Atlantica - 01.05.2007, Page 31

30 a t l a n t i c a
“CALLING ALL SWEDES!”
I entreated one March in
my weekly column on ice-
landreview.com. “What are
Gothenburg’s best museums, walks, bars, restau-
rants, hidden gems? Drop me a line and tell me
about the most interesting, beautiful, entertain-
ing, cheap, fun, things you can do there.”
I had amassed a few facts about Sweden’s sec-
ond-largest city, but nothing more. The popula-
tion of the city itself is about 460,000. It is home
to ‘90s dance sensation Ace of Base and will
host the World Figure Skating Championships
next year. It’s a famous industrial port: Volvo,
SKF and Hasselblad have their headquarters
in Gothenburg. Also, Sweden’s most popular
tourist attraction, Liseberg, a huge Tivoli-style
amusement park with a celebrated wooden roller
coaster, is in the center of town.
In addition to my web query, I’d been asking
acquaintances and colleagues to recommend
some attractions to visit during my three-day
trip to Gothenburg. Mostly I got bemused looks,
but as it turns out, my inbox was flooded with
responses to my online query.
I used them to create my agenda.
The famous ‘Avenyn’ is where everything hap-
pens in the city. It is the major street here and if
you go to the end where the statue of Poseidon is,
you cannot miss the museum directly behind it.
There you can see works of art by famous painters
such as van Gogh and Picasso. – Kimberly
The most popular suggestion, and the starting
point for 99 percent of visitors to Gothenburg,
was a visit to Kungsportsavenyen, Avenyn for
short. The Avenyn runs about one kilome-
ter through the city center from the bronze
Poseidon statue at one end to Kungsplats Square,
across the Vallgraven Canal, at the other.
The broad street, a reserved Swedish Champs
Elysées, with blue trams shuttling shoppers
and commuters efficiently from one end to the
other, is lined with cafés and restaurants, shops
and boutiques. On the many occasions I strolled
the Avenyn during my stay, I always saw young
and old indulging in the ever popular soft serve
ice cream cones, particularly in demand on this
hottest March weekend on record in the city. For
those who still felt winter’s chill, cafés had put
out warm blankets to keep patrons warm while
they sipped lagers in the sun.
Gothenburg
Confidential
Those who know it best share their
secrets about Sweden’s
second city.
TexT by Eliza rEid
PhoToS by Páll stEfánsson