Last night I returned from a weekend trip to Gothenburg in Sweden (thank God for holiday weekends!) As a northern European city of average size, it pretty much fit the bill. Not a place for a raucous weekend on the tiles, but very pleasant in itself. It is impressively clean, easy to travel around (by tram, bus or bike) and very welcoming. It is also host to some high quality attractions, such as the Varldkulturmuseet (Museum of World Culture) and the Universuem - a sort of eco-dome. My personal favourite was the Konstmuseum which has a display of some superb Scandinavian art (as well as an numerous canvasses by Monet, Van Gogh and various other 'Galacticos'). The building itself is also something of a museum piece - with several rooms laid out in an overtly Edwardian-style, i.e. mixed displays of sculpture and painting, luscious velvet hangings and stucco plaster. The best part is a corridor that contains the self-portraits of several dozen artists. They all seem to have the same expression - a sidelong gaze with the hint of a smile - like they are sharing a joke about the viewers who walk past.