Holiday in Sweden – Day 5 (Gothenberg)

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After yesterday’s discovery that our accommodation here at the ‘Scandic 25’ resembled more of a prison cell, than a hotel room, the Scandic prison guards have been very clever overnight. In order to ‘break us’, they’ve cleverly switched the standard mattress for an ultra comfortable one, and they also did something to the room, so that it is completely sound-proofed. The result?, we had the best night’s sleep of the holiday! Still, they won’t wear us down, and tomorrow, we plan to escape by disguising ourselves as satisfied guests and checking-out escaping right under their noses – genius!!!

The View out of the Window from Cell, sorry, ‘Room’ 709 – Nice!

After breakfast (which was actually very good!), we wanted to make the most of our last full-day here. The weather forecast looks like another warm one – and we’ve learned that over here, it often feels a lot hotter than the temperature suggests, especially in the mid/late afternoon. So, we decided to visit the Botanical Gardens. It was easy to get to – just a short ride by Tram – and using the city’s ‘One Day Passes’ made it even better value!

..as they say in Sweden

The Gardens wasn’t too busy, (being a weekday) and the weather was just comfortably warm – just how it should be, for looking around botanical gardens! Everything was stunning in sight and smell – and very colourful giving us a real treat for the senses!

…and the landscaping was pretty breath-taking too…

…not to mention the fish…

A couple of hours later, with our senses seriously assaulted (in a good way), we took refuge in the Cafe for a drink, and reflected on what we’d seen. It’s a great place if you like looking at all things bright and beautiful, and it’s big enough to feel like you are wandering around (just) a Park (if horticulture isn’t your ‘thang’).

Having conquered the Trams (sort of), We headed back to the Tram station, and then off to Liseberg. The plan was to take a look inside at the famous theme park there (and ‘do’ the non theme bits – the gardens etc). When we arrived, it was packed and looked and felt like Alton Towers on steroids! The sight of hundreds (maybe thousands) of screaming kids waiting in a disorderly fashion in the numerous queues, was enough to send us scuttling back to the safety of another tram journey! Their Gardens can wait until next time!!

Once again on the Tram, we headed back into the relative calm of Gothenburg, and finished our day soaking up the sun in Kungsporten – the gardens near the Theatre.

Then it was back to the cell – sorry, ‘room’, to chill-out and get packed. We’re leaving tomorrow on the next leg of our journey – returning to Copenhagen for four days.

Gothenburg’s been fab, and it’s been great to see it with my ‘leisure head’ on, rather than back-in-the-day when I was only here on business. It’s certainly a busy place and therefore maybe a tad too commercialised (noisy!) for us – but at least there’s been plenty to do, and lots of great places to visit. It’s certainly been easy to get around and contrary to what most people say, we didn’t find it particularly expensive

Now we don’t normally do spontaneity – unless it’s in the diary :), but tomorrow’s journey is going to be slightly different compared to our original plan for our return to Denmark’s capital.

More tomorrow!