Gothenburg

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.

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.

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.

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.

Opera

Nearby is the Konsert Huset, where great masters like Pandit Ravi Shankar and Zubin Mehta have also performed. Gothenburg hosts the largest book fair and film festival of Scandinavia each year. The city is Sweden’s commercial window to the world, and is home to major industrial giants like SKF, Volvo and Ericsson.

 

At the centre of the city is Kungsportsavenyn, the main tree-lined avenue that stretches about one kilometre with the two open air areas Gotaplatsen and Kingsportsplatsen at the two ends. It is a centre for shops and restaurants of all price ranges.

We visited the large indoor fish market Feskekorka, or the “Fish Church” as it has a resemblance to a Gothic church. The fishermen come everyday to sell their daily haul from the sea, and is known as the ‘mecca” for sea-fish.

Sweden’s largest multisports stadium is Ullevi in Gothenburg. It can seat more than 47000 spectators. The World Cup was held here, where Pele had played. From there we went to Lilla Bommen where the Barken Viking ship is anchored. The ship is a large one about 174 ft high, 398 ft long having an area of 39000sq.ft. At present it is a hotel with a museum attached to it.

Gothenborg City

By the shore of the River Gota Alva is the Gothenburg Opera. It is an architectural landmark completed in 1994 by the architect Jan Izikowitz.

Sweden’s largest famous amusement park is Liseberg in Gothenburg. It is very well decorated with lights and exotic flowers making the place very colourfull. This park is for all ages with merry-go-around to high-speed roller-coasters. Popular artists also hold concerts here providing musical entertainment to the visitors.

From Gothenborg, we boarded a ship operated by The Stena Lines and sailed for Harwitch in England.

Translation: Soma Roy