Sweden's Other City
by Yvonne Horn, GoWorldTravel.com

Goteborg by the numbers:  481,410 inhabitants; one opera house; 25 theaters; 37 cinemas; 50,000 trees; 207 trams; 570 restaurants; two universities; 175 square meters of green space per citizen; one Poseidon statue; two market halls plus one fish market; 18 museums; one national orchestra; 5000 roses in one rose garden; 157 cafés; 10,940 yearly ship moorings; 19 golf courses; more than one-million, number of Swedes departing from Goteborg at the turn of the 20th century, most bound for America –one-quarter of Sweden’s then population.

“Goteborg by the Numbers,” as the informational sheet I picked up from the tourist office was called, contained enough “gee whizzes” to perk my interest in Sweden’s second largest city. First largest is, of course, Stockholm, a salt-scrubbed metropolis that wins hands down as one of the world’s most beautiful and distinctive cities – a love-affair at first glance.

By contrast, Goteborg at first glance struck me as, well, ho-hum – no monumental edifices, no picturesque bridges – in short, it sure wasn’t Stockholm. But who would not find immediately endearing a city that proudly boasts 207 trams?  Such a civilized way to get about! Trams – the ideal transport for those wanting to become acquainted with a city, as opposed to underground transit (of which Goteborg by the Numbers has zero, due to unstable subsoil) that leaves one in the dark between descent and popping up again.  And, ah, Goteborg’s green space to person ratio. A major city devoted to giving everyone plenty of elbowroom - what a concept!

I began my explorations by foot on the Kungsportsaveyn, commonly known as the “Avenyn” (The Avenue), Goteborg’s answer to Paris’ Champs Elysées. Goteborgers have promenaded its one-mile length, shopped in its shops, and gathered at its numerous restaurants, pubs, and cafés for generations, making it the place to break for afternoon fika, coffee and cake, while taking in the passing parade.

On its southern end, Avenyn is anchored by Gotasplatsen, the city’s cultural center where the Konstmuséet (Art Museum), with its extensive collection of Scandinavian art, keeps company with the Konserthuset (Concert Hall), home to the city’s acclaimed symphony orchestra, the Stadsteatern (Municipal Theatre) and the Stadsbiblioteket (Municipal Library). Center to the Gotasplatsen, is the Poseidon fountain, a work of art that caused much uproar at its installation over the God of the Sea’s exposed “manliness.” Whether the controversy was settled by enhancement or downsizing is today left up to viewers’ imaginations. Poseiden’s view of the city is magnificent, straight down the Avenyn into the tangle of the old city with the wide sweep of Goteborg’s harbor beyond.

In the old-city’s warren of alleys there is another street that must be trod, Postgatan. At the turn of the 20h century, it was down cobbled Postgatan (then named Sillgatan – “sill” being Swedish for “herring’) that those one-million-plus Swedes, carrying bundles of their worldly belongings, made their way to the harbor to board ships bound for America. They would have walked past the Kronhuset, Goteborg’s oldest secular building, built as the town’s armory in 1643.  Today it anchors various craftsmen’s workshops including that of a goldsmith and a glass blower.

A left turn upon reaching the harbor now leads to what is said to be the world’s largest museum of floating ships (www.sjofartsmuseum.goteborg.se), featuring fifteen vessels. Included at the edge of the museum this day was one of the cute-as-a-button, vintage, passenger ships of the Gota Canal Steamship Company (www.gotacanal.se) that for 137 years have traversed the Gota between Goteborg and Stockholm.  A turn right and the opera house (www.opera.se, guided tours the year around) soars over the harbor, its bold, ship-like, contemporary architecture as much a draw as the world-class performances inside. Both emphasize that Goteborg is, and has always been, a city of the sea..

By the mid-1700s, Goteborg was a city to be reckoned with, an economic force made rich by great merchant fleets and traders, most notably that of the Swedish East Indian Company. The harbor was filled with ships bound and returning from the four corners of the world.  Even today the name “East India Company” evokes images of exotic ports, holds laden with tea, spices, silk and porcelain.  Visitors can step back to that time at the City Museum (www.stadsmuseum.goteborg.se), once home to the East India Company’s offices and vast warehouses. Although the museum displays cultural history from antiquity to the present – including the only Viking-era ship on display in Sweden and the first Volvo car made - of special interest is a floor dedicated to the company’s adventurous sea voyages to China. Today Goteborg remains the biggest harbor in the Nordic region, handling almost a third of Sweden’s international trade.  Hence, those nearly 11,000 yearly ship moorings, as noted in Goteborg by the numbers.

While Stockholm plays hopscotch over fourteen islands, Goteborg wears a necklace of canals that work admirably as directional signposts – “If you come to the second canal, you’ve gone too far.”  While some of the canals have been filled in to become streets, those remaining are a reminder that it was the Dutch who, at the request of Gustave II Adolf in 1621, built the city. A statue of Gustave II Adolf presides over a square carrying his name. There the interior of the Stadshuset (City Hall), built in 1758 as an armory, should not be missed as an exquisite example of Sweden’s reputation for clean and simple design.

Water, too, provides a fine introduction to the city via an open-air Paddan sightseeing boat (www.borjessons.com) that follows the old city moat and canals into the harbor with plenty of lively and informational tales provided along the way. The tour ends where it begins, at the Kungsportsbron, the bridge where the Avenyn disappears and the old city begins.

One, of course, must take in at least several of those eighteen museums tallied in Goteborg by the Numbers.  Not to be missed is the Rohsska Muséet (www.designmuseum.se), the Swedish museum for design and handicrafts with its rich mixture of furniture, glass, silver, china and textiles. The museum shop is the place to browse for examples to carry home. Much less frequently visted is the quirky and fascinating Medical History Museum (www.sahlgrenska.se/museum) with displays that inspire many an inward “Ouch!” and exclamations of “What on earth could they be doing?” along with a delightful wicker carriage that turns out to be a turn-of-the-century ambulance.

Other parts of the city are in themselves living museums, such as the 19th century- old worker’s district, Haga, but a five-minute walk from the city center. Haga’s pedestrian alleys are lined with shops dedicated to used goods and handicrafts, including one that makes clogs so comfortable that it’s a temptation not to slip a pair on then and there and clomp off into the district’s cobblestone streets. Haga’s cafés are known for their non-matching furnishings, red-checked cloths, and second-hand settings; those in love with massive sticky buns should not bypass Kafé Husaren.

Across the canal from Haga is the single fish market noted in Goteborg by the Numbers, the 1874-built Feskekorka (Fish Church), which is not or ever has been a church but is so called because its architecture strongly resembles one. Inside, counter after counter is filled with the freshest and best pulled from the sea, arranged as if works of art. An outstanding seafood restaurant, located in what the uninitiated might assume to be the choir loft, overlooks the bustle

The readiness of largesse from the sea is but one reason that Goteborg is central to Vastsvensk Mersmak (West Swedish Flavor), an organization dedicated to the forging of partnerships between restaurants, chefs, and purveyors of quality raw ingredients that are here so readily plucked from the surrounding sea, forests and farms. As a result, Goteborg is fast gaining recognition as a European culinary epicenter.

As a result, point your finger at any one of those 570 restaurants and you’d probably not go wrong, especially given the fact that a Goteborg chef has been named “Chef of the Year” seven times during the past decade creating a willingness for restaurants to try to keep up. Three are Michelin Guide Rouge starred.

Fond (www.fondrestaurang.com), located adjacent to the Poseiden statue, is one.   Fond’s chef, Stefan Karlsson, wanting nothing extraneous to distract from the bold combinations and excellent quality of ingredients used, takes Sweden’s reputation for simplicity to the point of using paper napkins - excellent quality paper napkins, it should be noted.  Other starred restaurants are Sjomagasinet (www.sjomagasinet.se), specializing in seafood, and 28+(www.restaurangguiden.com), a culinary temple housed in a basement. 

One would not expect to eat well at an amusement park, but I did at Hamnkrogen, a restaurant smack-dab in the midst of the thrilling rides, lovely gardens, and carnival attractions of Liseberg (www.liseberg.se), which ranks as one of the largest tourist draws in Europe with over three-million visitors a year.  It was at Hamnkrogen that I first sampled an excellent version of what is known as “West Coast salad,” a creamy lobster and shrimp mix, here topped with pearls of roe, that is ubiquitous all over western Sweden. Considered a perfect end to a Goteborg night out is a “Half Special,” a hot dog on mashed potato topped with West Coast salad – a treat I decided to forego.

Many of the city’s restaurants include sidewalk eating areas, with neatly folded blankets placed at the ready over the backs of chairs so that guests can wrap up should the weather be less than balmy – Goteborg is as well known for weather that results in dripping hair and droplets on eyelashes as it is for glorious days punctuated by plentiful sun, warm westerly winds and the cry of soaring eagulls.  At Smaka, a restaurant that takes classic country cooking to culinary heights, I bypassed blanket huddling in favor of dining inside on pickled herring presented three ways, followed by meatballs with mashed potatoes and linonberries – traditional, hearty dishes to be savored on a drizzly night.

On a day punctuated by plentiful sun, I strolled the walkways of Tradgardsforeningen, a 19th century park laid out along the old moat that accounts for a good deal of the city’s elbow room as well as the place to admire the 5,000 rose bushes tallied in Gotenborg by the Numbers. There I came upon Restaurant Tradgar’n where a lavish buffet of dozens of hot and cold offerings, including salmon four ways, was laid out on long, open tables – delicious, inexpensive, and obviously a  Goteborger favorite.  

Hotels abound, as might be expected in a city that attracts millions for such sporting events as the1995 world championships in track and field held in venues that include Nya Ullevi, the largest outdoor stadium in Sweden. I headquartered my stay at two: First at the four-star First Hotel G (www.firsthotels.com), unusually located inside the gorgeously renovated central train station with Ullevi but a free kick away, moving on to the recently renovated Elite Park Avenue Hotel (www.elite.se), which enjoys an ideal location practically at the feet of the Poseidon fountain on the Avenyn.

I left Sweden’s second city aboard a train from central station en-route to Stockholm.  As the train rushed into the countryside, I could not help but compare the two:  Stockholm, a love affair at first glance. Goteborg, a heart breaker to leave.