Gothenburg; Friday, 30 June, 2017

As it was a very early flight I’d stayed overnight at an airport hotel. Despite it being so early the airport was heaving and it took quite a bit of time to get through security and into the departures lounge and then, as the flight was leaving from a B gate, out on the shuttle to the B terminal.

Boarding started very promptly and the flight wasn’t that full so we were fully boarded and already pushing back from the gate 10 minutes ahead of our scheduled departure time. A very comfortable and smooth flight later, and with a good tail wind, we landed in Gothenburg 15 minutes early. After a quick baggage reclaim as well I was very soon outside of the terminal and on the bus into town.

I popped into the tourist information centre in the centre of town to pick up the city card that I had purchased and then picked up the tram over to the hotel.

The last time I’d arrived at this hotel it had been at 5am after a massive delay to the flight and I must, by a long way, have been the last to check in for that night. Today I was at the hotel just a little after midday, and technically still three hours before checkin opened, but I asked very nicely and I was probably the first person of the day to checkin.

After dropping off my stuff I wandered over to the ferry stop and picked up the ferry one stop towards the centre of town and disembarked at Lilla Bommens Hamn. One of the buildings in this relatively recent complex is instantly identifiable by its colour scheme and has become known as the lipstick building. It also happens to be one of the tallest buildings in the city, and during weekdays has an observation deck on the top floor.

When I got up to the deck there was one other person up there, but they left relatively soon and then I had one of the best views in Gothenburg all to myself for about 10 minutes before anyone else arrived.

Back down at ground level I hopped on a tram and headed over to the Universeum – a very strange science/ecology museum and animal park that is centred round a large indoors rainforest – certainly the largest rainforest in Scandinavia.

I spent quite a bit of time wandering round the museum as there was a lot to see, including stopping off for a late lunch on their 4th floor restaurant terrace – a welcome relief to be out in the dry heat of the city after 20 minutes wandering round their internal rainforest, complete with oppressive humidity.

After the museum I caught a tram out to the end of the line at Saltholmen to go for a ride on the ferries out in the archipelago. From the terminal at Saltholmen the ferries head out to several of the islands in the Southern part of the Gothenburg archipelago. They run relatively regularly and I was able to do two loops from Saltholmen taking in most of the islands.

By the time I got back to the ferry terminal the sun was starting to dip below the horizon so I caught a tram back in towards town, changing partway along onto one that stopped outside the hotel – making it back to the hotel just before 11pm and a well-earned night’s sleep.