Gothenburg and Beyond

By Pete
Arriving into Gothenburg by ferry is a little underwhelming, its all industrial buildings and tank farms, that is until you approach the bridge. Passing under it is a little like Alice’s rabbit hole, the view transforms from modern industrial to historic(ish) port town.
We drove off the ferry into a new country with its own traffic nuances, getting to grips with this we found ourselves at a Stallplatz* on a picturesque hill on the outskirts of the city. The location turned out to be part of a large parkland designed for outdoor activities. It was at the juncture of two long distance hiking trails and had a range of running trails, mountain biking trails, soccer pitches and an 18 hole frisbee golf course! We used the jogging tracks and were keen to try the frisbee golf but alas time was not on our side.
*A Stallplatz is a designated area for camper vans there is no reception or amenities accept power, its first in first served and you pay for a parking ticket at a machine. They are a great way to get a cheap site close to town.

A tram line at the bottom of the hill delivered us into the CBD in about 15mins so the location was not only picturesque but really convenient. The first item of business was to arrange Internet as our German sim had expired, timing was appalling as it was Mum’s Birthday and we were trying to contact. We managed to get a new sim and a data sim for the van WiFi but unfortunately it was too late to contact mum, oh well, her birthday just got extended by a day!!
Happy 80th Mum!

The glorious weather we had had in Denmark had followed us so we spent the afternoon strolling the historic centre of the city, first to the main market then through the park along the river to the iconic ‘Seafood church’ the market got this nickname as its 19th century, triangulated facade looks more like a church than a simple market building.

Fika is an institution in Sweden, it is basically the art of having coffee and cake with friends and gossiping, so late afternoon we headed to the Haga area of town, an older precinct with pedestrian streets lined with timber buildings converted to Boho second hand boutiques and coffee shops, for our first Fika minus the friends...and gossip!

The alarm went off at midnight, I stirred, reached over for the phone, and rang mum, Happy Birthday, finally! Sorry if I sounded a little drowsy.
The alarm went off again at 5.00am for the Dockers game. I wish it hadn’t! We got smashed.
After the game, a brief nap, and then we headed off to the Gothenburg archipelago, as it was still the weekend, and great weather, the ferries to the island were heaving we had to park a few km’s from the pier but no probs, we were taking the deadly treadlies anyway.

The archipelago is the Gothenburgers summer playground, holiday homes, mariners, restaurants and swimming bays. We caught the ferry to Styrsö and cycled over to Donsö where we bought a Swedish salmon baguette and a skagenrora, a creamy prawn lobsters and crab salad, for lunch which we ate at a wonderful swimming bay and yes we went for a quick swim!

We continued cycling around both the islands discovering quaint holiday villages and trying out the various swimming bays. It is a bit bazaar but I think I have swum in the Baltic Sea more often than the Andaman Sea, and I lived in Phuket for four years!!
We headed back to the ferry (via a lovely second lunch of ‘Raksmogas’, prawns piled high on bread with mayo!

That evening we headed out of town in the direction of Stockholm, but only got a few km’s past Gothenburg before nightfall.
The next morning we continued east debating weather we head straight to the capital or divert Gotland. Gotland sounded nice but it would be $300 in ferries and exorbitant camping fees, Stockholm it would be.

We didn’t quite make Stockholm that day, so pulled over at Jorgeso in Oxelösund with the intention of heading into the capital early the next morning. Jorgeso campsite was pleasant so we went for a walk to the nearby beach, wow this area was seriously nice. We found a map that showed the Oxelösund area and all the attractions including swimming beaches and jogging paths.

Discovering this and watching the holiday makers having BBQ’s on the beach we got a serious case of FOMO so immediately decided to stay an extra day to really get a feel for this little paradise, Gotland’s loss was Oxelösund’s gain.

We spent the next day cycling around the mini-archipelago enjoying the sunshine, the wonderful views and the invigorating Baltic Sea.

In the afternoon we called into the local supermarket bought sausages, buns and a disposable BBQ. That evening after one final swim we had our own beach side sausage sizzle- FOMO over.