The sea is history in Sweden's second city
SHARON MCDONNELL
16 October 2005
St. Petersburg Times

GOTEBORG, Sweden - Images of the sea permeate much of Sweden's second-largest city. Reminders of its centuries as a trade center for merchant fleets are in a major church, the opera house and various restaurants. But the biggest municipal project undertaken in recent memory is something special:

After 10 years of effort by dozens of shipwrights, sailmakers and other specialists using traditional methods, a full-size replica of an 18th century merchant ship sailed Oct. 2 from here on a two-year voyage to China.

The objective is to celebrate the glory years when Goteborg's Swedish East India Co. enjoyed a near monopoly among European nations in trading with the Chinese. Ironically, the new vessel is a copy of one that sank in the harbor in 1745.

Financed by the city government and companies such as Volvo and SAS, the ship Gotheborg (a variation of the city's name) is a replica of the sunken vessel of the same name that was discovered in 1984 beneath the waters of Scandinavia's largest port. The old ship was studied by marine archaeologists.

That ship was typical of the merchant trade that made Goteborg rich: Its cargo after two years at sea was mainly silks, spices, porcelain and tea.

Building and sailing the replica is "an adventure that will display Swedish culture, trade and industry and make our nation visible and attractive in a new way," said Jorgen Gabrielson, managing director of the company that built the new ship.

Yearning to be well-known

In a way, the expedition is an effort by Goteborg to get out from under the reputation of seductive Stockholm, Sweden's capital. Goteborg was founded in 1621 by the king, but a rule was that its governing council be composed of Dutch nationals, three Germans and two Scots - and only four Swedes.

Indeed, the first mayor was Dutch, and Dutch planners laid out the city, which accounts for Goteborg's many canals.

The City Museum, housed in the former offices of the Swedish East India Co., where imported goods were auctioned from 1762 on, offers a fascinating view of regional history. Back in 1731, the company's founders, who included a Scot, received a charter granting them a 15-year monopoly in Sweden on all trade "east of the Cape of Good Hope," which is the southwestern tip of Africa.

While East India companies in nations such as England, Holland and France focused on trade with India, Goteborg's merchants concentrated on China.

Imported items featuring the Chinese aesthetic were to influence Swedish design, arts and crafts, and even landscape gardening. Porcelain in blue-and-white and armorial patterns was highly prized by upper-class Swedes in the late 1700s, as were chinoiserie designs - still visible in many buildings in Goteborg and on display here in the museum.

But beyond the Chinese influence, it is the city's centuries-long dependence on the sea that is more widely seen now.

For instance, the Masthugg Church features images of a boat and dragon figures, like those that once fronted Viking vessels, on iron chandeliers.

The Opera House resembles a ship. Its interior has a seashell-shaped sculpture, a wooden boat shaped like a Chinese river boat, and a sculpture of Venus emerging from the sea.

But then, the Opera House is next to a marina. There, a four-masted ship serves as a hotel and restaurant, with a popular bar on its deck.

And a popular stop for food is named the Fish Church. While the exterior of this 1874 building slightly resembles a church, this is mainly a fresh-seafood market hall. The restaurant upstairs, Gabriel Fish and Seafood Bar, serves a seafood buffet that includes the sweet and tasty shrimp and crayfish from cold Swedish waters

This city could claim to be the gourmet capital of the country: Goteborg chefs have won Sweden's "Chef of the Year" award seven times in the past nine years.

Goteborg is also a gateway to fishing villages, beaches and islands off Sweden's west coast, and to its two biggest lakes.

- Sharon McDonnell if a freelance writer living in Brooklyn, N.Y.

One lock down - now only 65 to go
Sweden The pace is far from brisk, but a four-day cross-country cruise on the stunning Gota Canal will take your breath away
Caroline Hendrie
2 May 2009
The Times

It was a heart-stopping moment. There I was, strolling along a deserted tow path, a dawn breeze rustling the leaves on the trees lining the canal, when suddenly I noticed our cruise boat come up behind, pass me, pick up speed and disappear into the distance.

I broke into a hopeless jog, unencumbered by anything as useful as money or a phone. I had left my partner, Michael, asleep in his bunk and it could be ages before he noticed I was missing.

With a handful of others I had jumped ashore at a set of locks, assured by a crew member that we could get back on board a few kilometres farther on. The other early-birds had sprinted or power-walked off, leaving me far behind.

Surrounded by empty fields and without a dog-walker in sight, there was nothing for it but to keep going. And, sure enough, I eventually caught up.

On the Gota Canal in Sweden locks are seldom single.

Instead of just one to delay vessels, there are four, five, even seven, in a row, taking an hour or more to pass through. No wonder the Swedes view this marvel of 19th-century engineering as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Having caught my breath, regained my composure, and joined Michael and the other passengers at the next set of locks, I, too, was venerating its mastermind, Count Baltzar von Platen.

Thanks to von Platen, a naval officer and government minister, and the great British civil engineer Thomas Telford, each summer thousands of holidaymakers can navigate his "blue ribbon across Sweden", from Gothenburg on the North Sea to Stockholm on the Baltic. Some potter along for weeks on small craft; others, like us, join a fully crewed boat, such as Juno, for four days.

The Gota Canal was not built with modern-day pleasure-seekers in mind, although its tourism potential was realised in the 1920s when cruises began for Swedish Americans returning to the country on holiday. Before the waterway was completed, moving freight and people between the capital, Stockholm, and the second city, Gothenburg, was slow and costly. A solution was sought, and after 22 years of work by 60,000 soldiers, the 190km canal and its 58 locks were opened by King Karl XIV in 1832.

After a blazing summer's day strolling Gothenburg's almost empty streets and parks, we had joined little Juno, a steamship built in 1874, at the dock by the Opera House.

Up the short gangplank was the door to our cabin, one of 29, just like railway sleeping compartments. It was a bit cramped, but good enough for Hans Christian Andersen and Henrik Ibsen, who both sailed on Juno, and managed without a private bathroom for a few days.

We soon fell into a routine of reading, looking at the view and chatting to our fellow passengers (46 in all, 27 of them Swedish). From time to time we would rush to the bow for some excitement or other — our first lock at Lilla Edet; the tiny ferry boat Lina at Toreboda; the gazebo of Gota Hotel at Borensberg on a sharp bend known as Helmsman's Horror. Crossing Lake Vanern, looking out for the fairytale Baroque outline of Lacko Castle at midnight, we saw light after light appearing in the surrounding forest as holidaymakers came out of their cabins with lanterns to watch our stately progress across the lake.

Between crossing lakes, going through dense forests and arriving at small towns, we had excursions, usually at some major lock, where some of us followed our tour manager, Ingela, to the Canal Museum at Trollhattan, or across fields to the pretty, old convent at Vreta, whose church has 11th-century frescoes. Ingela told us to be back at 1pm or we would be left behind when Juno sailed out across Lake Roxen. And I believed her. As a veteran of large cruise ships, I was amazed at the relaxed style on our little boat. No compulsory ID cards with barcodes to check us on and off, or even so much as a head count.

We were also able to have little adventures of our own.

Tiring of the wordy tour of Karlsborg Fortress in Swedish, then English, we went for a swim in Lake Vattern. The only others on the tiny beach were a couple of elderly nudists with a picnic, who looked up from their magazines to bid us a cheery good afternoon.

An hour earlier we had had the surreal experience of being serenaded by the Kindborn family, a three-generation religious group, with accordions, Swedish flags and home-grown f lowers, standing on the lockside at Forsvik.

After three nights on the water our journey ended in Stockholm for a weekend of sightseeing. By the end of our one-week holiday we had clocked up two cities, two seas, one river, three canals, eight lakes, 66 locks — and made three new Swedish friends..

Need to know

The Gota Canal Steamship Company (00 46 31 80 63 15, www.gotacanal.se) offers a four-day Coast to Coast cruise from about £750pp, including three nights' full board. Sunvil Discovery (020-8758 4722, www.sunvil.co.uk) offers tailormade Gota Canal cruise packages.

Getting there

Scandinavian Airlines (0871 5212772, www.flysas.co.uk) has one-way flights from Heathrow to Gothenburg from £67, and one-way flights from Stockholm to Heathrow from £64. Return flights cost from £126.

Staying

The Elite Plaza (00 46 31 720 40 00, www.elite.se) in Gothenburg has B& B doubles from £80.

Further information

www.westsweden.com; www.goteborg.com; www.visitsweden.com (020-7108 6168).. '' A couple of elderly nudists bid us a cheery good afternoon