Day 18 - The Wonderful World of Volvo

With the weather forecast looking marginally better for tomorrow than today, I decided that it was time to visit the World of Volvo (WoV!) with Liseberg theme park on the agenda for tomorrow.

Given the HUGE amount of construction work going on in the city, I put on my raincoat and set off on the approx 3km walk to the WoV. I have now learnt how I could have got a bus, but never mind, it was good for the step count and I didn’t get too wet!

The WoV is in a super-modern building, having only opened last year. With restaurants, conference spaces etc on other floors, the vast third floor is where the main exhibition is - and what an exhibition it is! A great recommendation from Orielense Laura with her local knowledge, and a correct prediction from Clare G.

The first past of the exhibition focuses on how humans interact with vehicles - there were loads of interactive exhibits - such as being in a bus simulator for an emergency stop to analyse how you balance, to a driving simulator with distractions all the time (whilst I was not horrible at this, I did only get a C grade - my struggles to find my headlights and wipers did not help!), to an emotions analyser for traffic. For the record, my happy and shocked faces are very clear, my attempt at anger was convincing, but apparently my face is not capable of forming something recognisable as sadness!

It was then onto an exhibition on Volvo’s involvement with racing. I particularly enjoyed the racing trucks, rally cars and ‘the Flying Brick.’

After this was the big exhibition of cars, charting Volvos through the ages.

… and then some emergency services vehicles….

At the end were then two of my favourite parts of the exhibition - firstly, and opportunity to operate a digger - picking up an moving balls in a ball pool!

and then having the opportunity to stand in a wind tunnel. I have a video. I feel no need to share it!!!!

Once through the exhibition, I had a snack at the very swish cafe, and plotted my afternoon plans. It looked sunny enough to go to Liseberg, but BBC weather warned against it. BBC Weather was, of course, correct, as I got soaked walking back to the centre from the WoV. I did, at least, manage to do some of this journey in a tram.

Back in the centre, I went in search of a new travel adaptor, and also to see a bit more of the main shopping area. Here there was also Gothenburg Cathedral, a very impressive building.

I was successful in my mission to buy a new adaptor, and decided it was then time to get back to the hotel to dry off. It was nice to then have a couple of hours of downtime, watching some TV, and having a nap.

I have now popped out for the evening to source dinner - coming back to the same place I came on Sunday as I really liked it. I will report back on Liseberg and its rollercoasters tomorrow.

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