We were in Gothenburg, Sweden today. It was bound to happen. We had a foggy, rainy, rather miserable weather day today. Let me tell you, Gothenburg or Goteborg, is not Stockholm! It has a very rocky look to it and not the most beautiful of places. It probably didn't help that the weather was not cooperating.
The city of Gothenburg was founded over 350 years ago as a defense against repeated Danish attacks. Designed and built with the help of the Dutch and the Scots, the city's role was to be a gateway of trade and commerce to Europe and the Far East. Beginning in the mid 1800s and continuing through the turn of the century, over 1.2 million Swedish farmers, craftsmen, merchants, and laborers and their families immigrated to the United States. Today Gothenburg has a population of 500,000 people and is the second largest city in Sweden. It's a busy commercial harbor and handles a third of the nation's international trade.
One of the largest employers of Gothenburg is Volvo. Our tour today included a tour of the Volvo museum. It is located in the harbor close by where we docked. We saw the evolution of the Volvo from the 1920's to current. We saw the Volvo that the King of Sweden drives once a year as well as a 1934 fire engine that I thought was pretty cool. Dee wizzed around ahead of the tour guide and looked at everything he wanted to see. I took a picture of him with the 1930 tractor -- I didn't know anyone but John Deere or Case made a tractor!! Shows how narrow my life has been.
We made several stops on the way into the city. It was raining so not great for photo stops. The most exciting statue we saw was of Victor Hasselblad. He was the guy that invented some type of camera and it was the camera that was used to take pictures on the moon. At least that's what our guide said. Supposedly, he always said "I am the camera" and those are the only English words that we could read on the statue. Exciting stuff!!
We visited another Luthern Church called the Masthugget Church. It was built in the early 1900's on a hilltop and has a pretty view of the city.
We made a stop at a famous fish market "Feskekyrkan" better known as the fish church because it looks like a church from the outside. Our tour guide said that people have gotten married in the fish market! Sure why not!! We took a picture of some of the more interesting fish behind the counters. I swear one of them was staring at me, begging me to take him out of there!!. Aric would have loved this place. He would have wanted to take them all home. I tried to ask what the big wide mouth one was but the guy didn't understand me or I didn't understand him -- Dee says it looks like a Sting Ray. Do people eat those things??
We came back to the ship, ate some lunch and headed back out to the shuttle bus to be dropped off downtown for some last bit of SHOPPING!!! We went to the biggest department store, Nordstan. Talk about a strange store -- we could not figure out where anything was -- even the street signs didn't help up us...anything goes there, kids on skateboards and dogs walking around. The dog I took a picture of seemed to be lost as well!!
We left after an hour of walking and went down the street to a really cute candy and toy store. How could we leave Sweden without some candy? Hopefully, it wasn't from China like everything else is.
We had a good day. The sun is now out and we are on our way in the North Sea. The water is very choppy and the ship is rocking a bit -- starting to see more of those white dots behind the ears!
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| Water Salute as we left |
We went to a great show tonight put on by a comedian from the UK that also sang very well -- Mike Doyle. He was really funny!
Tonight we had two swans kissing on our bed with heart drawn around them. Very creative! Tomorrow is our last day at sea so we will make our last post and maybe post some pictures from around the ship.
Check out the sun setting in the North Sea! Only one more to come. Until tomorrow...we gain another hour tonight! Yea!!
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We were in Gothenburg, Sweden today. It was bound to happen. We had a foggy, rainy, rather miserable weather day today. Let me tell you, Gothenburg or Goteborg, is not Stockholm! It has a very rocky look to it and not the most beautiful of places. It probably didn't help that the weather was not cooperating.
The city of Gothenburg was founded over 350 years ago as a defense against repeated Danish attacks. Designed and built with the help of the Dutch and the Scots, the city's role was to be a gateway of trade and commerce to Europe and the Far East. Beginning in the mid 1800s and continuing through the turn of the century, over 1.2 million Swedish farmers, craftsmen, merchants, and laborers and their families immigrated to the United States. Today Gothenburg has a population of 500,000 people and is the second largest city in Sweden. It's a busy commercial harbor and handles a third of the nation's international trade.
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