Any doubts we had that we’d landed in Sweden were soon dispelled by this 1990s Volvo sitting above the baggage conveyor belt.
There is only one hotel at this airport, as although Gothenburg is Sweden’s second largest city the airport is only now being extended and upgraded to serve as a major international hub. From the website I read directions, just 200m from the terminal and pictures showed it was up a small hill, however it didn’t mention the very large car parks we had to walk through.
Still it was only about 15 mins in all and a very nice hotel and we had a lovely meal in the restaurant, the chef managing to adequately cremate the beef burger for me. The room was fine (although you did need extremely long arms to reach the loo paper whilst seated) and the bed very comfy but unfortunately with our respective germs neither of us slept much (Ian barely) and we had to wait a long time for it to get light this morning, well gone 08:30. Breakfast was delicious and the standard Scandinavian fare of smoked salmon and prawns suited me very well.
Our flight isn’t until 15:10 but we had to check out by 11:00 and decided to go to the airport and people watch until we could check in. A lot of Qatar Airways staff appeared around 11:30 and started their preparations but we were told we couldn’t check in until 3 hours before departure.
There was a lot of photo taking going on and Ian surmised new uniforms (correct, we asked)
The appointed minute finally came and a sole traveller hurled himself in front of us to be first - never mind we have a long way to go. Interestingly his case was practically identical to ours and when we came to check-in ours Ian had a minor panic as the case he could see on the conveyor was tagged through to Sydney not Perth.
Fast-Track security was perfect, just us and then to the Vinga Lounge which leaves a lot to be desired. We've realised just how good BA lounges are and have yet to find anything to come close. This has a meagre selection of food.
And unidentifiable white and red wine served on tap (literally)
Such is the lack of choice here, when I asked for a brandy (for Ian - medicinal) the nearest alternative she could offer me was Baileys. I thought that was quite a funny substitute offer, but Ian was more than happy to have one.
Having been in here for two hours now, members of staff are doing their first round of table clearing and hoovering!
Still we've got this far and our worries are slowly diminishing
- suitcases arrived in Gothenburg (had they not it would have been a major problem as no one would have been responsible for getting them to us once we'd left Sweden).
- the incoming flight arrived on time
All we now have to hope is that the Doha-Perth flight isn't cancelled (we can cope with up to 10 hour delay) and that we see the cases again in Perth, although we have enough in hand luggage to survive to Adelaide.
Oh, and hope that the now reported torrential rain and flooding in Geelong doesn't cause us problems (we've emailed Toby and he said it's been grossly exaggerated)