Like almost everyone else in Sweden, Lars Erlandsson has relatives in the United States. According to the young auctioneer in the fish harbor, the history of Swedish emigration is particularly present here on Sweden’s west coast. Goteborg, the largest port in Scandinavia and Sweden’s second city, was the point of departure for more than one million Swedes a century or so ago.
In 1907, Erlandsson’s great uncle was among them.
“He was involved in a brawl and hit someone over the head with a plank. Apparently, he was afraid he had killed the man so he jumped aboard the America ship,” Erlandsson said, grinning as he pointed toward the old Swedish America Line pier located near the fish harbor. “At least that’s what I’ve been told.”
Erlandsson interrupted his story since it was time to start the bidding on herring. He climbed onto a wooden crate from where he ran the proceedings, joking with buyers, coaxing them to raise their offers. His outgoing manner and sense of humor fit my expectations since Goteborg-natives are known in my home country for their wit, expressed in a lively comedy and music-hall tradition, and an affinity for telling stories. Particularly popular are “Stockholm jokes.” These stories, which make fun of my hometown, are an expression of the rivalry between the country’s two largest cities. In fact, Goteborg has a no-nonsense attitude and an identity as a working town which reminds me of its sister city, Chicago.
The daily auction at the wholesale fish market is a popular tourist attraction for those who don’t mind getting up at 6 a.m. My American husband, John, and I had already visited the public fish market downtown the day before. Housed in a neo-Gothic building with arched windows, the market is popularly known as Feskekorka, the Fish Church, an irreverent moniker that says something about the importance of seafood in local cuisine and culture. There, we tried a variety of smoked fish and seafood, including tiny, salty North Sea shrimps served in paper cups, one of the most popular snacks to-go.
As we were leaving the auction, an old worker approached and handed us a dripping wet plastic bag filled with fish. “Fresh sole, a souvenir,” he said. He smiled and disappeared before I had a chance to respond. Standing there holding the bag, we were uncertain what to do since we were traveling and didn’t have access to a kitchen. But John reminded me how rare it is to find fresh fish that is not farm-raised in the stores at home in Iowa. So we kept the gift and later presented it to Bjorn Rosenquist, who rented us a room in his centrally located apartment (arranged through the local tourism office).
Bjorn glanced at the delicacy, smiled approvingly and sprang into action. He cleaned and fried the fish whole in butter and squirted lemon juice over it. The new potatoes were prepared Swedish-style, cleaned and boiled with the peel still on and dill sprigs thrown in for flavor. He then set the table for all of us in the dining room facing Sodra Vagen Street. Although we were a couple of miles from the port, seagulls screeched overhead and we could smell the sea breeze through the open windows.
The following morning, we went down to look at the sprawling port, which extends for 14 miles along the mouth of the Gota River. The port has changed a lot in the past few decades. Cargo traffic has moved farther west and closer to the open sea, to deep harbors designed for huge container ships, while the piers downtown are now reserved for passenger traffic: ferries bound for Norway, Denmark and Germany, cruise ships, commuter ferries and floating hotels.
Building with a `bow’
The new Opera House in Lilla Bommen Harbor had been completed since our previous visit, part of a plan to make the port a cultural and entertainment center. With its pointed “bow,” masts and other maritime references, the waterfront building blends in like one ship among all the others. Nearby is Goteborg’s Maritima Museum, which claims to be the largest floating maritime museum in the world. Here, visitors can go on board retired Navy and working ships, including lighthouse boats, fishing vessels, tugboats, old schooners and even a U-boat.
But the change is most noticeable on the northern shore at Hisingen, the large island where most industries, including Volvo’s headquarters, are located. About 10 years ago bungee jumpers began to use the abandoned, huge cranes to launch themselves down into the docks at Sannegardshamnen. Next followed up-scale restaurants, waterfront pedestrian paths and, most recently, attractive new apartment buildings with balconies facing the water. The commuter ferry Alvsnabben shuttles back and forth.
A desire named streetcar
One of our favorite things to do in Goteborg is riding streetcars, since they go practically everywhere and are slow enough to give you a good view of the city. Goteborg is the only city in Sweden that still relies on trams for public transport (there is no subway). The easiest place to catch one is in Brunnsparken, the square that is the junction for all tram lines and one of the city’s most popular meeting places.
Brunnsparken overlooks Stora Hamnkanalen (the Great Harbor Canal) and Gustav Adolfs Torg, the square named for King Gustav II Adolf who founded the city in 1621 on the site of an ancient trading post. The city was designed in Dutch style with a grid of canals and narrow streets. Merchants and shipbuilders, Swedes as well as Dutch, Germans and Scots, settled here and eventually, as profits grew, built palatial headquarters and warehouses along the canals. Ostindiska Kompaniet, the Swedish East Indian Trading Company, was one of the most prosperous business ventures. As the first company in the country to trade with the Far East, Ostindiska in the 18th Century had a greater revenue than the Swedish state. Although the company no longer exists, its Neoclassical former headquarters on the northern side of Stora Hamnkanalen has been turned into a museum.
We boarded a streetcar headed toward Gotaplatsen, the cultural and civic center of downtown. Several passengers got off at Kungsportsplatsen, a square at the edge of the old city located near Vallgraven (the Moat). Although there are no city walls, the star-shaped moat still separates the original city within from the mainland, which nowadays is the modern downtown area. Tourists were lining up by the bridge to board the popular Paddan (the Toad) sightseeing boats. Low and squat, these ships are the only vessels that can clear the low bridges built over the canals after commercial boat traffic moved to the river.
It was lunch time on one of the busiest corners in town. Shoppers crowded the pedestrian malls on the streets adjacent to Kungsportsplatsen. Others stopped to have ice cream on the square while suit-clad office workers headed for the restaurants in the market place. Located on nearby Kungstorget square, the 19th Century market is one of the best places for lunch.
A continental feel
Crossing the bridge spanning the moat, the streetcar continued onto the city’s most elegant avenue, Kungsportsavenyn. On summer nights, especially, the high density of restaurants and outdoor cafes makes this street feel more continental than Scandinavian. The avenue climbs steadily and slightly toward Gotaplatsen. The city theater, the symphony and the art museum that face the square were built in Modernist style in the 1920s and ’30s. The bronze sculpture “Poseidon,” completed in 1931 by the Swedish sculptor Carl Milles, occupies the center. The giant sea god, one of the most photographed monuments in the city, rises out of the splashing water clutching a conch shell in one hand and a fish in the other. A codfish, according to a local joke.
Konstmuseet, the art museum, is one of the best in Sweden. It is known for its collection of Nordic, especially Swedish, paintings, as well as Dutch, Flemish and French works. A recent addition to the museum is the Hasselblad Center for Photography, which has moved its exhibition space here; the center is run by the Hasselblad Foundation, which was created with an endowment from the camera manufacturer located here in Goteborg. But my own favorites at the museum are the local early 20th Century painters who, in portraits of fishermen and farmers, captured the rough life and intense quality of light of the west coast archipelago.
A visit to one of the many islands along the coast of Bohuslan province is one of the two things Goteborg natives tell you that you must do before leaving. The other prerequisite is Liseberg amusement park in Goteborg, the largest amusement park in Scandinavia. Both are well worth it. This time, we chose to begin with an evening boat tour of the archipelago since the weather was so pleasant.
Leaving the city and the port behind, the ferry soon entered a strange and beautiful seascape. Barren, rocky islands protruded out of the water like plump gray seals. Wooden cottages, built on the few level surfaces on the islands not exposed to the western wind, seemed to cling precariously to the ground. Yachts criss-crossed the straits between the skerries and, in one sheltered bay, a cabin cruiser had anchored for the night.
It was a Thursday evening and we were paying a repeat visit to Branno, which has been immortalized in a popular Swedish song about the island’s traditional outdoor dance. Like most other outdoor summer dances I had attended in Sweden, this was a casual affair; most people wore jeans, sneakers and t-shirts. Hundreds of people had gathered on the rocky beaches of Branno and more kept arriving by cabin cruiser, yachts or small rowboats. Couples in the midst of a waltz twirled on the dance floor, a wooden deck built near the water. Others preferred to sit and listen to the band or wait for their turn on the crowded dance floor. And the surrounding cliffs were filled with families and groups of friends having evening coffee or drinks.
It was a classic Swedish summer moment. John recalled that when he first visited Sweden several years ago, he was surprised by the popularity of outdoor dancing accompanied by live dance-mix music. But after spending time here in the dark winter months, he understood why Swedes like to celebrate the long days of summer, preferably outdoors. And in this setting, the ritual made perfect sense to him.
During a break, we sat on a rock and watched the sun setting in the sea. We had a long, bright twilight ahead of us yet and, even then, it wouldn’t get completely dark. Something to remember in December.
IF YOU GO
GETTING THERE
Goteborg is 300 miles west of Stockholm, and about 220 miles from Oslo and Copenhagen, which makes this Swedish city an easy stop for travelers visiting Scandinavia. The high-speed train X2000 from Stockholm reaches Goteborg in 2 1/2 hours, and there are flights from all Scandinavian capitals to Goteborg.
LODGING AND DINING
Lodging options range from luxury hotels to inexpensive rooms in private homes, which can be arranged through the city’s tourism office (last summer, we paid $30 for a double room in a private home).
In recent years, Goteborg has become a culinary city with top-notch restaurants, including two Michelin-rated restaurants (though we visited neither). For less expensive options, try the bistros and cafes along Linnegatan Street near Haga, one of the oldest neighborhoods. Nearby is Andra Langgatan, a street with a mix of economical and high-priced restaurants. Kungsportsavenyn, the market area and the downtown shopping districts (the old town within the moat and Nordstan near the port) are also good places for lunch, dinner and coffee.
CALLING SWEDEN
From the United States, dial 011-46 and omit the first zero from Swedish area code for numbers listed below.
SUGGESTED EXCURSIONS
Gunnebo Palace was the location for the recent meeting between President Bush and European leaders. Commissioned as a summer palace by a wealthy Goteborg merchant, John Hall, in the late 18th Century, Gunnebo is a wooden palace built to look like stone and one of the best examples of Neoclassical architecture in Sweden. The palace is open daily in the summer and the garden and cafe and restaurants are open year round. Located in Molndal outside Goteborg. Phone: 031-67-75-67.
Bohuslan province archipelago, north of Goteborg, is one of the most popular travel destinations in Sweden. This scenic region has a rocky coast cut by deep fiords. A boat tour to Alvsborgs Fastning (fortress) will give you a sense of the archipelago without leaving the city; it was built in 1653 on a strategically located island near the inlet to the harbor. There are regular boat tours from Lilla Bommen harbor downtown. Other sights in the Bohuslan archipelago include the island of Tjorn (near Goteborg), with a recently opened watercolor museum, an annual yacht race and picturesque fishing villages (the island is connected to the mainland by a bridge). Marstrand (located on a small island near Goteborg) is a spa and resort town with gingerbread houses where the Swedish royal family vacationed a century ago; a 17th Century fortress dominates the harbor which, during summer, is filled with yachts.
Northern Bohuslan (near Norway) is too far from Goteborg for a day excursion, but accommodation options include hotels, cottage rentals and camping. Among the attractions are more than 2,000 rock carvings at Tanum (located inland). Made about 3,000 years ago, these images (and a new museum in Vitlycke) were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994.
INFORMATION
Swedish Travel and Tourism Council in New York, 212-885 9700; fax 212-885 9764; www.visit-sweden.com. Goteborg’s Turistbyra has hotel information and reservations, and sells tour and events tickets at two locations: Kungsportsplatsen 2, 411 10 Goteborg, and Norstadstorget (near train station and port), 411 05 Goteborg. Phone 011-46-31-61-25-00; fax 011-46-31-61-25-01; www.goteborg.com.
— Maria Nilsson
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Fomer Chicagoans Maria Nilsson and her husband, photographer John Kimmich, now live in Iowa City but spend much of their summers in Sweden.
