written by ed; photos by jayne
Prior to arriving in Gothenburg, we were told that parking was an issue in the city. Actually, the issue was not about the number of parking spaces available, there are plenty of places to park, it was the cost of parking. The city discourages cars in the city, so it charges a fair amount to park. We bit the bullet and parked for a few hours in the Haga district, a hip section of the city with cobbled streets and timber traditional buildings and the requisite stores and cafés.
The district is also the home of the 17th-century fortress Skansen Kronan.
A sculpture dedicated to Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish architect and diplomat, best known for his Herculean efforts in saving thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust is just outside one of the city’s museums. His name is synonymous with the notion that one person can change the world.
After strolling through the Haga, we went to our Airbnb, about 15 minutes from downtown. We had a great host, Claes, who answered all the many questions we had and gave us some suggestions of places to visit in the city and beyond.
The next morning we made our way to the city via tram and walked down the grand avenue, Avenyn, where at its end was a sculpture of Poseidon outside the Gothenburg Museum. There was a beautiful city park that we walked through and then grabbed some lunch at the food hall in the city.
Alongside one of the canals, is a central plaza with a statue of Gustaf Adolfs the founder of Gothenburg pointing to where the city should lie. 
The day we were there, there was an outdoor exhibition that had photos and descriptions of 100 citizens of Gothenburg that represented a cross-section of the city’s populace with each one describing what Gothenburg meant to them. It was clearly intended to encourage unity and empathy as Gothenburg appears to be a growing melting pot.
There are northern and southern archipelagos outside of Gothenburg, and today we visited one of the islands, Branno, after taking a tram and ferry from our Airbnb. Well-heeled Swedes have summer homes/ cottages on these islands, and we got a sampling of some as we walked from one end of the island to the other – very cool spot!
Lykesil, we both agreed, has been the highlight of our Sweden road trip thus far. It’s located north of Gothenburg (BTW, I hope you’re looking at the Sweden map; I’ve spent a lot of time getting coordinates!)
and on the south tip of the Stangenas peninsula. We are now out of Skane County and in Bohuslan County. We arrived via a car ferry (car ferries are free in Sweden and run pretty regularly) in the early evening, checked into our Bed and Breakfast, and then walked around the town for a bit to get our bearings. Not only that, but we also enjoyed our best dinner at Publik Mat and Bar at the marina.
The next morning we spoke with Jeanette, who ran the bed and breakfast, and she was a wealth of information. Lykesil is a small town that Swedes visit as a summer destination, and again, since we are now at the end of school holidays, many of these destinations are sparsely populated, much to our delight. We first walked to the Old Town (Gamal Stan) which has small wooden cottages dating back to the 1800s. We then found our way to the Stangehuvud Nature Reserve, which was quite spectacular.
Lykesil is between two fjords, and the nature preserve winds around for miles around the sea. It was a beautiful sun-shiny day and around every corner was another photo op. As you traversed over the granite rocks on a well-marked trail, as you looked out into the sea, there would be islands scattered throughout. Words really can’t describe it but some of these might give you an idea of what we saw over the few hours we
enjoyed the sights. The granite was formed about 920 million years ago during the last glacial period.
We left Lysekil with smiles on our faces as the past couple of days were great and made our way to our next stop of Sjötorp, a small town just outside the larger town of Mariestad. Many people had mentioned Mariestad as a place to visit and no one mentioned Sjötorp. Well, that’s another great thing about not having an itinerary. We just happened upon a place to stay that sounded nice (and inexpensive!) and it had a view of Lake Vannern, one of the largest lakes in Sweden. It also was located at the start of the Göta Canal.
The Göta Canal, built in the early 1800s, is 190 km long and links a number of lakes and rivers along the way. It’s a popular bike route as well, so we rented some bikes and had a fun ride along about 30 km of the canal with stops for photos along the way.
As you can see on the map, we are now heading east toward Stockholm, the final destination of our road trip, and our next stop was Karlsborg. We decided not to see another fortress, so we skipped the one in Karlsborg and went to a small town
called Hjo (pronounced YOU). Enjoyed the colorful bathhouses, ice cream, and a pretty decent pizza. We have had our fair share of pizza – definitely the universal food!
Had breakfast at our B&B, packed some lunch, and headed to Tivedens National Park. This wasn’t on our list of places to see, but the woman in the Visitor’s Center in Karlsborg highly recommended it, and we were very happy to have made the stop. A beautiful hike with great vistas with hardly anyone on the trail.
Drove a few hours to Örebro where we had lunch on a park bench in the sunshine gazing at a medieval castle and then took a stroll when the skies opened up and rain came pouring (for you Aussies – pissing down). Stayed under a tree for 10-15 minutes until it let up, then grabbed a hot chocolate as we continued our stroll through town.
Our road trip has just one more day as we head to Stockholm tomorrow. All in all, it’s been great. We really didn’t have any expectations, as Sweden wasn’t originally a place we were going to visit. So glad we made the journey!
