Day 23 – 1 August 2023 – Gothenburg, Sweden
It was overcast & foggy as the ship glided into Gothenburg harbour this morning. The harbour is out in the boondocks, to get into the city it is about 20 minutes drive, the Volvo museum is the only thing close by, otherwise it looks like an industrial area. Again the Captain & crew did a great job of manoeuvring this big ship into the dock outside the Volvo Museum. Just after we dock a large vehicle ferry reverses into the loading dock next to us, it is very close to the bow of our ship. Breakfast at 7am then on the tour bus for a trip out to some western islands. As we travel alongside the Gota River we pass many green farms with white farmhouse & the red outbuildings. Our first visit was the old town of Kungalv with the old 14th Century Bohus Fortress just outside the town. The old houses lining the narrow streets of the old town are quaint with some of the buildings dating back to the 1500’s. The houses are built close together for the protection from strong winds.
There are lots of sailing boats moored near the Stenungbaden Yacht Club just before we cross the really high Tjorn Bridge spanning the Askero Fjord. Our guide Aneta told us that not long after the first bridge was built a ship collided with one of the bridge piers on a dark & foggy night dropping the road span into the water with seven cars driving over the edge into the water far below & the occupants being killed. The bridge was redesigned then rebuilt over a couple of years. After we cross the bridge we turn into a viewing area & get off the bus to stretch our legs. In the carpark the parking stoppers are large concrete sleeping ducks, very cute.
We are now on the large island of Tjorn & drive along past lots of farms & farm buildings before we get to the small town of Kladesholmen on its own small island. This is an old fishing village & all the houses are squeezed tightly together & jumbled over the rocky island. The bus stops & lets us off just after it crosses onto the island as the roads are too small for the bus to drive on, the roads are hardly wide enough for cars. Some of the streets are so narrow you can only walk two abreast. We stop for a look at the Svenskakyrkan church, both outside & inside. The church is simple yet very beautiful inside. We continue exploring this small quirky town & enjoy the buildings & architecture & history associated with the town. Our guide tells us that this town is very expensive to buy a house & rich Norwegians are buying houses here.
Our next stop is the small port town of Skarhamn, we stop next to a new large watercolour art museum, with no time to go & look at it. We walk over to the harbour & look at the myriad of sail & motor boats tied up in the harbour. Across the harbour is the Skarhamn town church with two ropes hanging from the bell tower to create a smiley face on the tower, very cute. Not far down the road is the Hotel Nordevik & we stop there to sample some herring. We are served a sample of two types of herring, one with mustard that is a little sweet & another with onion that is very tasty. The herring is served with a little sour cream & jacket potato, with a no alcohol beer to wash it down. Delightful.
Back on the bus & we head back towards the ship past more rolling green farms & farm buildings then we start to get into the light industry area of Gothenburg. We see two of the newest buildings in town, one is called the “lipstick” as it is a tall red building, the other is called the “zipper” as the architecture on the outside of the building looks like a zipper opening on one side & closing on the other, very clever. Back on the ship for a quick lunch then over to the Volvo Museum. Gothenberg is the place Volvos were manufactured, it is a very fitting place to have such a great museum to show off the great designs & innovations. Every time I’ll put on the seatbelt I’ll think of Volvo, they invented it.
The Volvo Museum is around 100 metres from the ship & exhibits great examples of all models of Volvo vehicles since 1927, including cars, trucks, buses & special vehicles. The museum is on multiple levels & even features a fighter jet, as Volvo supplied the engine for it. An interesting display of Volvo racing cars showed another aspect of Volvo that I was not aware of, with Volvo race cars very successful in both rally & circuit racing. There is even a Volvo caravan on display. It is a shame some of the Volvo concept cars never made it to production, there are some very smart looking cars amongst them. Our pick was the blue 1933 open convertible, absolutely beautiful – I never thought I would ever say that about a Volvo.
Back on the ship we discovered another little area we had not seen before – an art gallery with five Pablo Picasso ceramic art pieces – no idea how much these are worth, I guess a lot. We headed to the Dutch Café on-board for a coffee & some Dutch pastries, coffee was good, pastries OK. Back to our cabin & we watched the ship depart from the dock, some more great boat handling skills as the ship was manoeuvred out of the tight docking area, then motored out through the long, twisting narrow channel bordered by low rocky reefs all the way out to the Skagerrak Sea. The seas are amazingly calm, the sun is out & it is 22 Celsius – it turned out an amazing day after a dismal start.
Dinner then a show featuring the dancers & singers, they capped off another great day.
Trekkin 