29 August 2009

Swedish Honeymoon, Day 6: Exploring Gothenburg

Events of Friday, July 17, 2009

In the morning at our hotel in Gothenburg, we ate a huge delicious breakfast, then we met Birgitta, Melissa's aunt who lives in Gothenburg.  She has lived in Gothenburg for a long time, so knew all the best places to take us in the city.

Birgitta, Melissa, and I about to enter the Haga neighborhood of Gothenburg:

First, we went to one of the areas in the city that is best preserved from the 19th century, called Haga. Here is a view down one of the market streets, early in the morning before all the tourist traffic arrives:

Haga is filled with cobble-stoned streets and little cafes:

Next, we climbed a hill to visit on of the most recognizable sights in Gothenburg, the Masthugg Church.  It was built in the early 1910s in a very traditional style, and is very beautiful.  Melissa walks up to the church, with its ornate tower:

The inside of the church was very peaceful and beautiful, also:

From the top of the hill where the church sits, there are excellent views of the whole city:

Looking towards downtown:

Looking towards downtown, you can also see what the locals call the Lipstick Building, which has got to be one of the strangest skyscrapers I've ever seen:


Birgitta and Melissa ponder something as they look over the valley:

After visiting the church, we took a ferry up the river to do some sightseeing along the trip. Birgitta is also a vegetarian like Melissa and I, so she took us to a great vegetarian restaurant in downtown Gothenburg for a delicious meal.

Next, we all went to a beautiful park in Gothenburg called the Trädgårdsföreningens park.  In the park, we visited a 19th-century style greenhouse called Palmhuset, which is very similar to another greenhouse in San Francisco, the Conservatory of Flowers:

Inside Palmhuset, we saw some huge water lilies:


On the way out of the park, we visited a rose garden:

In the park, we walked by a family of ducks, where a mother duck was keeping her little ducklings safe.  Melissa thought they looked so cute that we all watched them for ten minutes while she got her fill:

After Birgitta went home for the night, we visited the Maritime Museum in Gothenburg, where we walked through an old Swedish destroyer, a submarine, and other retired ships.  Melissa presents the submarine we toured:


The finish up the night, we caught a showing of the new movie "Brüno," with Swedish subtitles.  Brüno was laugh out loud hilarious and incredibly disturbing, so basically, if you liked Borat, you'll love Brüno.  Afterward, we headed back to the hotel to eat dinner at the restaurant at the top of our hotel.

Previous: Day 5: Hello, Gothenburg!
Next: Day 7: Rainy Day in Gothenburg

4 comments:

Jarred, Angela, and Nathan said...

I never knew water lilies could get so big! Looks like that was a really nice day. How was the movie?

Kevin Albrecht said...

Ah, I put a little update to give my short review of the movie.

Martha said...

So glad you're taking the time to post the story of your honeymoon...thanks..

Ollie Crafoord said...

The lily photo is the best. I love her facial expression! :)



Ollie
www.olliecrafoord.se