Wednesday May 24, 2023, Stockholm and Gothenburg
The Stockholm Nationalmuseum opens at 11:00 am on Wednesday, and our train leaves for Gothenburg at about 13:30. We checked out of the hotel at about 10:15 and left our luggage at the Lord Nelson Hotel and walked about 15 min. to the museum, we arrived early and sat in a park at the museum for a few minutes before it opened. This is another very nice museum. We went to the top floor and found the three 1001 paintings that were on display; this was a bonus, because I’d been told that only two would be on display. This museum has 15 1001 paintings, and we’ve now seen five; we saw the other two at an exhibition in Groningen, Netherlands back in 2013 when we lived in Amsterdam. The museum has several paintings on other lists that I have, but I won’t bore you with those. After about an hour we headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage, and then walk about 15 min. to Stockholm Central station to get our train to Gothenburg. This ride was a bit more than 4 hr. Our hotel, Hotel Royal was only about a 5 min. walk from the station, and the Gothenburg Museum was open until 20:00 on Wednesday. Let me tell you about the fun we had with Google Maps trying to get to the hotel. We walk out of the station and I put Hotel Royal, Gothenburg into Google Maps and select Directions from our location. The map opens showing a straight line from the station to the hotel, and the walk should take 5 min. We start walking in the direction of the arrow on the map. After about half a minute I can see that we are going 180° in the wrong direction, so we turn around and start again. But now the map shows we are not following the line!! So I walked over to a young guy, and asked if he spoke English, and of course he did. I asked if he could locate the Hotel Royal on Google Maps, and he did. It was actually 180° from what my phone was showing. His map said it was a 5 minute walk, basically a straight line without any turns, thankfully. I thanked him and we set off. After about 1 minute we could actually see the hotel. We had the same problem when we tried to use Maps on Sue’s phone. Enough of my complaints. We checked into the hotel, which is very nice, and then set off for the Göteborgs Konstmuseum. Google Maps worked this time, and it took us 20 min. to reach the museum. The street we walked to get there must have been “Main” street, as it was lined with stores and restaurants. When we got to the ticket office an old guy was arguing with the attendant about something. Another attendant waved us over to another window to sell us our tickets. We asked him about the location of the three 1001 paintings we wanted to see. He marked their locations on a floor map of the museum, and we were off to the top floor to hunt them down. The Gothenburg Museum actually has only one painting on the list, BUT it has two copies of 1001 paintings at the Stockholm Museum that are NOT on display. And as you have heard too many times before, I get to make the rules. Gothenburg also has several paintings on other lists I have, so it was a good day. We toured the entire museum and then set off to get dinner. Sue picked one of the restaurants along the way back to our hotel. We ordered beer of course, a charcuterie board, and Sue got a hamburger, and I got the mussels and frites. The restaurant brought out the board quickly, and they waited to bring out the main course items until we finished the charcuterie board, which was nice. I don’t think I’ve ever had more mussels than what I got today. I also had a second beer, Sue didn’t since she has to get us back to the hotel.
The train from Gothenburg to Oslo leaves at 10:15 so we didn’t have to hurry tomorrow morning. The hotel has a buffet breakfast. I go for the sweet and Sue goes for the savory, and it works for us. I am of course writing all this on the train to Oslo. We have three nights in Oslo: two museums and the Lillehammer Olympic site to visit. On Sunday May 28th we fly to Amsterdam. That is all for now.
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