The Gothenburg trip
This is part 1 of the North trip of 2022
Intro
This year’s first long trip was one to remember, one that combined different objectives, most of the ways of transport existent, and a lot of walking. We used: cars, buses, planes, trains, metro, tram, and a ferry all while visiting Gothenburg, Oslo, and the Lofoten islands. Because of the difference between cities and the islands of Lofoten, the story will be split into several smaller ones, so let’s begin.
19 August: Kolding — Gothenburg
The trip started with nothing special. We woke up at 3:30 in the morning, drank some coffee, picked up the bags, put them in the trunk of the car, and drove to the airport. The flight was at 6:30 in the morning so we arrived at approx. 7:30 in Gothenburg airport. Taking a shuttle to the city center took another 45 minutes, also it took a few minutes to find the lockers to leave our bags in, so all in all around 8 a.m. we were in the city center and had all day to explore the city.
The way we decided to do that was a mix of walking around without a purpose and trying to see a few specific places in the town that was on our list, those being: the Haga neighborhood, the botanical garden, the fish church, Gothenburg cathedral, and the Kings Park. So, we started with the aimless walk in the center with the hope of stumbling upon a coffee place and found the best smoothie ever at this place called Brogyllen Hamngatan. After getting a snack and some water from a nearby Lidl, we decided to go and see the botanical garden.
It took roughly 40 minutes of walking but getting there from the train station meant we had to pass most of the city center on foot, so it fit our plan perfectly. On our way, we saw the hunting castle of queen Kristina, the Gothenburg cathedral, a lot of interesting streets and buildings, and a lot of electric cars. I can see they love their Polestars and Volvos.
When we arrived, we were amazed. The garden is huge, it is split into multiple sections depending on which region they represent, it has large pathways, and it also has a hill. We started our flora discovery with the main flower garden right at the entrance, which is conveniently placed next to a small koi lake and continued towards the hops area where there are over 50 species of hops grown. From there we strolled to the perennial plants garden and took a small break from all the walking to just enjoy the view and stillness. The weather was amazing so maximizing the time we spent outside was something we were aiming for.
Going further we decided to do the small hike up their hill to see how much we far away we can see from the top of it. It seems the view of the city from the top of the hill is not jaw-dropping, but the hike was pleasant. And we could continue from there straight to the Japanese garden, which is nice, but a bit underwhelming. I don’t know what I expected, but it felt like a regular forest with a couple of small Japanese decorations. The trees are also Japanese, but the style it was organized in felt a bit more Western than Eastern.
At this point we were getting hungry, so we decided to turn 180 degrees and head toward the exit. We passed on the way the rhododendron garden, the waterfall, and the koi pond, passed again the entrance floral exhibition, and walked back to the center of the city where we tried some Domino’s pizza… we were not impressed, but we didn’t want to waste too much time in waiting for food, so it did its job.
With the energy levels back high, we decided to discover more of the city, so the first objective in our sights was Oscar Fredrik Church, which was very lovely and in which we met a lady painting. She invited us also to paint, but we politely declined. From there we left to enjoy a coffee/beer at Kafe Magasinet, which was followed by a visit to Skansen Kronan, the one-time fortress of the city from where we got an amazing view over the city.
And because our accommodation was booked in Surte, a small village 10 minutes train ride from Goteborg we headed towards the train station with a small stop at the Fish Church (which was closed). Arrived at the station, we took our bags from the lockers, bought tickets, and hopped on the first train going North. In Surte it was just a ten-minute walk to the hotel where we got some well-deserved rest.
20 August: Gothenburg — Oslo
This was mainly a travel day, but we wanted to squeeze a bit more of Gothenburg before we changed countries, so we woke up early, got some breakfast at the hotel, and jumped on the first bus that took us to the city. Our train was leaving at 3 pm so we had roughly 5 hours of exploration to get in some buffer time.
One thing that we wanted to visit but left for this day was the Horticultural Society. This is a very big greenhouse very close to the train station, which is filled with exotic plants, palm trees, flowers, and cacti, you get the idea. We spent there a lot of time, just walking around the plants, admiring them and of course, taking pictures. Without even noticing it was already almost 12, so we decided to take a stroll through the city toward Brogyllen Hamngatan, but this time for coffee and some delicious sweets.
We also got a couple of smoothies to go, because you can’t pass by their shop and not get one. And just like that we wandered the city a bit more, went to see the opera house, the port, the lipstick building and back to the train station. The tickets were bought in advance so the only thing we had to do was to pick up our bags, get some food to have on our way and find the train which took us 10 minutes.
The train left with us in it, and we were sure we will be in Oslo by 6:30 pm, so we were planning what to see… oh, how naive we were. After one hour of traveling the train stopped at Öxnered, and then the announcement came into the speakers: “We cannot continue further toward Oslo because there is a problem with electricity on the line. Busses will come and you will continue the travel by bus, please wait in, or near the train. We are sorry for the inconvenience”. After a one-hour wait, time in which we got a 0.5l water bottle they announced: “It seems there are not enough busses to come here and carry everyone we will return to Gothenburg, and you will take a bus from there or if the line gets fixed, we will travel by train”.
Arrived in Gothenburg we were informed that there aren’t enough busses, so we will wait until the problem is fixed, but we have at least 30 minutes wait time if we want to get some food, which meant it is Burger king time. And after getting a couple of big whoopers to go the train also started, again, to go to Oslo, and it arrived just after 11 pm. This meant we activated our Oslo city pass apps and took a bus to our hostel where we stayed for the following days.
