Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We have no reservations for any activities here in Gothenburg, Sweden. I would like to take the canal boat through the city but made no arrangements previously because I had to pick a specific time to board which I couldn't do. We'll just take the free shuttle bus offered by HAL into the city and make our way to the canal boat. I know where it docks. The other thing was the old town shopping area but we'll have to see where the shuttle drops us. Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden, next to Stockholm.
We take our time with breakfast to let all the people go first, thereby avoiding the crowd. Having docked around 8am, we disembark around 10am only to find a huge line outside waiting for the bus. My idea sucks. I try the free port WiFi but nothing. The guy says too many people are on it. Unbelievable. We get into the cue and more people fill in behind us. We're standing near the Volvo museum and we hear that Volvo is the largest employer in Gothenburg. Anyway, three buses show up and we all get a ride into town. It's cloudy today but now rain. It's not cold, just gloomy. It's been mostly cloudy since we left St Petersburg last week. The bus ride takes about half an hour into town and drops at the town square, just two blocks from the canal boats.
Karen and I make our way to the boats and, for 170 SEK each, purchase our tickets. After waiting for the first boat to fill and leave, we board the second boat and we're off through the canals for a 50 minute ride. The narration is in Swedish and English and our gal does a good job. Karen stays awake the entire time and she does love boats.
Using our map and tourist guide, we discover that the old town shopping area is quite some distance from our location and out of range. We wander into a McDonald's Restaurant for one meal that we split, use the bathroom and check out their WiFi. It works good but I don't have my IPad. I only have my phone with a low battery and email that's so old I can't go all the way back to check for two weeks. We scan the latest day on Facebook and off we go. It's just two blocks back to the shuttle and they pick us up right away.
Back on the ship, I head to the Exploration Lounge to continue the blog, thinking the WiFi may work better at the computer station. It doesn't. Mom is starting to repackage our stuff in the room since we leave the ship the day after tomorrow. Later, she joins me at the coffee bar and we stay there until 5pm. Upon leaving I see a notice saying the Internet is out on the ship. No wonder I can't get on. We return to the room, get dressed and go to the dining room. Once again, we get a table for two upstairs and enjoy a nice meal and follow up with the 8pm show in the theater, a presentation by the ship's singers and dancers. We stop by the Queen's Lounge for the B B King show and we hang there until their break
Back in the stateroom, Mom takes a shower while I write this. The wind and rain started this afternoon and our Captain has decided to delay our departure until 2am, a full 8 hours later and that delay may affect our docking in Helsingborg. We'll have to see tomorrow.
Weather: Overcast, breezy, 61°F
- comments