Gothenborg
Trip Start
Unknown
1
10
24
Trip End
Jun 20, 2006
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Gothenborg,
Sweden
Sunday, June 11, 2006
In course of a stage or two, it was my good fortune to get a capital horse, and a driver who knew how to make the best of him. He was a man of about fifty years of age, with black heck, (an unusual thing here) and sharp piercing eyes. He had been a great hunter, and entertained me with many tales of the deeds he had accomplished by the aid of his gun and his dogs. We had entered on a very rocky country, and at the summit of one of the peaks he pointed out of a spot that the foxes of the neighbourhood seemed to have made a sort of look-out, and where he had suprised and shot at different times no fewer than six of these himself. The horse went on in splendid style, and I began to feel in better spirits about reaching Gothenburg before sunset. He took me as far as Kongsbacka, a market town of some consequence, on the outskirts of which dwelt a friend of his, from whom he persuaded me to take my next horse, instead of running the risk and getting slow one from the Gastgifvari
Countryside on way to Gothenburg
. I did so, and promised the owner a bonus on the usual fare to drive fast, which he faithfully earned.In the afternoon we neared the town, which is to Sweden just what Liverpool is to England; its smoke was already visible in the distance, but the last two miles of the road to it were bad beyond endurance. There had been a thaw since the morning, and we were ploughing our way through black mud, a foot deep, every now and then coming foul of a concealed block of stone, against which the wheels "bumped" with a violence that nearly flung me out of the wagon. The driver got out, and floundered along as best he could, for even the mud was better than a seat in the springless and unendurable vehicle. However, there was one comfort - we must been near the journey's end. We could at any point on the road, between Helsinborg and Gothenburg, tell to a nicety how much further we had to go, by the telegraph posts, which stood equi-distant by the way side, and were consecutively number. We began with some number between six and seven thousand; and the figures were now dwindling down to the tens. Suddenly we sprang out of the slough of despond onto a beautifully paved carriage-way. I looked up - and instead of the miserable little huts and cottages I had passed for a hundred and twenty miles, there were noble mansions, and the residences of merchant princes. With was like to fairy-land, to see a tall greenhouse at the side of one of these, filled with the luxuriant growth of oriental foliage
Leffler's Office!
."Shall I drive to the Gasgifvari? " said my charioteer.
" No, go straight on to the steam-boat at once."
So on we passed through magnificent streets and squares, with a large Canal running through the midst of them, crossed by handsome bridges. The effect of the whole was grand beyond anything I was prepared for; and the distant tall chimneys sending forth columns the smoke and steam, showed the full tide of activity in iron-works, saw-mills, and other manufactories.
We arrived at the Quay; many steam-boats lay there, and I marked one out which had "London" on her stern. I jumped out of the little cart and ran on board, asking in English if any of the sailors could tell me of a boat for Christiania; but they could not understand me, for it was a Swedish vessel named London, and not an English one. One of the sailors pointed to a merchant standing on the Quay, and asked me to speak to him, as he was an Englishman. So I repeated my question, and he told me no steamer was likely to leave the port for the Norwegian coast for some time to come; it was too early in the season
Clean Power
."How, then, can I possibly get there?" said I.
"Why, in one of those things," said the merchant with a smile, pointing to the cart from which I had just dismounted.
"I cannot go further learned that! - why, I am nearly killed already by two days of it. It is not possible to go further with such conveyance; can I not hire a small boat to sail over to Arendal or Langesund?"
"Well, I should think you might, perhaps, do that. The best place to ascertain would be at Leffler's office. He is the principal ship-broker here, and will, I am sure, tell you anything in his power to help you on."
I drove to Leffler's office, and there found two of the clerks, who spoke fluent English; one of them had himself been captain of the ship, and he took great pains to help me. Through him I found that a Norwegian captain had been there that very morning, and had agreed with a boatmen to take him to Stromstadt, about one hundred and twenty miles further north, whence he hoped to get some means of crossing the Christiania Fjord. He kindly went back to the Quay with me, and found out the boatman, with whom he made a bargain to take me to Stromstad for twelve dollars, or about 13 shillings and sixpence English. I offeredthe boatman one hundred dollars if instead of this he would go right over the Skager Rack to Arendal; but he shook his head, saying his boat was too small, and that the risk was so great that no offer would induce him to face it
Parking solution
. So I agreed to go to Stromstad, and take my chance with the Norwegian aforsaid."I think," said my guide, " You would do as well to launch at the same house as this captain does, because it you can then meet with him and arrange any matters between you." He changed me two or three more sovereigns for Swedish paper, and I took leave of him, very grateful for the service he had so willingly rendered me.
"Don't say a word about it," said he, "I never met with more kindness in my life than in England, and I am always glad to show any civility I can to an Englishman."
"How very quiet the town years at this time in the evening," said I," it is most unusual for a sea port to be so, isn't it?"
"Yes," said the captain; " but Gothenburg used to be very bad some years ago. It got so bad that they would not stand it any longer."
"Dear me! and what did they do to get rid of that state of things?"
"Why, they collected all the bad characters in the town, and chartered a ship, and put them all on board
Gothenburg Sunset
. They sent them all to New York and landed them!""Well, that was a very strange thing to do, wasn't it?"
"No, they did not want such people here, and it was a very good plan to clear them away like that. The town has been quiet ever since. It was a good plan."
The hotel Christiania is a tolerably comfortable second-rate establishment, much patronised by the masters of ships from the neighbouring Kingdom, and as the captain mentioned was to make it his quarters for the night, I did soy too. He was not yet come in, but two comfortable rooms were given me, and the bill of fare brought, from which to choose what I would have with my tea. I selected some "caviar", having a mind to try a dainty I had often heard praised. I can bear my willing testimony that a fair idea of its flavour may be obtained by getting the roe of a very salt herring, adding to it a teaspoon more salt, and well kneading the whole together by the aid of salt butter. I last the servants some particulars about the time for posting letters, etc., and at last found myself stranded, from sheer inability to speak Swedish, for which I apologized, saying they must excuse my awkwardness in expressing myself, for I was an Englishman. I shall not easily forget the pretended surprise of one of the girls, as she exclaimed, "And so the gentleman is a English! Although he talks such good Swedish!" The flattery was so barefaced, that I could not help a hearty laugh at it - for only a few hours before I had made a similar apology to an old man who drove my cart saying, "I am a foreigner, and cannot speak good Swedish." "So one can hear," said the old fellow, drily. (Det kan man hore.)
I wrote home, and having despatched the letter to the post-office, thought I would get to bed. I was beginning to feverish from the excessive fatigue of riding so far; my face was burning up to the roots my hair, and I had rubbed off the skin from my backbone, where the edge of the support rail had chaffed. On turning into bed I found that it was not made up, but that I was in possession of a store or depot of bedding. Throwing some off upon the floor, I made the best I could of two ticks, got between them, and tried to sleep. I had nearly succeeded, when the door opened, (for people don't knock at doors here,) and in walked a servant with a candle, to make the bed. She came up to where I was lying, held the candle over my face, and said: -
"And so the gentleman is in bed already?"
I confirmed the fact.
"The gentleman should have been pleased to ring the bell, (Herran skulde behagades ringa pa klockan) and I would have come up."
Not being accustomed to be served in this way, I felt somewhat annoyed at being treated like a baby; and to add to my embarrassment, I did not know how to express in idiomatic Swedish the idea that I had made the bed myself, and required no further alteration of it. I once tried to address a chambermaid at an hotel in Carmarthen, in the Welsh language, that she might procure me soap and towels. Instead of doing so she laughed immoderately, and retailed to her fellow servants some blunder I had made in that barbarous dialect (which I had only learned in a dialogue with a native two hours before.) It was, then, a painful thing to converse in Swedish under the circumstances, but at last I had constructed a sentence which ran somewhat thus: - "I have myself made preparation of the bed - Dost thou understand me?" "Yes, perfectly," she said; adding that "Herran" meant to say so and so; and then she put into good Swedish the idea at which I had aimed. I told her to send in the Norwegian captain as soon as he arrived, however late it might be, as I wish particularly to see him. She rendered this in like manner into proper phraseology, to show the she understood it; and then left the room.
I was awakened from a sound sleep by the entrance of Captain Kroger and his son Jens. It was some time before I recollected where I was; and could not imagine who this man and boy were, who kept lifting their caps and bowing to me in the feeble candle-light. At last I was wide awake. The captain told me that he was bound for Arendal, with his son; and left me promising to call the early in the morning, to accompany them to the boat. At six o'clock in the morning they came. Coffee was brought in; we breakfasted, and then sallied forth to the Docks.
++++++++++++++++++++++
I kept looking for a likely hill upon which foxes might linger and be shot, but it seemed that all the possibilities now were capped by wind-turbines.
I drove up from Varberg in the morning; the weather was scorching, and I, too, whisked past Kungsbakka and was in Gothenburg by mid-day. I was feeling out of sorts and every Hotel I contacted was full. The directions in and around the City Centre were confusing and eventually I found somewhere and managed to find a bite to eat and change some money, but still no luck with Hotels, so headed for a huge shopping centre where there was a tourist information office who found me a Hotel. What I didn't discover until I got there was that it was (a) just beside a Motorway and (b) way out of the centre of town...
However, the lady in the Tourist Information was very helpful and spoke excellent English (she used the word "Humongous" !) and after a few minutes delving directed me to the modern-day "Lefflers Office" - which was just across the street. So, just like JB, I walked in... and met with Bengt Lindquist (Gothenburg@leffler.se) who told me that Lefflers had absorbed into current business some years back, but retained as separate name and had just celebrated 225 years in business. He gave me some papers on the history of the Company. The Leffler family died out many years ago. He had no idea where the exact office was 140 years ago, but imagined it was somewhere close by. He couldn't help me now in my trip up coast. As you might imagine, I was pretty cock-a-hoop at finding this connection.
I checked into the Hotel, then took a taxi back into the centre of town to explore.
There's not much evidence of chimneys belching smoke and steam.. in fact I thought this was the quiestest, cleanest Power-station I'd ever seen - VERY close to the centre of the City.
Traffic and parking is a real problem, to which they've got a novel solution - to my knowledge the world's only FLOATING MULTI-STORY car park. (Named P-ARKEN) I had to take photo with the ever-present VOLVO in the foreground....
There's a really nice Customs House.......but it was built the year after JB was there and is now a CASINO
Interestingly, "Old" buildings in Gothenburg are those over 100 - they get a plaque
Other observations :
everywhere I went in Gothenberg, there seemed to be more women than men
I know you'll laugh at this, but I swear that seagulls make different sound in Sweden
After looking for a good restaurant, I had a fantastic meal of monk-fish washed down with Marsanne wine. My waiter had a Chinese father, Spanish mother, was born and raised in Peru and now lives in Gothenburg
Having escaped the Rotarians of Copenhagen, Gothenburg was full with people waiting for the start of VOLVO Ocean race
· As I left my hotel room the next morning, some sixth sense turned me back when I got to the lift. I returned to the room and looked around and found a pair of socks had rolled under the bed. Not just ANY pr of socks - the one with €500 in the toe....
