I was keen to visit another city in Sweden to see how it compared with Stockholm, perhaps this was always going to be an unfair comparison given that Stockholm is the capital of Scandinavia. I only stayed in Gothenburg for 24 hours, as a stopover having gotten the train from Oslo, before hopping on another train onwards to Stockholm.
Gothenburg was a lovely city, but maybe had more of a town feel to it rather than a city. It was earlier on in the week when I visited, and perhaps much busier and more vibrant later in the week and on a weekend. But it made for a lovely 24-hour stopover and always a result when I end up with a handful of Instagram worthy posts!
Summer 2022 
1 DayThe harbour area of Gothenburg is lovely, I found it to be a lot more peaceful than Stockholm, but then I felt that about the entire city. I did a ‘Padden Boat Tour’ which lasted one hour and took us below some of the very low bridges and around the harbour area whilst leaning a little bit of history about the city. Some of the bridges are very low, you have to duck your head as you go under!
Axel Evert Taube was a Swedish author, artist, composer and singer. He is widely regarded as one of Sweden's most respected musicians. I couldn’t name or haven’t (knowingly) heard any of his work, but there is a statue of him outside of Stockholm’s city hall, which I love and was one of the first things I saw in Stockholm. So when I heard he also had a statue in Gothenburg I made a point of visiting him.
This seems to have been become quite an icon for Gothenburg, being one of its tallest buildings and right in the harbour. You can pay to go to the top floor but luckily my hotel was right opposite where I got a similar view from the rooftop bar of Gothenburg.
Apparently, the people of Gothenburg have slated this to be a very ugly building, however I quite like it. It’s distinct and I think in keeping, in a modern way complementing an otherwise historic city.
This is the old town district of Gothenburg, and one of my highlights. Just like in Stockholm my favourite area is Gamla Stan, and in the Haga district I enjoyed the old cobbled streets, old wooden buildings all in pristine condition.
I stopped here for lunch and had what I can only describe as the best salad and healthiest meal I’ve had this trip. For the cost of the meal, I got to choose 4 salads from their counter and some bread, the 4 salads were just zinging with flavour! Lovely to sit with food and an aperol spritz in the glorious sunshine surrounded by such picturesque buildings.
Gothenburg is well known for its fish (or Fisk as is said in Sweden) and while I was here, I was desperate to go all out on a fish dish. That didn’t happen unfortunately. However, this place is worth a mention even though it was closed and under construction when I visited. Feskekörka or the English translation Fish Church, named as this due to its temple like building. It’s a fish market where you can buy both fish produce and finished meals (I image much like street-food). Gutted it was closed.
A hill in the Haga District, which was definitely worth the climb to get some amazing views of the city.
A lot of people think of Scandinavia as being a dark grim group of counties all year round, I guess for us Brits, European holidays are focussed on the likes of Italy, Spain and Greece, perhaps the south of France. Short city breaks we typically might go for Amsterdam, Bruges or maybe Prague or Budapest. Granted, I’ve heard of a few ‘stag-dos’ in Copenhagen (though having been there, it certainly didn’t give off that vibe to me) but Brits don’t really know about Scandinavia (that’s my take).
Yes, it’s cold and dark in winter, and come December the sun sets at 14:45 and doesn’t rise until gone 09:00 the next day. Scandinavians get very little sunlight. However, in the summer it’s the complete opposite. In Stockholm/Gothenburg the sun doesn’t set until around 22:30 (and the further north you get towards the artic circle it never sets). Even after the sun sets it never gets dark, there is a constant light sky and often a yellow/pink bottom strip framing the city skyline. Then from around 01:00 the sky starts to get lighter. It’s a strange experience when you first see it, as it can still be very light at midnight, and you just don’t feel like you should go to bed because the day isn’t over!
Another misconception is the weather. Whilst technically the summers should be hotter in the UK being that much closer to the sun, the positioning of the UK right on the edge of Europe and battered by the Atlantic Sea means that we get a lot more cloud and the weather is generally more unpredictable. Sweden however benefits from being inland and much more protected. Overall they have shorter summers than we get in the UK, from middle of June to the middle of August, but they tend to have less cloud, less rain and much more stability with hotter temperatures.
