Day 7: Exploring Gothenberg

7th August, Gothenberg

We decided to do the southern archipelago today which consists of mainly 13 Islands. All are connected via ferries, which was included our day card. The Styrsöbolaget ferries to the archipelago operate from the Saltholmen terminal.This is served by tram route 11 or 9 from central Gothenburg. So we took the tram and waited for the ferry to Branno. This ferry went via Aspero ostra and Norra. The ferry ride itself is very picturisque with small houses here and there on the islands and the cool breeze making it more amazing.

On the Ferry

These tiny houses are dotted all around the Archipelago

Map of Southern Archipelago

We got down at Branno at rodsten and planned to walk across the island to the harbour on the other side called Husvik. The largest island within the southern archipelago is Brännö and has a population of 800. The walk across the island was brilliant amidst fantastic sunny weather and beds of flowers along with small and cosy cafes. We so loved the houses in bright pastel colours. When you reach husevik there is a small ferry terminal, where we found that we just missed the ferry to Donso and we can only do another island in our limited time. So we decided on Vrango with a pit stop at styrso brat ten, which was also the largest island in the archipelago.

Husevik

We took the ferry to styrso bratten which gave us around 40 minutes on the island. So we took a walk around the harbour area and chilled out for some time taking pictures, till our boat for Vrango arrived.

At Styrso Bratten

We had a hour and a half in Vrango, so we decided to venture into the village. Vrångö is the most southerly island of the Gothenburg archipelago. Around 380 people live there the whole year round. The island contains a post office, shops, and schools, among other things. Fishing is still an important industry and the there are six working fishing boats on the island. The island is most famous for its beautiful nature reserves and excellent sandy beaches. We liked the nice small swedish houses which were fascinating and we discovered a small nice fish vending shop which was selling fresh salmon fillets and mackerels apart from the regular Herrings. So i bought some for 106 SEK. We then returned to the ferry for our boat back to the main land.

Loved these bikes

Cosy houses in Vrango

We reached the mainland and rushed for the tram to Liseberg, which was our last destination for the day. Liseberg is one of the most famous amusement parks in scandinavia which hosts the oldest wooden roller coaster in the world called Balder. On the way we saw a massive protest rally which seems to be against US attacking iraq i think. Was good to see some ruckus on the streets, feels like home.

We reached Liseberg around 6:30 PM and even though its open till 11 PM, we were told that they have tremendous amount of visitors and every ride has an average 45 min to 1 hr waiting. So we thought its better to buy the entry (90 SEK each) and take the coupon booklet for 219 SEK, which has 16 coupons which we can use for the best few rides. We went up Balder which was a crazy wooden roller coaster and took us 20 minutes in the queue. After that i went for a small ride which was less scary and finally the world famous Helix, which was a 1.5 hrs waiting, but was too much of a roller coaster. So after all the we spend some time looking around before returning back home.