Rainy Sunday, Glorious Monday in Sweden

 

Sunday 22 September

While updating the blog Elaine got the email to say she was a grandmother again! A little girl, Maliyah! We now have an ecstatic and teary Elaine.

Today it is raining!

Pernilla took us on the tram to the city centre where we walked to an old fortification called Skansen Kronan. It was a very steep walk up, a beautiful view of the city, then a lot of stairs down again all in the rain.

 

 

 

Once down we walked down to a canal and visited a second hand shop looking for a lace table cloth but without luck. On then up the Haga Nygata to our lunch stop, Husaren Cafe, where Elaine and I enjoyed baked potato, she with tuna filling and I with prawn filling. It was yummy and I was really hungry. Pernilla had a giant cinnamon bun for fika.

 

We continued our walking up to the top of the Avenue to the art gallery. Here we saw some lovely works by Carl Larsson, on of my favourite artists. There were other works that I liked by other artists too, especially Bruno Liljefores (Swedish) and P.S. Kroyer (Danish).

We caught a bus back down the Avenue to take a quick look at the oldest building in Goteborg (about 1600s).

 

Back onto a tram to a supermarket for supplies then another tram to Pernilla's.

At about 6pm Mirja arrived to meet us. She will be our guide for the next few days. Once she left I quickly got online to double check our tickets for Wednesday while Elaine and Pernilla prepared dinner. Lo and behold, our connecting flight from Goteborg to London had disappeared from our itinerary even though I had a new email to say it was there. Another call to Qantas London to get this flight reinstated. They promise me it has now been done. I wonder if we will ever get back home on Friday?

After our dinner of sandwiches with typical Swedish fillings we sat down in front of TV to get over our very full day both emotionally and physically.

Monday 23 September

This morning Elaine was able to ring Bernessa. Both mum and bub are now home and doing well.

Mirja arrived at 8:30am as planned and we left for our trip north. Our first stop was to but some smoked fish for dinner from a shop that does their own. It all looked and smelled wonderful.

 

Then we took the E6 north to the Vitlycke Museum and Tanum World Heritage Centre near Tanumshede. This museum has a reconstructed bronze age settlement of around 1700 BC but is also caretaker of a multitude of bronze age rock art very reminiscent of the Kokopelli figures we saw in Utah years ago.

 

 

We walked a track through the woods to see some rock carvings that have been painted red both to protect them and to make them more visible.

 

Mirja

 

An ant mound

 It was then time for lunch so we followed the coast road back south and although most things were closed (summer season ends in early September) we did find a wharf bar and restaurant open for the beginning of the lobster fishing season at Fjallbacka.

 

We sat on a wharf that was part of the cafe and I sat inches away from the edge watching some decent sized bream type fish. There were so many boats of all types - fishing trawlers, sailing boats and small runabouts. I was surprised by the lack of seagull noise but perhaps they were all out with the lobster fishermen.

Our lunch was magnificent - a ball of hamburger mince but served with small roast potatoes, lingon berries and a fabulous unthickened gravy.

 

When we left our table a seagull turned up to eat our leftovers. The waiter had to rush out to clear the food away so as not to encourage them.

We then continued on the coast road with glimpses of inlets and islands until we found the Nordens Ark, a zoo for endangered animals. The entry price was huge but we paid and as the sign said we'd have 2 hours before closing we'd see what we could. However, after less than an hour we were told the gates were closing and we must leave. We all thought this was a bit much considering the entry cost. Mirja was most annoyed and went back to the ticket sales people who agreed to refund all our money. We were surprised that this all happened so easily and that they admitted they should not have sold us the tickets.

Maned wolf

 

 

We then decided to take the E6 home as the coast road and ferry would take far too long. We had to be home by 6pm because Pernilla had booked the communal laundry and drying room for us to do our last load of washing before leaving for home.

Mirja joined us for dinner. She brought reindeer fillet from where she used to live in the far north of Sweden, we had bought smoked salmon and smoked mackerel and cloudberry mayonaise that morning and I also tried some Swedish beer.

 

Off in a hurry to catch the ice cream shop-n for dessert before it closed. Back for a bit of sorting and TV before collecting our dry washing and sinking into bed.