park free of charge, and we encounter a group of kindergarten children on a seaside trip who are now flying their kites in the garden of the stately home. It is wild and windy, but absolutely beautiful. The two stately homes could not be more contrasting, and they give a superb insight into the history of the influential Swedish trading power and its influential merchants.
We then continue back to Gothenburg alongside rape fields in full bloom. We park our car next to the railway station and on the way back to the hotel we buy fresh cinnamon buns from the “Steinbrenner&Nyberg” pastry shop. These won’t be our last cinnamon buns because they are one of Gothenburg’s most famous cakes – and with good reason! After this quick refreshment, off we go shopping. From Filippa K and then on to the Grandpa Store before we head to Our Legacy and The Kitchen – no shop is safe from us, and we need to exercise some restraint so as not to leave too many Swedish Krona behind there, because the goods are superbly designed but not at all cheap.
At sunset we once again take the car (and the ferry) and drive north towards the Stångehuvud National Park. The rocky bay of the National Park descends cliff-like into the sea and brings to mind a Martian landscape with its sand and rosé-coloured, rounded stones. Surely one of the most-photographed motifs in the area is also found there – a lonely bathing hut right in the middle of the picturesque scenery of this rocky coast. We can hardly believe our eyes and would love to spend the night there to clamber once again over the rocks first thing in the morning. But now we have to head back to Gothenburg.
The Saturday starts off more leisurely and we meet up for breakfast with a wonderful lady photographer and Instagrammer (https://www.instagram.com/cimek). Refreshed with coffee and cinnamon buns, we take the tram to catch the ferry at Saltholmen. Although it’s raining slightly, we nevertheless decide to continue onward to one of the first islands. There’s another coffee shop there where we can seek shelter from the rain if necessary. Having arrived on “Brännö”, it immediately starts to rain more heavily and we take a break in the charming café – the only one on the island. The weather quickly clears up, so we explore the island on foot and climb some small hills. As we reach the top of each one, we are greeted by another fantastic view of little red houses in lonely bays – the feeling of Sweden in its purest form!
Back in the city, we add some contrast to our intinerary by visiting the Andra långgatan for the annual summer street festival featuring DJs, food trucks and many, many young people. We end the day watching the sunset at the Röda Sten Konsthall and admire the seagulls flying around the impressive backdrop of the “Älvsborgsbron” bridge.
We start our last day in the city in the harbour at the landmark that is the “Viking”, the largest windjammer built in Scandinavia and that lies at anchor there. Next to it is the opera house and behind is the red and white building the “Lilla Bommen”, also known locally as “The Lipstick”. Finally, we take a walk through the botanical gardens to the folly and then make our way wistfully back towards the airport.
Gothenburg has an undeserved reputation as being lacking in charm or industrial, and we have definitely decided to return in order to also visit the Hasselblad Museum and to pay the seals a visit on a sailing excursion. Maybe next time we’ll come to see the end of the Volvo Ocean Race, which we missed this year by a few days.
You can find Marion’s impressions of Gothenburg and many more of her photos in her Instagram profile hier.
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