#55 Gothenburg

This week I left Stockholm and took a day trip to Gothenburg, Sweden's second biggest city. Located about 3 hours away by train from Stockholm, it's an ideal place to visit while you're in Sweden. Gothenburg is a lot more open and peaceful than the capital city, and it just had a nice atmosphere in general.


Most of the key locations in Gothenburg are within walking distance from the central station, but if you want a travel card costs 75kr for one day. We had about seven hours before our train home left and had limited time to see everything, so we chose what we thought were the highlights.

 They have lots of trams! Super cute

The first thing was 'Skanskaskrapan' aka. Lipstick, which is a sky scraper with red on top. You can see it from outside central station, and really isn't that remarkable. The next location on our list was 'Tradgardforeningen' which is a park and greenhouse located 5 minutes from the station. You can go inside the greenhouse for free and see the exotic plants too which is nice.

If you walk through the park you will get to Kungsportsavenyn, which is a main shopping and retail street. It is a wide street and much more open than you will find in Stockholm. At the end of this street is Gotaplatsen, which features a statue of Poseidon and is one of the main symbols of Gothenburg. It is quite small but worth getting your picture taken beside it.

 Gotaplatsen

 The next location we found by accident while walking by. Skansen Kronan is a fort on top of a hill in the Haga district. It takes some energy to get to the top, but when you do there is a great view of Gotheburg that makes it worth it.

We then walked to Slottsskogen, a big park which is a little further away than everything else. There is a big playground here for children, as well as the Natural History Museum which is 40kr (but closed on Mondays so we couldn't enter!). The main attraction here is a type of free zoo, including a childrens petting zoo and pony rides (which are closed until summer) and I think also some seals and penguins (also closed). In the middle of the park are the main animal pens, which featured ponies, deer, ducks and geese, goats, sheep, peacocks and elk.

 We were luck to see him with his feathers up!

 Elk!

From the park we walked back towards the city and the Haga district. This is like the old town of Gothenburg, and it has one main street with cafes and boutique shops. After seeing the old town in Stockholm, this place isn't that remarkable but it is still nice to walk around. Also here you can get a giant kanelbulle (cinnamon roll) for 40kr. It isn't the best I've ever tasted, but it's not bad, plus it's fun to take a picture with it! I think one of these kanelbulle can definitely feed at least three people! You can get it at Cafe Husaren or another cafe beside it down the street.

And then finally we walked back towards the station. We walked as far as the quay side and the Gothenburg opera house, which was also quite nice. Back at the station, there are lots of shops and restaurants in the area and it's a nice place walk around.

Central station

So, to conclude, I would definitely recommend a trip to Gothenburg. As I was getting on the train I wished I was staying longer and could see more of the city, which doesn't happen to me very often. It is an open, clean city with a great relaxed atmosphere.

Gothenburg City coat of arms