Last Saturday was the day we’d been waiting for.  Bill took the dogs to the Tierpension in the morning, then ordered a cab to take us to the Frankfurt Airport.  We could have driven my car, but because we picked up a new car, we didn’t want to deal with the hassle of having to retrieve my Mini Cooper a week later.  Plus, it’s not cheap to park at the airport for eight days.

I decided to book business class on Lufthansa, since it’s relatively affordable over here and doing so nets us more frequent flier points.  Sometimes, those points come in handy.  I also booked all of our accommodations on Expedia.com.  When we stay in hotels, I use Expedia.  When we book self catering accommodations, I tend to use Booking, because they have more variety.  I book directly if a place is somewhere I really want to try and they aren’t on a travel site.

Surreal look at life above the clouds.

Since we booked business class for our 90 minute flight, check in was a breeze.  A very friendly Asian lady checked our bags.  I was originally going to book both of my bags, but I brought my laptop and it seems the airlines are getting a lot stricter about not allowing certain electronics to be in checked baggage.  Flying business class got us access to the business class lounge, which was very crowded, but not as crowded as the rest of the airport was.  The friendly Lufthansa clerk was not lying when she told us it was the “high” season.  We also happened to be traveling at the same time a bunch of handball teams from around the world were going to Sweden for a tournament.  Our flight, in particular, had the entire Brazilian team on it.  The players were mostly kids and teenagers and their coaches.  A lot of them are still firmly in their ids.

Wine in the business class lounge…  

Right before our flight.  Glad we could go to the lounge, especially since it took forever to get to the plane, which was parked all the way at the end of the airport.  We had to take a lengthy bus ride.

This guy’s in love with me…  ha ha ha!

It turned out there was no beer or wine available on our flight.  There was a reason given for the lack of booze, but I couldn’t hear what it was.  It was no big deal, since the flight was finished in a jiffy.  Now that we’re living near Frankfurt, getting to Scandinavia without layovers is a cinch!  We’ll have to visit Scandinavia more often, now that it’s more accessible.

Gothenburg is Volvo land…  even the airport has Volvo exhibits.  

It’s also home to Liseberg, which is a very well-known amusement park that was located directly across the street from where we stayed.  This play station was sponsored by the park.

A driver sent by Volvo picked us up and took us to Gothia Towers, which are three huge towers in Gothenburg.  They include the Gothia Towers hotel, several restaurants, and Upper House, which is a five star hotel located on the 20th through the 25th floors of the second tower.  If we had only wanted to stay one night, Volvo would have probably put us up at a different hotel.  But since we wanted two nights, we were on our own to book and pay for them.

I have expensive tastes, so I booked us in the Upper House.  I got several emails and a phone call from them before we arrived.  It’s supposedly among the best hotels in Sweden.  Having now stayed there, I can mostly see why.  The service is superb; the rooms are huge and comfortable; and there is an amazing spa complete with a heated swimming pool that juts out of the 18th floor of the building.  The spa is free for Upper House guests.  Others have to pay admission.  We decided to book a due aromatherapy massage for Sunday, then use the spa afterwards.

This was our view from the 21st floor.  To access Upper House, you have to go to the 25th floor.  All of the rooms are under the reception.

Bathroom was generously stocked with Molton Brown toiletries!

It was a very nice room…  The bed was excellent.  Wish I could have taken it home with me.

Once we dumped our bags, we went looking for food.  Gothia Towers has several restaurants, but most of them were fully booked last Saturday night, on account of all of the handball players who were staying in Gothia Towers.  We had dinner at the bar at West Coast, which is a seafood place on the first floor of the towers.  It was okay…

Bill had seafood casserole, which was very comforting and filling.

I had a martini…  

And trout, that looks like salmon.  I noticed the food was never served very hot.  I don’t know if that’s a Swedish thing, or the kitchen was just weeded.  I did enjoy the Swedish dishes we had, though.  It was a nice change from German fare.

Swedish beer, too.

It was after 10:00pm when I took this photo.  The park had just closed.  Thank God for blackout curtains.