Sweden's Western Islands from Gothenburg

 Our day in Gothenburg wasn't being spent in the city at all, but in the islands of the west coast, particularly Tjorn, where there has been a long history of herring fishing.

Our first stop was in the small village of Kladesholmen, which was a fishing village for many years, but as the industry died out, the homes were bought by people from the city who wanted a vacation home by the water. As you can see from the map, there's only one main road in town, and we walked a good chunk of it in the space of 45 minutes or so.

Many of the houses, although very close together in some streets, have been renovated and extended with porches and verandahs. They are all quite beautiful, even though the standard colour scheme does seem to be white paint with a red clay tile roof. Our guide explained that most chose white because it stands up the longest against the elements, as there seems to be a constant wind, not breeze, blowing here.

Some photos of the houses in town. They are all kept pristine, and there always seems to be some kind of construction work going on.

You can see how close together the houses
are here. We had to walk single file down the
'street'.

Every house was beautifully kept

After leaving Kladesholmen, we stopped for a short time at an outdoor art installation gallery that, truly, didn't make much sense to us.

The natural scenery was much nicer than
the 'art'

An example of some of the outdoor
art on display

After a brief walk around the installation and a quick view of another village, we boarded the bus again to head for our herring tasting at a local hotel, the Hotell Norvik. The current owners have renovated the 17 rooms in 1950s era decor, as that's when the hotel was originally built.

We tried 3 kinds of herring along with some
horseradish cream, potatoes and Swedish
flatbread. Some of us found it delicious, but
others in the group weren't so enthused. 

The bar has been made to look like a
diner counter

The morning sitting room

And you can even rent Room #18 if you'd like to rough it a little - this VW camper bus is set up in the parking lot. 

We were given a little tour on our way back into the city. There's lots of construction, including road and subway, going on in Gothenburg at the moment, and one of our acquaintances told us that it was a little confusing getting around from the shuttle drop off without a map, so we decided to leave our exploration of town for our next visit. We didn't have more than a couple of hours anyway, and wouldn't have been able to see very much.

The monument to the seaman's wife, waiting for his safe
return...but some in Gothenburg say she's pointing
in the wrong direction, so she's actually telling her lover
that the coast is clear!

We were at dinner before the sailout, and suddenly heard what sounded like a band on the wharf. When we got back to our suite, which was on that side of the ship, we found a local marching band complete with flag corps and dancers. Here's a brief video from one of their songs. They actually performed for more than an hour!

It was a little disappointing not to have seen much of the city, but it was quite busy with high school graduation celebrations in one of the city squares, and all of that construction. We hope to go back and get a chance to see what is very likely a beautiful place.