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There seems to be a trend in Europe for painting public buildings with light shows, so we were pleased to find that Gothenburg hosts a Julfilm or Christmas film projected onto the facade of the Museum of Art. We were in Gothenburg in West Sweden for a short break in December to get into the Christmas spirit and were hoping to enjoy a couple of free Christmas activities at either end of the main thoroughfare of Kongsportsavenyn or Avenyn – The Avenue for short.

The Avenue at Christmas in Gothenburg

On the facade of the Gothenburg Museum of Art or Konstmuseum a Christmas film is projected after dark throughout December and at the appointed time we walked down the Avenue with trees garlanded in blue lights and light-painted buildings. The snow that had covered the airport runway when our SAS flight touched down had melted away, giving way to rain and wind and we had to give up on our umbrellas as they kept being blown inside out. Guy managed to embarrassingly destroy two umbrellas this way that had been kindly lent to us by our Hotel Elite Plaza – oops!

I hope you enjoy the video below of the Christmas film at the Museum of Art in Gothenburg

If you can’t see the video above of the Gothenburg Christmas Film, please view it on my blog here

Christmas film in Gothenburg

As we reached the Museum of Art, crowd of people had gathered, sheltering sensibly under the overhanging roof of the building to one side to watch the film, while I bravely set up my camera and tripod right in front of the facade where I hoped to get a good view of the light show. We watched while Chinese dancers twirled, eighteenth century characters got off the tram to serenade us and aliens landed from the space ship – all in good Swedish fun.

I imagine that the two cartoon figures towards the end are politicians or public figures that are being poked fun at – perhaps you can enlighten me if you are from Gothenburg. If the film is a bit shaky in places it’s because the gusts of wind kept threatening to blow me over!

Christmas lights in Gothenburg

At the other end of the Avenue at Bältesspännarparken the winter wonderland of amusements was looking decidedly damp and the performance of the ‘Singing Christmas tree’ had been cancelled. I was rather disappointed, as I thought that this choir performing Christmas songs, dressed in green coats and red santa hats standing on a triangular stand (hence the Christmas tree name) sounded very jolly and just the thing to listen to while beating off the cold with a glass of steaming Glögg.

Photo Credits: Photos from Goteborg.com Christmas Film and the Avenue at Christmas by Dick Gillberg, Christmas lights in Gothenburg by Goran Assner

Visitor Information for Gothenburg or Göteborg

• The local tourism site Göteborg.com is full of information on the best things to see and do
• For information on West Sweden visit the West Sweden Tourism site or follow them on Twitter @WestSwedenTB or on their Facebook page and you will find their blog at ExploreWestSweden.com
• Another useful site for all things Gothenburg is I Love Göteborg
• If you plan to do a lot of sightseeing it’s worth getting the Gothenburg City Card which will allow you entrance to all the major attractions as well as public transport. Look out for the deals that some hotels offer that include a Gothenburg Card with the hotel booking.
• We stayed at the elegant 5 star hotel, Elite Plaza Hotel which is right in the centre of Gothenburg in the Inom Vallgraven district and walking distance from most things.
• We flew to Gothenburg from London Heathrow with Scandinavian Airlines, who have flights to Gothenburg daily from London into Gothenburg Landvetter airport.

Thanks to West Sweden Tourism Board who sponsored our weekend break in Gothenburg www.flickr.com

heatheronhertravels’ Sweden – Gothenburg photoset

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