One July afternoon we travelled by train from Oslo in Norway and reached Gothenburg in Sweden. Gothenburg, the second largest city of Sweden lies by the sea at the mouth of Gota Alva or the River Gothia. The city was founded by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in 1621 and was built like a fortress to protect the sea port.
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| Lilla Bomen |
Gothenburg railway station bears the architecture of the nineteenth century. The tram and bus terminals are just outside the main gate with information centres to help the tourists. The tramways system covers most parts of the city. However, lack of subway is due to the soft ground on which Gothenburg is built. We boarded a bus and headed towards our host’s place.
Like other places in Scandinavia, Gothenburg’s days are longer than the nights during summer. Sunlight extends upto 17 hours here while only about 7 hours in winter. The average temp during the days we were in Gothenburg was around 20’C to 21’C. Basically the city has a mild climate and gets quite a lot of rain throughout the year due to the Gulf Stream. Snowfall occurs from January to March, but snow cover does not linger long.
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| Nordstan Super Market |
With the bright sunshine still over our heads we went up a hill to Ramberget. This is the highest point in Gothenburg with boulders lying all around. It is 282 feet above sea level and one can get a very nice view of the entire Gothenburg lying below. As the story goes this place got its name from “Ram” – a demon, against whom the city inhabitants had fought a bloody war. “Ram” had stood here and had thrown boulders at them. However, the inhabitants had won.
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| Ullevi |
We drove down and went to Konstmuseet, Gotheburg’s art museum and saw quite a number of artworks of Van Gogh, Picasso and other renowned artists. Some new modern works based on Nordic art were also on display. At the Hasselbled Photo Centre, photography of Swedish and other foreign photographers could be found. The adjoining bookstore stocked a lot of priceless books on art.
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