My First Visit to Trollhattan

On 30th January 2003 myself and a friend went on a two day visit to Trollhattan, the home of Saab. We went out to visit the Museum and had originally been intending to visit the factory as well, however that is closed on Friday's until spring.

We flew out in the early hours of the Thursday morning from Stansted to Gothenburg with Ryanair. The flight only took 1 hour and 10 minutes and at about 9.30 local time we touched down in Gothenburg City Airport. The airport is very small as it is basically used for internal flights. From the airport it was about a 20 minute Taxi ride into the central station in Gothenburg. Here we caught a train to Trollhattan, it only takes about 55 minutes. The further away from Gothenburg we got the more snow there was. There had been none in Gothenburg, but we started seeing a small covering about 10 minutes outside.

When we got off the train in Trollhattan it was like a blizzard, there was already several inches of snow on the ground and it was coming down thick and fast, it was also subzero temperatures.

We should have flown back the second night, but when we got back to the airport, we discovered that due to a bit of snow in England, the flight had been canceled!! As a result we ended up getting an overnight bus to Stockholm. The flights were supposed to be flying out of there still. But as we discovered, the Saturday afternoon flight that we had rebooked to, was also canceled, so we ended up with another night unexpectedly. We did finally get home Sunday night, having seen a little bit more of Sweden than we had initially planned.

All in all it was a very enjoyable trip, apart from the delays, and the Swedish people were all very friendly and on the whole spoke very good English. I would recommend visiting the Museum to anyone.

This was the scene that greeted us outside the station in trollhattan. We got our bearings and headed off in the direction of the Museum, which is away at the other end of the town.	As you can see from the picture, it was still snowing quite heavy when we arrived at the museum. We spent a couple of hours there.	We stayed overnight in a hostel and the next day in temperatures of -11C we set off to look at the factory.
And also the local dealership, called Ana.	Another view from outside the station.	This is the road outside the Museum, you can see why it is law in Sweden to have studded tyres through the winter.
A car park near the museum, just a few saabs in it.	The museum trailer disappearing, we wondered whether there was anything nice hidden inside.	The main street of Trollhattan at night.
Another view of the high street at night.	A view down the cycle path, which goes straight down the middle of the high street.	Even the Police in Trollhattan have got good taste in cars.
A rather frozen river.	Another view of the river. It just shows how low the temperature stays during the winter.	You can just see the large Icicles hanging from the roof of this building.
The main bridge spanning the river.	Eric Carlsson even has a roundabout named after him.	This is part of the main river that flows through Trollhattan, it is partly frozen.
Looking over the river near the museum.	Here is a shot of the Hostel we stayed in. If you are planning a visit to Troll, this comes highly recommended.	A beautiful sunny day, but it's -11c.
Looking at Trollhattan station without the blizzard.	Looking down a nice quiet street in Trollhattan.	Another street in the housing estate.
Me well wrapped up.