Gothenburg

Gothenburg is Sweden's west coast in a single city: a port on the Göta älv founded by a Dutch-minded king in 1621, with canals, a fortress at the river mouth and, in the harbour, an archipelago of car-free islands that the blue trams and a ferry reach on an ordinary ticket. Its cathedral of choice is the Feskekôrka, the 'fish church' of 1874, a market hall built like a Gothic nave for herring and shrimp; its boulevard is Avenyn, running up to a giant Poseidon; its old quarter is Haga, wooden houses and cinnamon buns the size of a plate; and its amusement park, Liseberg, is the country's most loved.

The traveller eats first — a shrimp sandwich at the fish church, a bun in Haga — and then takes tram 11 to Saltholmen and the ferry to Styrsö or Vrångö, where the archipelago is granite, water and silence; walks Avenyn to the art museum and the Poseidon fountain; rides Liseberg's wooden coaster; crosses the river to Lindholmen and its new quarter; visits the Volvo museum if the heart is mechanical; and, in the lobster season of autumn, goes out with a fisherman at dawn on the coast to the north.

The Guide's honesty: Gothenburg is a working port and a proud second city, unbothered by Stockholm and better-humoured for it — its welcome is warm in the Swedish register, which is to say sincere and unhurried —; the rain comes off the sea in every season and the wind with it, so dress for the coast, not the calendar; the tram ticket covers the archipelago ferries, which is the city's best bargain; the summer is short and full and the islands fill on sunny weekends; and the seafood is as fresh as anywhere on Earth, and priced in Swedish crowns.