Gothenburg, Sweden

May 2

There isn’t much to report over the last couple of days. Yesterday (Tuesday) we took the train from Malmo to Gothenburg. It was a high-speed train, so it only took 2 1/2 hours. But, when we arrived it was cold, windy and rainy so once we got to our flat, we went for groceries and then settled in for the evening.

Ferry to Styrso

Today, though, was beautiful. It was cool and windy but sunny. We took the bus to tourist information to pick up our maps and brochures of things to do. Since it was sunny today and the forecast for tomorrow is rainy, we decided to stick to outdoor activities today. We took a ferry to the island of Styrso. There are a lot of islands around Gothenburg but Styrso is one of the larger ones. We took a tram to the ferry and then had a 20-minute ride. Even though it was pretty windy, the water was calm so it was a nice ride. The island is mainly car-free except for delivery and repair vans. Everyone else uses bikes, mopeds or golf carts. We could have rented a golf cart but were told that the walk to the next town was only 20 minutes. Since it was a nice day we decided to walk. After about 30 minutes we wished we had gotten a cart. When we finally found the coast again, we had overshot our target but only by about 15 minutes of walking so not too bad. When we got there, though, there was absolutely nothing there. We expected a cafe and maybe a couple of shops but there was not a thing, at least open. We did see one cafe but it was closed. Our two choices were either to wait about an hour for the next ferry or walk back to where we got off to see catch the ferry there. Since it had taken us an hour to walk out, we decided we were better off hanging around where we were.

Many of the houses on the island were huge

The island was actually quite beautiful and very peaceful and we thoroughly enjoyed the ferry ride. It was really cool to see all these tiny islands, many with one or two houses on them and others no bigger than really large rocks with a little grass. There are 4500 regular residence of the Archipelago but that number doubles in the summer season.

Gothenburg harbor

After we got back to the mainland, we took a bus to the city center where we took a short walk to the harbor. Then it was a bus ride home, where we missed our stop but only by one stop. By the time we got home we had walked over 15,000 steps so we were happy to have dinner and relax.

After over 9 weeks in Europe, we’re both getting a little tired of museums, churches and palaces but Peter is going to check out a couple more tomorrow while Lynn goes for a cut/color. If it’s not raining too badly, we may check out the Volvo Museum when Lynn is done. We’ll play it by ear.

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