Gothenburg

Today dawned sunny if a little cool. Had a slow start to the day due to the effects of heavy colds on all three of us. Once we got underway our first stop was the Feskekorka (Fish Church). The building looks like a church from the outside but is a fish market. A little smaller than the one we visited a few years ago in Helsinki.

Walk along one of the canals until we found the Avenyn (whic is the main shopping street in Gothenburg. Walked up it admiring the trams until we arrived at a Museum and the Posidean statue.

From there we found the Vasakyrkan (Vasa Church), Vasa I think is the name of an important family in Sweden (nobility). Walked through the Vasa park and saw the university.

We had read there was a self service laundry somewhere around Nordstaden (where there is the main shopping mall and central station. No luck.

Checked with the information centre, they suggested a pace up on Sodra vagen. After much walking we found a dry cleaner who did washing for you. So we flagged it.

Evan then found reference to a trip to a few islands just off shore, unfortunsately we were too late to catch the ferry. Saw a marine museum (closed) and the opera house before a little more mall seeing. Regan did a little buying, then had coffee and the famous Swedish cinnamon bun. Regan brought into mass marketing and brought Bjorn Borg underpants called "weapons of mass seduction"- go figure!

Observations: there is not much to see in Gothenburg. What is suggested is closed for the winter. Surprisingly, everything closes at the end of August. They seem to be in hibernation mode, which is frustrating.

2nd observation: very few people ride bikes in Gothenburg, which is different to other places we have visited. There may be a correlation between riding bikes and tall thin Swedes (here we observed more overweight ones than in Stockholm and Uppsala).

3rd observation: this place has a great feel to it. Lots of canals to walk along and enjoy the sun. What is also very obvious is the significant number of new immigrants who have made Gothenburg their home. it appears that very people actually work as around 2 pm the mall was crowded with people shopping their little hearts out.

4th observation: evening meals are very expensive in Sweden. Just had Italian tonight, cost about NZ$170 for 3 of us.

Tomorrow Regan and I head to Kalmar while Evan returns to Uppsala (he will join us on Friday for the trip up to Kiruna). Kiruna weather is looking decidely cold. Max temp -3, min -6. Bot no snow is forcast. Should be fun. 

Currently both of the boys are dying loudley from very heavy colds, lots of coughing fits and runny noses, not much fun for them.