Day 27 - Gardens in Gothenburg

Day 27 - Gothenburg Gardens

The family were all at a Brian Cox event last night - quantum physics was a bit above their heads but they enjoyed the visuals and even the children stayed engrossed the full 2 hour 40 minutes. (I’d be more interested in the other Brian Cox). The big excitement today is #2 and family picked up Sandy their rescue dog. She is getting settled in. I hope they’ll all be very happy together.

We left Kampersvik this morning on a mission to dump waste, and get fuel and water. After me praising the Swedish west coast for how easy this was, even on the main E road to Gothenburg we struggled. At one place we could dump black waste but that’s all. Next stop was a service station where we got expensive diesel in order to get their water. However it looks like the grey waste with be going with us to Denmark on the ferry.

The motorway system in Gothenburg was complicated and needless to say confused us. It was Sunday, but the roads were much busier than we expected. Our confusion was compounded by a heavy rain shower, traffic jams and road closures so we went through the same toll several times. We found a place to stop to reassess and just at the same time a German van joined us, having the same difficulty - they and we had intended to park at the station. Google didn’t see the big fence blocking it off from the route it sent us. Anyway, I wanted to see the Tradgardsforeningen so located a car park near it and google managed to send us there without further problems, though it did say it was free to park on a Sunday but I saw some locals paying at a meter and they told me it wasn’t free till between 10pm-8am. So we paid as much as a camp site would cost for the 6 hours till 10pm. It’s the most convenient place as we can just stay overnight free and we couldn’t find any site near enough to the ferry. A few other vans seem to have the same idea and a couple of Danish ones have parked up beside us.

The Botanic Gardens were a treat. Founded in 1842, a time of burgeoning interest in flower-growing and horticulture all over Europe. Many horticultural societies were formed, modelled on the Royal Horticultural Society in England. Built in glass and wrought iron, the Palm House, almost 1,000 sq metres in size, is modelled on Crystal Palace in London. Mr C had a sit down in the sun while I wandered in the Rosarium, one of the foremost rose gardens in Northern Europe, containing over 1,200 different varieties. They were still blooming and smelling lovely. I particularly like old-fashioned roses and was pleased to see a whole section devoted to David Austin, the ones I have at home. They even had my favourite, Jude the Obscure. Obviously there are no deer getting into Rosparken. where the roses exist in perfect harmony with perennials such as salvia nemorosa and nepeta. Now to try to find a Blip! Yet again, I have so many possibilities.