Göteborg and Marstrand (1998)
In June 1998 I visited the ECMI (European Conference on Mathematics in Industry) Meeting
at Chalmers University in Göteborg in Sweden.
The city was easily reached by air with a direct KLM-flight Schiphol-Landvetter Airport
and a 25 minutes bus connection to Göteborg.
My hotel (Provobis Hotel Europa, Köpmansgatan 38) was located near the
Central Station in the old city area. The distance to Chalmers University was a 35 minutes
walk.
Especially
the old town offers some nice boulevards (former canals) for relaxed walking, like
Öster Hamngatan. Here you find
many shops, banks and restaurants. Near the hotel there were several newly build roofed
shopping centres that closed after 19.00h, making them quite desolate then, but outside
these areas there were several nice places. I particularly liked the area of the Södra Hamngatan
with views to the Börsen and other buildings, Brunnsparken and the
Central Station. Here I saw tempting long distance trains to Oslo, Malmö, Karlstad,
and Stockholm.
One afternoon the conference program had a break permitting a 3 hour afternoon boat-tour
(departure from Lila Bommen) to the
Marstrand Isle, one of the islands in the archipelago at the west coast of Sweden.
We had splendid weather and we had nice views over the sea to the many rocky islands
that can be found here. Just before arriving at Marstrand the boat passed through
a very narrow 'canal' between two islands. At Marstrand we had a guided tour through the
fortress Carlsten that was built here a 3 hundred years ago to defend this part of Sweden against
Norway and Danmark. From the top we had nice views over the tiny city with its wooden
houses and white/yellow/light-blue colours. What a silent, lonely, but pleasant place this is. After the visit I used
the remaining time to make
a walk through the city and along the harbour, admiring the effect of the late afternoon sun
when its light struck the wooden houses. In a small cafe (two wooden tables) I
obtained a drink and some bread and a postcard. The way back to Göteborg
was by bus. There I made a run to a McDonald for a late quick supper
(fast food link). It became a long
evening. However, even at 24 hours, it was not completely dark.
Some related links
- Göteborg CityGuide
- Göteborg Tourist Information
- IFK Göteborg
- Niclas Glimnell Homepage, Marstrand (with live camera!)
- Welcome to Marstrand! (Match Race Sailing)
- Kungälv - Marstrand
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