Thursday
12 September
Day 74
22 to go
Today we were ready to get out and explore some more areas of Gothenburg, though we weren’t in any hurry. It was a relatively lazy start but we did manage to be out of the hotel and onto the cool street by 9.40am. We made our way through the maze, stopping at the Gothenburg Cathedral, just as a very light drizzle began, thankfully it didn’t continue for long.
We then ventured through the shopping streets and onto a bridge, entering Kungsparken that lead to the Haga district. We walked through the grounds of the Haga Church, admired the murals and a sculpture of the sea serpent spine, before finding the Main Street of Haga, adorned with banners. The are is known for its old wooden buildings and its Fika, coffee break time. We stopped in at Jacob’s Cafe for a hot chocolate and a kanellbulle, a cinnamon scroll. It was quite cool sitting outside, particularly when the sun ducked behind the clouds.
After enjoying our morning tea, we walked the rest of the Main Street and then made our way to Skansen Kronan. This is a round defence building with 5m thick walls. It sits a top of a hill, so it was a bit of a climb to reach the top, but the views over the town were worth the hike. We even spotted where we would be having dinner, later in the evening.
We returned to flat ground, now making our way to a large park area, Slottsskogen. The park is large, green and full of ponds. We enjoyed a stroll along the paths, taking in the view. The park also houses a free zoo, so we went in search of that. We did find the seal enclosure, that had 6 seals swimming about and we enjoyed standing by the enclosure to watch them. We then continued to follow the path, only to find the rest of the zoo area devoid of a animals, other than hobby horses.
Being close to lunch, we left the park and made our way towards our hotel. We bought lunch along the way, at a supermarket and completed our journey, 17000 steps under the belt! We were glad to sit for a while and watch the Wildcats beat Cairns in their final Blitz game.
Just after 3pm, we went out for another walk, this time we checked out the garden, Tradsgardforenigen, that was behind our hotel. This was a lovely space, with a large green house and rose garden. Once we popped out through the other exit, we ventured through the town checking out the art and then went in search of the government owned and run bottle shops, so Paul could pick up some of the local craft beers.
We returned briefly to the hotel, to drop off the shopping and then we went out again. We walked along the canal behind the hotel, finding an old, ornate market building that we admired from inside and out. We returned to the Gothenburg Cathedral to check out an interesting statue of a man covered in barnacles and a octopus and then walked along the main canal, before returning to the hotel, so we could get organised for our dinner.
We left the room, just before 6pm and made for the number 2 tram stop. When the tram arrived, we took it 3 stops to the Gothia Tower building which sits next to Liseberg, the theme park. The area seemed to be the entertainment district, with a number of stadiums and a movie theatre.
We made our way to the tower and then entered the lobby, finding the exclusive lift to the restaurant, Heaven 23. As you would expect, it is on the 23rd floor and it offered wonderful views of Gothenburg.
We were shown our seat and then perused the menu, ordering a drink to start, along with croquettes and deep fried squid. We then had the pork belly, which was so sumptuous, it just fell apart and the crackle was crunchy. We finished with crème brûlée. A perfectly meal and destination to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.
With our meal finished, we then returned to the tram and alighted at our stop. The night was crisp, cool and clear and I was keen to enjoy the last evening. We wandered along the main canal, taking in the lit scenes. It was very pretty.
We slowly made our way back to the the hotel, ready to say goodbye to Gothenburg.
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