The last 17 hours and 35 minutes

The active part of our second day was not really this long because the first 10 hours of it were spent in bed and having breakfast ! However once out of bed and onto the streets, the objective was walk to the Gothenburg Museum of Art - aka Goteborgs Konstmuseum.

There is a fountain of Neptune / Poseidon  

immediately outside, in our opinion, a nice fountain but not looking much like him. Erected in 1931, it caused some comment because he is naked and supposedly well endowed.

This turned out to be one of the best value places we visited and also one of the most enjoyable - the entry fee of €40

giving entrance not only to the Art Gallery but also to four other venues: Rohsska Museum (Design, Fashion and Applied Arts) ; Stadsmuseum (City Museum) ; Naturhistoriska Museum (Natural History Museum) ; and the Sjofartsmuseet Akvariet (Maritime Museum and Aquarium) not that we had the time to visit them. If we have a wish to come back to Gothenburg, then our ticket is valid until the end of the year.

What made our visit particularly enjoyable was that we had much of the Museum to ourselves. We went from Gallery to gallery and we were then only people there - just us and a room full of Picasso’s

or a room full of the best of Scandinavian Art such as Rock by Frits Thaulow 1847-1906, the rock was just like those we have sat upon when out on our travels.

Pat’s favourite was The Mountain Peak Areskutan (a mountain in central Sweden) by Per Ekstrom 1844-1935 because of the way it showed the light we have seen on many occasions when in the north of Scandinavia

Others we liked included Haymaking by the French artist  eon Augustin Lhermitte 1844-1925

Not all of the art was to our taste - we found this “The Child” by Fredrik Radium 2005 very peculiar.

In most of the galleries, the art work was very well displayed

such as this arrangement of Still Life pictures. Why there were so few visitors there we do not know but having much of the Gallery to ourselves was a delight.

On our way back to our hotel pick up our bags, we passed the

Feskekörkan (known as The Fish Church) which opened in 1874 and used to be the central fish market but now has moved slightly upmarket and is still selling fish.

It is said to get it name from the fact that the Architect (Victor Von Gegerfelt) had only ever designed churches and hence everything he designed looked like a church even if it wasn’t.

The Central Food Hall

Nearby is somewhere we were advised to buy lunch since the

quality of the food was very good

although not all suiting the tastes of a Vegetarian.

However the varieties of bread were superb

 

and the cakes were said to be brilliant - they were.

Returning Home

The flight back was early arriving and we were soon home. Our conclusion about Gothenburg is that it is a very pleasant place to visit, perhaps not as attractive as Bruges or Milan or many other European cities but worth going to for a short visit, particularly if you can get the cheap fares we managed to.