Gothenburg, Sweden - One Day Only

A museum in Göteborg at twilight. We weren't able to visit it.

  

We left the wonderful city of Copenhagen early in the morning on the first of our multi-leg train journey, this time via a high-speed train to Gothenburg, Sweden. At some points along the journey the train exceeded 200 km/h, which is a lot in American. Take that Amtrak! Congress should be ashamed. 

 

We planned a single night in Gothenburg (also spelled Gothenberg, Göteborg, Gotenberg, Gotenburg) mainly so Dad could have his pilgrimage to the Volvo Museum, one of his anticipated trip highlights. I was looking forward to the museum, too. 

 

We arrived in comfort at a little before Noon after having made a train change in Malmö, Sweden. We sought out our B&B (no hostel this time), Le Mat B&B. Google Maps is a really useful app to point and guide you to the right place, but it's not perfect. Case in point - we arrived at the location for the B&B, and even saw a sign on the building for it. What neither Google Maps, nor the hotel's booking confirmation, revealed is that the proper entrance for the place is actually around the corner. The B&B is on the fourth and fifth floors of an office building. Weird, I know. Thing is, we entered the back entry where there was just a small entryway, and elevator and a winding staircase. No signage in or out of the elevator. So, because he's old, I had my Dad wait in the entryway while I climbed the stairs, level by level, until I finally found a door with a tiny little sign above the doorbell which said "L.Mat". I tried to text my dad to take the elevator to the right floor, but he doesn't have phone/text service over here. So down the stairs I went. 

 

Safely in the elevator and to the door, we rang. There was silence and a long wait. Finally a woman answered the door, looking annoyed. We asked if this was the right place and she said that it was, but that we had come to the wrong door. She led us the length of the building to the reception area and had us check in.  Our room was basic (we knew it would be) and did not have any windows (we saved $10 that way). Toilet and shower was just down the hall. That said, everything was scrupulously clean and we were OK with the location. 

 

    We left the hotel shortly afterwards (but we always take advantage of a place to pee for free when in Europe!) We walked around a corner to the local döner establishment which sells burgers, kebabs, falafel, etc. and had lunch - kebab for Dad and the world's worst hamburger for me. From there we took a public bus to the Volvo Museum. It was a long bus journey, as the museum is located amid Volvo's offices in the shipping/manufacturing district on the outskirts of the city. We passed giant Maersk shipping containers piled 6 high. And there we were, the Volvo Museum!            

 

 Old Volvos, specialty Volvos, and an exhibit showing the progression of the models through the present day. There was even an exhibit about Volvo heavy equipment, buses and concept cars. Of note, it was Volvo which developed and employed the first three-point seatbelt. The three-point seatbelt is crediting with saving more lives in an automobile than any other safety innovation.

 

But my favorite exhibit was this:

A full-size Volvo XC90 SUV made entirely from Legos!

 

Lots of fun at the Volvo Museum and we spent most of the afternoon there, followed by the 35-minute trip back to the B&B. We took a little break and then decided to find some dinner. We settled on Texas Longhorn Steakhouse. Dad and I each had the "belly buster ribeye." There were bigger options, trust me, both this one (translated from grams) was about 10 ounces and very, very good. I had quality steak fries, and my Dad had what he described as an "honest to God real baked potato, baked in the oven slowly and without foil!"  We wanted dessert, but neither of us had room.  Bellies busted. And we have generous ones. 

 

Not much else we could do, as we returned from the Volvo Museum at about the time other attractions were closing. Thus ended our Gothenburg odyssey. Onward to Stockhom, Sweden next!