Getting Up to Gothenburg

Here’s the reason we went to Gothenburg! Our new Volvo XC40 T5 Glacier Metallic White with amber leather seats and charcoal interior. We love it! (Donna wanted to spank it on the fanny as soon as it came out the door! Sam was driving.)

So… after we left Lucca, we headed to St-Rémy-de-Provence, where we have rented a small apartment from September 1st to February 1st. Delphine, our delightful landlady has agreed to store a bag of winter gear for us so that we don’t have to haul it around for the last month of touring before we settle down to our sojourn in St. Rémy.

We hadn’t met Delphine before. We had spoken on the phone and exchanged emails, so we were delighted to discover that she is just as kind and sweet in person as she is on the phone! She and her husband have 2 children – ages 6 and 2. They live on a fairly large piece of property about 2 km outside of St. Rémy proper. Her parents live in a small house on the property and her husband runs a plumbing business out of a large shop across from the main house. And we are so excited about getting to know all of them better! Delphine is a dog groomer and LuLu is looking forward to getting a trim as soon as we get there!

Briefly, except for meeting Delphine, the next few days of our trip went about as wrong as could be! Without going into detail…

• Our Airbnb reservation in St Rémy was apparently confirmed incorrectly and we got a call about 2 hours out of town saying we had no place to stay!

• The morning of our flight from Paris to Gothenburg, we overslept.

• Arriving in Stockholm before connecting to Gothenburg, we left a bag in the overhead bin.

• After landing in Gothenburg we discovered that one of our checked bags was still in Paris!

• Oooops! Left the jewelry and credit cards in the safe in Paris!

Happily, all these problems were solved! It cost some money and some time, but everyone that we dealt with was exceptionally kind and sincerely making an effort on our behalf.

The Volvo Overseas Delivery Program is dandy! We were given one night’s lodging at the Clarion Post Hotel, a 3-course dinner in the hotel restaurant, breakfast the next morning and lunch at the Volvo factory when picking up the car. All this and a tutoring session to boot! That said, it will take us a long time to figure out all the bells and whistles on this car! After driving the Prius for 15 years, this is a bit like switching from a horse drawn buggy to a Model T! There is a lot to learn!

One of the nicest things that happened on car pick up morning was that Michaela, at the Clarion desk, arranged for a room to be available to us at 9:00AM, so that while we went out to the factory to pick up the car, LuLu could stay there. It was that kind of thoughtful touch that endeared us to the Clarion desk staff. They went out of their way at every turn to be helpful.

One little side note here: Scandinavia in general has NO laundromats! We’ve been staying in Airbnb’s with washers, so no problem. But in a hotel, you can either use the hotel laundry -$10 for a pair of pajamas and extra for ironing – or wash by hand. The Clarion sends their clients’ laundry out, but they were having difficulty with that service and didn’t recommend it. The suitcase that was stuck in Paris arrived full of dirty laundry that we planned to do in Gothenburg, but we couldn’t even find a wash-and-fold business. One of the desk clerks at the Clarion persuaded their sheets & towels laundry person to do a load of laundry for us! See what I mean about thoughtful touches?

One lovely benefit of staying in Gothenburg waiting for luggage and the contents of the safe was that we got to settle down for a few days! LuLu was fine on her own in the hotel room, so we parked the car in the parking lot and walked all over the city. We went to the Gothenburg Museum of Art where among the collections are masterpieces by Carl Larsson, Bruno Liljefors, Edvard Munch, Anders Zorn, Rembrandt, Rubens, Monet, Picasso Chagall and others. 

We spent another afternoon at the Röhsska Museum of Design and Craft. The Röhsska Museum specializes in Swedish design and craft since 1916. It covers historic and contemporary design and craft including industrial design, fashion and special collections such as bookbinding, posters, folk textiles and Japanese woodcut.

You can see the wide range of art and design on display at this museum! NB The pole dancer rotates slowly. In the background, under the red dress on the back wall is a ping pong table–open to the public! Nice.

The intellectual and aesthetic launch of Sam’s architecture was his reading of Notes on the Synthesis of Form, by Chris Alexander, sometime, perhaps, in 1972. This came to mind as the exhibit–BOOM!– has many kettles and vessels on display. He couldn’t help but look at all of them.

Next stop – Oslo, Norway! Looking forward to more fabulous shrimp sandwiches!

We send our love to all of you!

Sam, Donna & LuLu

August 8, 2019