a canal
We arrived in Gothenburg in the afternoon and spent some time strolling in a park before checking into our b&b, Sangt Sikfried, which was very nice. After checking in, we went into the city, which was just a short ten minute walk, to explore. It was warm and sunny, and we walked through streets crowded with restaurants, bars, and shops. We walked past yet another park (there are lot of them in Sweden) and then had HUGE hamburgers for dinner before walking back to the b&b for the night.
The next day, we went on a tour of the canals and moat of Gothenburg. Gothenburg used to be surrounded by city walls and a moat, but the walls were torn down and now only the moat remains to protect the city (not that it really needs much protection at this point). The city is crossed by many canals and sections of the moat, and tour passed under 50 bridges crossing these bodies of water before opening out into the bay.
the moat
Following the tour, we went into an older section of the city called Haga. In earlier days, the buildings within the city walls were only made out of stone, to avoid fire danger, and those who could not afford to live in stone houses lived in wooden houses in the poorer sections, such as Haga, outside the walls. Haga is full of cobbled streets and wooden buildings with tiny shops and cafes speckling the streets. It's very pretty, and we spent the afternoon peeking into little stores and eating Sweden's largest cinnamon rolls for lunch in Haga.
After Haga, we went back to the park we had passed on the first night and walked a while there before lying down in the sun on the grass at the edge of the moat. As we were relaxing there, a family of ducks (a mother and twelve duckings) came strolling over and very curiously explored our bags. I knelt down to take some pictures of the ducklings, and they approached without fear, pecking at my phone's camera lens as it was aimed at them and standing on my palm. Following the duck shenanigans, we walked over the a restaurant on a boat we had seen near the canal tours and enjoyed a meal of tapas for our last night in Gothenburg.
giant cinnamon buns
make way for ducklings