Home | Featured Articles | Around Texas | Calendar of Events | Totally Griswald | Tips | Reviews | Contact Us | Links
|
|
| Home | Featured Articles | Around Texas | Calendar of Events | Totally Griswald | Tips | Reviews | Contact Us | Links |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Three (Okay Four) Reasons to Visit Uddevalla By Allen Dale Olson, Freelance Writer November 2007
You could start with the scenery in and around Uddevalla, but that’s not unique; all of Sweden is scenic, so we won’t count that as one of the three reasons. You could mention the Hotel Carlia with its large rooms, heated floors, and free parking, but there are other nice hotels in Uddevalla, so we won’t count that, nice as it is.
A walk along a fiord, now there’s a reason. No, the By Fiord is not one of those spectacular waterways with steep cliffs rising from the water; it’s a gentle, crystal clear channel from the Bavean River to the North Sea with mostly level footpaths beside it. The air is always fresh and pure, and the footpath is paved in town and sandy all the way to Gustafsberg, a couple of miles away.
Gustafsberg, now there’s a second reason. This little fiord-side village looks like a stage setting. In fact, it’s the oldest seaside resort in Europe, and its painted, wooden houses look exactly as they did some 200 years ago when the Scandinavian kings and queens came there to escape the rigors of ruling. You’re not likely to see a member of the royal family there today, but you will be able to take a coffee or a libation in a café frequented by townspeople equally in search of relaxation by the fiord.
A third reason – and just maybe it should be the first reason – is the splendid Bohuslan Museum. Bohuslan is the province of which Uddevalla is capital, and this provincial museum ranks as one of the best in Sweden. It also offers free admission.
The museum tracks the history of the Bohuslan peoples from pre-historic times but especially since the 1658 Treaty of Roskilde made them Swedes instead of Norwegians. Exhibits, tableaux, and photo histories entertain as well as inform and are easy to understand even for non-Scandinavians. Swedes, being practical people, even provide plenty of comfortable seating for museum-goers whose feet tire going from one gallery to another.
Udd
The town boasts its share of coffee and pastry shops, casual sandwich places, and pubs where traditional herring and cod dishes match beers from local breweries. Yet there’s very good food at the Restaurant Kvarterskrogen right across from the Hotel Carlia. It’s a tiny place, and typical of restaurants in the far North, the dinner service is early – from 5:00 till about 8:00 p.m. The kitchen staff proves that Viking raids along the Normandy coast were not in vain, as they have developed some delicious presentations of cod and sole and flounder and shell fish and stocked the wine cellar with appealing vintages from most European wine producing areas. They provide a fourth reason for a stop in Uddevalla.
Uddevalla is on the west coast of southern Sweden, about equidistant from Gothenburg and Oslo. It is an important stop along the E-6, the European superhighway that connects Copenhagen to Oslo and which crosses the By Fiord on a spectacular bridge overlooking the town.
The Skagerrak Bay linking the river to the North Sea is ringed with resorts and holiday cottages, but two mid-town hotels offer the best locations from which to experience the rhythm and pace of Uddevalla life – the Carlia, already mentioned and the Gyldenlowe a couple of blocks away. Both offer weekend and golf discount packages, bountiful breakfasts, and Internet connections. Reservations advised. **Photo by Allen Dale Olsen
If You GoUddevalla Tourism Office Sodra Hamnen 2 45181 Uddevalla, Sweden (0522) 99720 Hotel Carlia Norra Drottingatan 26 45131 Uddevalla, Sweden 0522) 14140
Hotel Gyldenlowe Lagerbergsgatan 8 45131 Uddevalla, Sweden (0522) 14610
|
|
©2004 Live Life Travel. All rights reserved. |
|||
evalla, besides being a provincial capital, is also a university town. Its population approaches 50,000, but it possesses a small town intimacy with an urbane commercial center. It is not, however, a gastronomic center. Bohuslans do not fuss with exotic sauces and complex flavors; they prefer food to be straightforward and honest – fresh out of the sea or out of the garden.