Maps are deceptive. Sweden does not look that wide on a map, but getting to Götborg (or Gothenburg as shown in Google Maps) took a good four hours (350 km). Part of the slow progress was the maddening tendency of Swedish highway managers, who keep lowering the speed limit around every crossroads. Fortunately, we can both drive so we took relays.
We only did one stop along the way, at Trollhätte, to take a look at the canyon of the Göta river, which is the outlet of the giant Lake Vänern. The canyon is a good 100 m deep, and was likely carved through glaciated granites and gneisses by large floods as the ice dams of the Ice Age broke down. The city, which announces itself in a large set of tall white letters as "Trollywood", was the playground of hydraulic engineers, who built several dams and canals to take advantage of the gradient to generate hydroelectricity. The Göta river is navigable, so to facilitate the passage of boats between the lake and the river two sets of locks were built (although by the look of them they have not been in use for a long time). It was a welcome way to stretch our legs.
Götborg is Sweden's second largest cities and its most important port. It is a prosperous and modern city, with lots of freeways and complicated turns and turns (happily for me it was Géraldine's turn to drive). The city is located across the estuary formed as the Göta river empties into the Bay of Kattegat. The city has thus developed on both banks of the river, but the southeast bank is where the old city is, and the northwest bank is where most of the port facilities are located.
The "old city" suffers from a modernity wash that has made it as generic as other modern port cities such as Oakland or Rotterdam. We walked all around it looking for quaint corners but mostly found big commercial pedestrian walks bordered by the same swanky brands you find all over the world. The "old city" is crossed by a couple of canals along which green corridors have been preserved, and which are clearly a favorite spot for locals to sit in the grass and enjoy their sack lunches.
Looking at what were the signature dishes of the city we found that seafood is reputed to be very good. I was particularly attracted to the idea of getting some herring. In California we can get pickled herring or herring in cream sauce, but the specialty here is a fermented herring which reputedly has a very strong smell and delicious flavor. So we went out of our way to find a fish restaurant for dinner, but they looked down their noses when I asked for herring (obviously a low-quality fisherman's fare), and we settled for cod fish for Géraldine, and a shrimp smørrebrød—an open-faced rye sandwich piled high with a small mountain of shrimp—for me. They were very good, but I was still stuck in getting some herring, so I dragged Géraldine to a supermarket to buy myself a can of herring with a zero result. I will have to wait until I get back home to have a proper Swedish fish dinner.
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