Sample Sweden for Christmas

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10 April 2012

If you're already suffering from snow fatigue, then the idea of jetting off to a winter wonderland for a weekend break may not seem that appealing.

Think again. Because in Scandinavia a cold snap does not cause multiple nervous breakdowns, with everything grinding to a halt. The arrival of snow is something to be celebrated. Everything keeps working as normal — the trains, the buses, the airports and the locals rejoice in the coming of "real winter".

That much I realised on a recent weekend break in Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest city. It was a good 10 degrees colder than London but it was dry cold and delightfully reviving — provided, that is, you were well wrapped up. And while it was snowing most of the time, the fine particles just dusted off your clothes.

Indeed, the Swedes have a saying: "There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes." And wandering around the Liseberg Christmas market, reputedly the largest in Scandinavia, I mingled with thousands of locals — young families, courting couples, even OAPs — whose fur-trimmed parkas and woollen caps were more fashion statement utility than utility garments. Rather than trudging through the snow they found the conditions a delight.

Certainly it helped show the illuminations to advantage. After sundown the Liseberg is cocooned in a fairytale glow, which is achieved by switching on some five million lights. Massive, overarching trees are festooned with so many lights it takes a team of municipal workers two days to rig each of them up. Frozen waterfalls and streams glow aquamarine, thanks to underwater lighting systems.

There's a busy skating rink, a kiddies' ski slope and a menagerie of tame animals including an ancient Scandinavian breed of long-horned sheep.

And if the cold does start to get to you, there are open-air braziers to warm your hands. Not to mention innumerable cafés and stalls selling a hundred variations of coffee, hot chocolate and glogg (mulled wine).

Speciality food stalls sell seasonal treats such as sweet-cured herring (sill) and sausages, though serious foodies should head for the city's covered market for such delights as Flickorna's hand-made chocolates and saffron-flavoured St Lucia buns.

For a different view of the Liseberg market, I took the glass lift up 23 floors to the top of the nearby Hotel Gothia Towers and entered Heaven 23, a stylish bar and restaurant enjoying a 360- degree city panorama. Its most popular dish is the shrimp sandwich, a mountain of fresh shrimp (200 grams) piled onto rye bread which is a Gothenburg classic. They serve 400 portions a day.

I opted for their variation on another Swedish classic, the sweet-cured pickled herring. This version came in slim long fillets rather than chunks, is cured with sea-buckthorn, and is accompanied by the obligatory sour cream, strong cheese and assorted crispbreads. For mains, I had perfectly seared sea bass on a bed of mung beans and baby mussels finished of with anise, while pudding was a symphony of pears.

The Liseberg's Christmas lights grew bigger and brighter as I whooshed downwards in the lift back to ground level where I nearly bumped into one of those impossibly beautiful Scandinavian women. Her idea of wrapping up against the cold was a fur-trimmed bolero-style parka, spray-on leather trousers and knee-length boots, and she appeared to have wandered off the set of a James Bond movie.

Stirred but unshaken, I returned to the designer delights of the Avalon Hotel with its curvaceous chairs and feng shui-inspired water features. It is centrally located on Kungstroget, right in the middle of the old town, so the next morning it was only a short stroll to the covered market and shopping arcades, and the award-winning designer shops such as Granit on Vallgaten, the quirky boutiques and coffee shops along Haga Nyata, ending up among the distinctly upmarket antique and fashion shops of the Three Länggatan.

Gothenburg has a thriving coffee culture, offering a choice between trendy bars where students congregate to old-style coffee houses that roast their own beans. Along the way I stopped to taste some of the city's finest at da Matteo, a micro-chain founded by former chef Matts Johansson, who is passionate about reintroducing the coffee house as the natural locus for discussion, meetings and throwing up innovatory ideas. Just as it was in the 17th century, when King Gustavus Adolphus founded Gothenburg and the coffee shops of London spawned the Bank of England and Lloyd's insurance market.

But one coffee too many had me diving into one of the city's excellent pubs for an antidote, one of the best being the Republicen Bar at 28 Kronusgatan, which offers 30 different beers on tap and 300 more in the bottle. These included dark porters — a testament to British and Irish trading links with Gothenburg, and specially brewed Christmas beers such as Dugge's Perfect Rudolf.

Old Gothenburg was built with the help of Dutch engineers and is criss-crossed by canals, so in milder weather one of the best ways to see the city is by taking a boat tour (one of the bridges, known as "the cheese-slicer", is so low that passengers have to duck as the boat passes under it).

But in December the canals were all frozen solid, so instead I took the Älvsnabben ferry which criss-crosses the harbour down to Klippan (the fare is included in the Gothenberg city-pass, which also covers the excellent tram network). Not so long ago Sweden had one of the world's largest merchant fleets, and many of its great maritime lines were based in Gothenburg.

Those days are gone but the waterfront is still crowded, with giant ferries bringing trucks and tourists over from Denmark and Germany. I watched as cormorants dived between ice-flows in search of their dinner, seagulls wheeled, and the landmark Lipstick Tower glowed white and rouge against a powder blue sky.

I suddenly realised that I was the only passenger up on deck braving the elements. But then Mad Dogs and Englishmen do strange things, no matter whether it's going out in the midday or the mid-winter sun.

DETAILS:

British Airways flies from Heathrow to Gothenburg twice daily, from £113, ba.com
The Avalon Hotel has doubles from £120 B&B, avalonhotel.se.
Heaven 23, on the 23rd floor of the Hotel Gothia Towers, heaven23.se

A Gothenburg Pass costs from 245 SEK (approx £22) for 24 hours, goteborg.com

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