This morning we woke up for a only full day in
Gothenburg. We started off with a very nice breakfast in the top floor
of the hotel which was the attic and had lots of little nooks and
crannies and was crammed full of interesting things. Breakfast was also
Parisian themed with omelette and fancy cheeses and fruits and
baguettes. After breakfast we caught our street car down to Liseberg
and spent the next four hours there. Liseberg was another really old
park but they had made quite an effort to keep things more modern so it
felt a lot like an urbanized Hersheypark - lots of history and charm
alongside some very modern rides. After Tivoli and Bakken it was a bit
of an adjustment and once I had adjusted the crowds had arrived in
force. Where I had ten minutes waits for rides I now had an hour and
ten minutes so we left at that point. But during those four hours we
had a very good time. Dad took advantage of the pay-per-ride program
they have there and only rode Balder with me - their wooden coaster,
which is considered to be the best in Europe. It was an outstanding
ride and will also probably crack my top ten as well. Dad also went on
the Hotel Gasten spook house with me which was an additional fee but
featured live actors and was easily the best walk-through spookhouse
I've ever done. The sets were amazing and the actors all did a very good
job.
I also rode the log flume which had a cool triple
drop down the hill, the gigantic ferris wheel, and the very bizarre
fairy tale dark ride which was similar to the Hans Christian Andersen
one at Tivoli but even more abbreviated. The other three coasters
beside Balder that I rode were Cannon which was a small hydraulic launch
coaster with a loop and barrel roll. It was fun but rough and
blessedly short. And their two hillside coasters. Liseberg Railroad
which was one of my favorite coaster designers last projects and also
one of his biggest. It was very fast and wove through the woods and over
rock outcroppings and around other rides - probably a top twenty ride
for me. And their newest coaster, Helix, which opened this year. Helix
was very fast and very loopy but seemed to lack any focus, it just sped
around the side of the hill from one end to the other and just sort of
felt like it was going in random directions. I knew the layout of the
ride but I was still confused while riding it about just what was going
on. It was one of the crazier coasters I've ridden and may ALSO be a
top ten for me! So for those keeping track, Liseberg has three insanely
good coasters.
And to top that off, Gothenburg is a very beautiful
city. Out of the now five northern European cities I've been to
(London, Hamburg, Berlin, and Copenhagen{Paris doesn't count because it
feels so different from those other cities}) I would put Gothenburg at
the top. It's hilly, beautiful buildings, tree-lined streets, lots of
large parks, canals, plus the ever present streetcar. It was a really
nice place and I wished I had a more time to explore. Which is what Dad
and I did after we left Gothenburg.
We walked back to the hotel taking a meandering
route through the neighborhoods south of downtown oohing and ahhing as
we turned each corner and saw another cool sight open up. We also saw
an enormous tournament being played in a park of a game that was
unfamiliar to us. It seemed similar to Australian rules Football but
the turf court was only a bit bigger than a basketball court. The
players had to dribble the ball but not as frequently as in basketball
in the middle of the court but once they passed what looked like a
3-point arc in basketball they switched to rugby and they could run with
the ball but the defense could tackle them as well. It appeared that
the object of the game was to throw the ball into a net minded by a
goalie similar to water polo. It looked like a fun sport one that would
have been fun to play with the kids in the neighborhood growing up.
Eventually we made our way back to the hotel. We
freshened up, made dinner reservations, and went up to the hotel bar on
the roof for a beer. Now for this trip it was about this time where
time seems to get a bit wonky. Up until about four in the afternoon
time seems to go by normally but right at about four the sun seems to
stop moving and the light just does not change, at all, for the next six
hours. Our dinner reservations were for 7:30
and when we went in it felt like it was about 6. When we left an hour
and a half later it still felt like 6. And when we got back to our
hotel after doing some more wandering around in downtown Gothenburg at
about 10:15
- it still felt like 6. The sun sets around 11 and goes down fast. It
only takes about 15 to 20 minutes to go to full dark. It's very weird.
Anyway, dinner was at a place called Smaka which was
a Swedish place south of downtown near the university and it was very
tasty. We both had meatballs with lingonberries and mashed potatoes.
Dad also had a salad and I had a little salmon tartare. It was good
and also came with a little caviar which I hadn't had before. My
unsophisticated palate thought they tasted like little jelly beans
filled with salty goo. Good when mixed in with something but not so
great by themselves.
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