Day 11 - Tuesday 2nd May 2023

Today we'd be leaving Copenhagen and travelling to Gothenburg in Sweden. It was another cool cloudy morning. Once again, we admired the view from our hotel window. By the time we left, the cloud had  cleared to a bright sunny day with blue sky.

It would be a leisurely start. We set our alarms for 6am, breakfast at 7am, bags out for collection at 8am.

The bus left at the appointed time of 9am but it was a false start. After travelling a few km, one of the group said he'd left something behind and so the bus turned around and returned to the hotel. He didn't find it anyway. The bus left again at 9:20.

As we left Denmark, Gennady, our guide, told us that the population of Denmark is only 5.5 million of whom 1 million live in the greater Copenhagen area.

Denmark is joined to Sweden nowadays by a very long bridge and tunnel. The tunnel is in an artificial island and then emerges to cross the water. The central span in the middle is more than 200m above sea level. It has two levels with a railway on the bottom and the roadway on top.

He said the population of Sweden is 10.5 million. He mentioned famous Swedish names such as Abba, Ikea, Volvo, Bjorn Borg, vodka and the Nobel prize.

The motorway took us up the west coast of Sweden before stopping for a comfort stop and a coffee break at a shopping centre at 11:10am.

In typical Swedish style, there was no separate rest rooms for men and women. There is a common entrance to a corridor with cubicles on either side. The cubicles are unisex. Each cubicle is marked with a sign showing symbols for a man and a woman.

Setting off again, we passed by more of the peaceful scenery - green pastures and quaint farmhouses. Occasionally there were lakes surrounded by pine trees.

When we reached Gothenburg, we were surprised to find there were streets lined with cherry tress. One of the reasons we'd gone to Tokyo on our way to Europe had been to see the cherry blossoms but we were too late. Instead we saw them here in Gothenburg.

The bus reached the Elite Plaza Hotel at about 1:30pm. Originally our walking tour of Gothenburg was due to start at 1:30. Because we were running late, Gennady had organised for it to start at 2pm. The other constraint was that we had to be back by 3:30 to go to the tour of the Volvo Museum at 4pm.

Fortunately, our rooms were ready and so we were able to leave our carry-on bags etc there before rushing back down again. There was no time to wait for our luggage to be delivered to our rooms.

We hadn't had any lunch. Suzy managed to buy some wraps for the four of us while on our walking tour.

Our guide for the walking tour, Christina, took us to see various buildings, fountains, churches, plazas etc. Apart from cyclists, you need to watch for trams and the cobblestone footpaths. The final stop was the town hall near the canal. Then we rushed back to the hotel. I was struggling with the speed and urgency.

The bus got us to the museum at about 4:10 instead of 4pm. Our guide was a retired Volvo employee who came back to run these tours from time to time. It was an excellent tour. He showed us models ranging from the first car to recent models including sports cars, trucks, concept cars and even an aeroplane.

Apparently the company started as a manufacturer of ball bearings before getting into motor cars. The word Volvo is Latin for ''Í roll". By the time the tour finished at 5:20, the gift shop was closed.

This bus driver was finishing today (a different driver takes over tomorrow for the remainder of our bus tour) and so we gave him a tip. Suzy spoke to Gennady about the rushed program today. The timing today was never going to work even if we hadn't had to go back to the hotel in Copenhagen. Surely they need to at least allow time for lunch.

Our room had a king size bed with separate single quilts rather than a single quilt across the full width. There was a writing desk and chair, a comfy chair, cupboard and a shower in the bath. The Wi-Fi speed was about 170Mb/s in both directions. We didn't bother checking if the safe worked.

When we checked the restaurant prices, we saw that the wine was very expensive and so Suzy went out to the government liquor store that our guide had pointed out. She got two bottles of wine and two cans of beer for about the same price we would pay in Sydney. A very big difference to hotel prices.

Chris joined us for a pre-dinner drink in our room.

For dinner we ventured out into the cold to find a suitable restaurant. We found one not far away that looked Ok.