Moving along at a Slow Pace on the Göta Canal

We went into flight of seven locks in Berg that lead to Lake Roxen at 9:45 a.m. This should be routine for us now, but Peter tried to kill me at the first lock. I had jumped to shore with the stern and bow lines and was walking forward to the place they had to be secured before the lock could begin to release water in the first stage of the descent. However, Peter was more focused on steering the boat and did not release the  lines to run free as I was going down the incline to the level that the water would be when the gate opened. I was violently yanked to the ground as I tried to keep hold of both lines. Fortunately, the shore was not lined with tourists. He claimed he lost track of all the things he had to do on board, but I suspect homicidal intent. Or perhaps the young, fair-haired lock attendant had distracted his attention.

Peter on deck in a lock

Nevertheless, without further accidents or injuries, we made it through the flight of locks, named Carl Johan in honor of King Charles XIV John, who visited the construction site with his son Oscar and laid down two foundation stones. The double lock just before the marina is named for Oscar.

We were down to Lake Roxen in about 25 minutes. The wind was insufficient for sailing, but we motored along happily, enjoying the stunning views.

View of reed lined shores and forest

We had almost made it to the east side of lake when I suggested that we should stop the boat somewhere and swim. We had passed a couple of islands already, so we made a u-turn and headed back there. We anchored near the mainland actually. We had started out the day dressed warmly with fleece jackets and long pants, but the bright sunshine had heated up the air. With our swimsuits on, we dove in after putting down the swim ladder, which hadn't been in the water since the fjords of Greenland. Peter swam all the way to the shore, but I found I could touch bottom not far behind the stern of our boat and walked most of the way. We examined the granite with its long cracks and inclusions and sparkling bits of feldspar and then returned to the boat, walking as far as was possible through the water. 

View from the stern of the boat at anchor. The rocks under water are almost visible.

Peter diving in

Sherri walking back to the stern

We showered on the swim platform, dressed in dry clothes and had lunch. By 2:30 p.m, the weather, which was variable all day, had changed. The bright blue sky with a few dazzling white cumulus clouds was replaced by nimbus clouds and a chilly breeze. We had barely pulled up anchor before rain began to fall. From swimsuits to foul weather jackets in little over an hour. Throughout the day, we added layers and took off layers many times according to the whims of the weather.

Sherri holding the boat in the lock, with the year the lock was completed engraved near the top

Canal view of fields and forests

Wildflowers by the canal

Back in the dug canal after the beautiful lake, we continued to admire the scenery. We passed by the town of Norsholm and entered a much smaller lake, Asplangen. Then we were back in the canal, where we observed dozen of sheep. The canal company owns approximately 300 sheep, and we have encountered them in other places too along the car-free parts of the towpaths. These sheep graze there, helping to keep the vegetation under control.

Grazing sheep

Another thing often seen are the ell stones. These historic monuments are the remains of an old compensation system. The stones, 143 in all, were placed along the canal between the lakes, spaced 594 meters apart (or 1,000 Swedish ells. Compensation for the drivers of draft animals that towed the boats was calculated by recording the number of stones that were passed.

Ell stone 17

We were planning to make it to Söderköping today, but we were told at the Klämman lock that we had to make it to the second bridge after the lock  by 5:40 p.m. because it would not open after that time because transit through the next series of locks could not be accomplished before the end of the locking today. We arrived at 5:43! Now we are tied up to the waiting dock until the morning. It is a pleasant evening and no other boats are here, so it is peaceful. Peter is working on repairing lines while I take care of chores below.

We expect to be in the Baltic Sea tomorrow.

The Göta Canal

Two days since the last post, we are still journeying through Sweden on the Göta Canal. I promised to record information about this canal, so here it is.

In the 15th century, the Bishop of Linköping wrote about the creating a waterway between Lake Vättern and Lake Vänern, after Denmark had introduced tariffs for foreign ships passing through the Øresund, the strait connecting the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. For 300 years, despite investigations, surveys and debates, nothing was done due to political conflict with the interests of land owners, the question of whether to connect lakes or built a fully artificial canal, and the lack of a strong advocate. Finally, in the early 19th century, a man had the leadership and technical skills to push through the idea and complete the project.

This man was Baltzar von Platen, who saw King Gustav IV Adolf's fascination with the Trollhätten Canal in 1801. At the beginning of 1808, von Platen presented his ideas about the Göta Canal to the king. The king authorized an ordinance that gave von Platen the task of calculating costs and time as well as staking out the canal route. He contacted Thomas Telford, a highly recognized Scottish engineer and builder of canals, aqueducts, bridges, roads, and harbors. In only a 20 day journey, von Platen and Telford completed measurements, leveling, route planning, including stipulating the location of locks and fully documented their work. 

The Göta Canal Company was established and funded by sale of shares and a government loan. Work began in 1810. Blasting, masonry and digging with tin-clad wooden shovels was don by 58,000 Swedish soldiers. The work day was long and grueling. It began at 5 a.m.; there was an hour for breakfast at 8 a.m.; work continued from 9 to noon; a midday break lasted from then to 1:30 p.m. when work continued until 4:30 followed by a half hour for the evening meal and and three hours of work. After 8:00 p.m., the soldiers were required to attend military church services, and then the tattoo signaled that they could sleep until 4 a.m. In the 22 years in took to complete the canal, a documented 84,000,000 hours of work was accomplished. 

The construction period was originally estimated at 10 years. After 5 years, however, only a quarter of the route had been excavated, and the costs already amounted to 50 percent more than had been calculated for completion. Baltzar von Platen was a clever negotiator, though, and he managed to get the necessary extensions and additional funding.

In 1822, with 18 locks completed, the western part of the Göta Canal was opened for traffic. The Västergötland section was inaugurated by King Charles XIV Johan at Sjötorp, the westernmost point. The royal ship Frigga traveled from there to Hajstorp, with the canal banks lined with thousands of spectators as well as bands. In 1832, the king arrived in Mem, the easternmost part of the canal, The royal yacht Esplendian was towed through the last lock and the entire canal was officially inaugurated. 

In addition to the canal itself, the Göta Canal Company built a support system, with a large workshop in Motala that turned into a manufacturing company that supplied the world with ships, steam boilers, hydraulic presses, locomotives, crankshafts and stainless steel products. In Sjötorp, a shipyard and dry dock were established. Its last steamship was manufactures in 1921, and the last newly built wooden ship was delivered to Russia in the early 1960s. The business now is focused on maintenance and service work associated with the canal facilities (which, we have noticed, are all extremely well-maintained). 

The canal system (the Trollhättan and the Göta) was crucial to shipping from its beginning until the 1930s, when the trucking industry took over. In the 1970's the canal became important again, not for transportation of goods but the tourist industry, which now attracts 4 million people each year. Because sailing ships had to be towed through the canal by draft animals until the 1920's, when steamships finally made the sailboats obsolete on the canal, their are wide paths on both sides of the canal in most places.

Passenger ships have traveled through the canal since its inauguration, and they still do, carrying tourists over the entire route or just sections. In addition, about 2,000 leisure boats travel on the Göta Canal every year. There is a hefty fee for boating on the canal, but it includes access to 21 guest marinas, each of which can be used for 5 nights, and, of course, passage through the locks. Adjacent to the many of the marinas, which are often in the countryside, are caravan parks, and the well-maintained facilities serve both boaters and campers. 

The former tow paths are now maintained for cyclists and walkers; there are 87 kilometers of car-free roads through meadowland, forests, and farmland, with small cafes, restaurants and historic sites along or near the route. These tourists are promised wonderful views of the boats on the canal and going through the locks. We have found that we are a tourist attraction! Only a handful of boats are similar in size to Mantra, and we have not encountered any other boats that are not Scandinavian, Dutch or German. Many people have lots of questions to ask us, particularly some of the 100 young lock keepers with summer jobs here. 

While the canal system was built and originally operated by the Göta Canal Company, it is now owned by the Swedish State and is a fine example of how well socialism can work.

The canal itself is 190 km from Sjötorp to Mem, with 58 locks. On the banks of the canal, there are 10,000 trees. Motoring at a maximum of 5 knots (except when on the lakes) is a slow and mostly pleasant way to travel across the country and view the countryside at a leisurely pace. The land through which the canal traverses is sparsely populated. There are some small villages and a few small cities. (Motala, for example, has 30,000 inhabitants.)

Cute house along the canal

Another home by the canal

Lily pads on the side of the canal

The tranquil canal on a sunny day

A long, tree-lined stretch passing through farmland

Yesterday morning (Saturday, July 4), we cast off from the dock at Vassbacken, a tiny, rural hamlet, at 9 a.m. and arrived at 10:30 a.m. at the waiting dock for the Forsvik Lock to join several other boats in line. The wait was 4 hours! Some other boaters whom Peter had chatted with offered us lunch composed of a couscous salad with an assortment of vegetables and fruit (including barbecued chicken for Peter). It was a welcome alternative to my usual meal offerings.

The lock keeper advised us to share the lock with a smaller power boat. There was just enough room for both of us across the width of the lock. Forsvik is the oldest lock on the canal, constructed in 1813, and has the greatest fall height, 3.5 meters. What we did not know was the lock walls narrow toward the bottom, so there was not enough width in the lock for both of us. We lost a tiny bit of paint on a small part of the hull!

Otherwise, our locking experiences have been mostly routine. There have been some small errors and minor bumps, but we seem to have got the hang of it all. 

At 4 p.m., having motored across the small Lake Botten Sjön, we passed by Karlsborg and onto Latke Vättern and set our sails, starting on a port tack and then jibing to starboard, averaging over 6 knots. We tried to anchor by a trio of islands about 5 nautical miles southwest of Motala, but the bottom was comprised of small, roundish boulders and the anchor would not hold. So we went into the marina in the city, docking at 7:30 p.m. 

There is a motor museum by the marina which was closed, but we enjoyed walking along the wharf, through the small Stadsparken (city park), and past the Motala Kyrka. We went to a pleasant restaurant by the park with excellent food and then walked past the marina and east along the tow path to the gravesite of Baltzer von Platen and some of his family members as well as the canal's head of mechanical engineering. von Platen died in 1829, three years before the completion of the canal. He had requested a simple funeral, but King Charles XIV Johan insisted on something more elaborate, and his casket was lowered into the ground with an 800 gun salute.

Stadsparken

Church in Motala

Göta Canal Company headquarters

Baltzar von Platen gravesite

We wanted to be first in line for the bridges and canals after Motala, but a couple boats were already off the docks when we cast off at 8:50 a.m. This meant that we waited for 40 minutes for the first bridge. After that, progress was steady under cloudy skies. We had on long pants and 1-3 layers throughout the day, but the Swedes thought 59°F with a cool breeze was great for shorts and t-shirts (and some of the men were shirtless) until it started to rain lightly just as we reached the east side of Lake Boren. We were planning to Lake Roxen today, but we changed our plan in the locks near Ljungsbro, the lightning and thunder and pounding rain developed. We stopped for the day in Berg, at the marina just before the flight of 7 locks that lead to the lake. We are actually on the waiting dock for the locks because our size, so we are off by ourselves

After a while, the skies cleared and sunshine appeared for the first time today. We took a look at the upcoming locks and walked to the facilities. We decided to have a round of putt-putt golf at the nicest course we have ever seen. There were no themed structures; rather, the holes included natural granite as obstacles and were bordered by an abundance of sweet-smelling and colorful flowers. It was like golfing in a garden. Of course, Peter won, but only by 5 points.

The flight of 7 locks at Berg

Peter teeing off

The ice cream shop beckoned us after our game. Then we visited the outdoor lock gate exhibition, which consists of 5 decommissioned lock gates. It was fascinating to see the construction techniques and the understand better how the sluices which control the water work. Even though we have already passed through many gates, it was not obvious that the gates are not flat but have a slight curvature. 

Originally, all the canal gates were made of cast iron and pine wood. The iron lasted at least 200 years and the wood 30 to 40. One of the 5 gates on display was from the second half of the 20th century. Made of steel, this type of gate was designed by engineers to last longer than the traditional gates. They only withstood the water pressure and the mechanical work for less than 40 years, and it was decided the traditional gates were best.

Closer view of a sluice 

Two lock gates of cast iron and pine wood with sluices

Now it is late again and time for bed. 

 

Lake Vänern and the Göta Canal

We woke up to clear skies and bright sunlight on Tuesday, June 30, and Läckö Slott (Castle) looked stunning across the water, against the blue sky and green countryside of the island it sits on. After breakfast and launching the dinghy, we puttered over to the guest docks, arriving at the medieval castle shortly after in opened at 10 a.m.

Läckö Slott in the mid-morning light from Mantra's foredeck

The foundations for a fortified castle in this location were laid by the Church in 1298, when walls and a couple houses comprised a small fort. Following the Reformation in 1527, King Gustav Vasa took possession of the property, and in 1615, it was granted to Jacob Pontusson De la Gardie. He embarked an an extensive building spree, remodeling and adding a third floor to the keep as well a portal to the main courtyard.

His son, Count Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, initiated major construction projects in 1654, adding a fourth floor and employing artists to decorate the walls and ceilings. The De la Gardie family are most closely associated with the design, furnishing and decoration of the castle, although the property passed to another count in 1752 and to a general in 1810. The castle reflects the tastes of Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie with it Baroque style and French-influenced interiors.  

We entered the castle through a portal with arched ceilings and frescoes depicting winding plants and went through a frescoed vestibule into the courtyard and then the magnificent castle church, which was built 1655-68. The wooden sculptures in the niches, framed by grisaille paintings, depict the apostles of Jesus. These statues and the other works of art make this a unique place. 

The entrance to the courtyard

Inside the courtyard

The altarpiece in the church

The organ with cherubs, a feature repeated in other parts of the castle

Statues in niches

From there, we went to the Small Garden, which is beautifully landscaped and well-tended by staff. The plantings were a mixture of vegetables and flowers in an array of colors and a long, shady pergola at the end of which is a gilded wooden statue.

The Small Garden

Mullein

Garden plots on the outside of the pergola

The Small Garden and one of the towers of the castle

Statue at the end of the pergola

We then visited the armory room, which used to be the wine cellar, the kitchen. In the past, guns and other arms were important acquisitions and reflected fine craftsmanship in design and decoration. Hunting among the nobles was popular and helped them retain their skills when they were not off a war. 

The armory room

We roamed around the various rooms of the kitchen including he head chef's quarters as well as other service rooms. Then we stopped on the second floor to see an exhibition of Swedish Rörstrand pottery, founded in 1726 and in operation until a couple decades ago.

On the third floor, we visited some of the rooms and joined a tour of this level at noon. Our tour guide was knowledgeable and an excellent presenter, and we learned a lot about the De la Guardie family, the interior design, and life for aristocrats and peasants during their period of residence. The King's Hall is ornately decorated and the designs in the ceiling as well as the cherubs hanging from it change from the head of the hall, where a putty-colored angel is holding a crown indicating the high status of the persons sitting at table under it, to the far end of the hall, where objects from everyday life hang above the places of lesser nobility. No peasants were allowed in the hall, so the sons of nobles served the food and drink at banquets. Musicians, who were lower class, provided music from balconies but they were hidden behind high walls.

The King's Hall

The cherub with a crown

The musicians' gallery, where they could be heard but not seen

Adjacent to the King's Hall, which glorifies war, were the Peace Room and the Austrian Room, designed at the end of the Thirty Years' War in which Sweden was victorious. The Peace Room's ceiling depicts Justitia and Pax kissing, a symbol of a just peace, and was commissioned by Magnus to counterpose the armory of the King's Hall. He wanted to portray himself as a wise, diplomatic statesman as well as a military commander.

Peace Room

The Austrian Room was not in its current state during Magnus' time but was decorated, after a couple centuries of emptiness and neglect, to reflect European interior design of the 17th century.

Ceiling of the Austrian Room

Magnus had married a Swedish princess, and, with our guide, we walked through her chambers. The wall paper, which was a thick as cardboard, was made in rectangles and rather than being glued to the walls it was nailed. The nail heads were left showing because nails were expensive, so they were a sign of wealth. Next we saw the De la Guardia's private dining room.

Princess Maria's receiving room

Princess Maria's bed chamber, with original 17th century flooring

The dining room with an elaborate linen press that was expensive and never used

Continuing up on our own to the fourth floor, we found guest rooms with elaborate canopies and frames for the beds and rich drapery. Other rooms there included the linen room and another kitchen.

The room where the linen was actually pressed

One of the guest bedrooms

As we were walking on the large rectangular paving stones leading from the castle, we noticed that they contained marine fossils of great size, particularly orthocera, a nautiloid cephalopod. 

Orthocera fossil

After a few hours at the castle, we returned to the boat, hoisted the dinghy on the foredeck, and pulled up anchor around 3:30 p.m. For hours, we sailed on a deep broad reach or wing-and-wing, average 5 knots in 10 knots of wind. It was a great day of sailing! At 10 p.m., we anchored on the east side of Lake Vänern close to Sjötorp, the western end of the Göta Canal. We enjoyed a brilliant orange sunset before going to bed content after a good day on the water. 

Sailing wing-and-wing

Sunset over Lake Vänern

The next sunny morning, Wednesday, July 1, it took us 20 minutes to pull up anchor and then dock at Sjötorp. We checked in at the office for the Göta Canal, where a friendly lock keeper explained how the locks worked and provided us with the skipper's guide and a lot of practical information. When it was our turn, we were assisted by this man and another lock keeper in tying up to the wall of the lock so they could show us the proper way to do it. 

Mantra in the first lock

Three hours and two more locks later, we stopped for the day, at 2:30 p.m. We docked bow in, as is typical here in Scandinavia, picking up a mooring ball at the stern since the last lock keeper of the day had advised us to do that, saying our length would not be an issue. Actually, he was wrong. We had to be at an angle and pick up two adjacent mooring balls to be secure. I was not happy about having to clamber over the bowsprit and the anchor to get on the dock. 

We went to the only real attraction in town, the canal museum, just a short walk from the marina. Situated in an old red harbor warehouse above a lovely restaurant with hand-embroidered linens, it contains displays of equipment used to build the Göta Canal as well as actual intact interiors from 19th century boats, including the pilot house, captain's and first mate's cabins, the galley and the toilet. I jumped back in surprise when I opened the door to this tiny room as a realistic mannequin was seated there with his pants down!

Restaurant in the old warehouse

Pilot house of M/V Valborg

I used Google Maps to lead me to a grocery store, walking along the canal. I arrived to find absolutely nothing there, not even remnants of former buildings. I walked back along the other side, admiring the houses, gardens and meadows, passed the marina and walked a couple blocks in the other direction from the marina to a little corner store that had some of the things on my list, most importantly milk for Peter's tea.

Homes and wildflowers along the canal

Inn along the canal

When I returned to Mantra, I was relieved to find that Peter was ready to move to another dock where we could tie up alongside. I struggled up over the anchor and we glided to the other side of the canal. 

Traveling on the canals in Sweden is a leisurely past-time. Maximum speed is 5 knots, and it is not unusual to have to wait for bridge or lock openings. On Thursday, July 2, we cast off at 8:40 a.m. and docked at Töreboda at 5:00 p.m., having passed through 13 locks and 11 bridges. In 8 hours, we traveled 10 kilometers! 

Mantra meandering through the Göta Canal

Water entering a lock

Each lock takes at least half an hour. The procedure is to wait for the green light and then proceed into the open lock. There is a little dock by the entrance onto which I leap while the boat is moving quite slowly, holding a bow line and a stern line. The bow line is an old halyard which is led from the electric winch in the cockpit, forward the length of the boat, through a block, and then back to the open gate by the pilot house. The purpose of this is to keep the line taut as the swirling water that eddies back up behind the stern tries to push the boat forward. That day, after a few embarrassing moments, we perfected our technique and learned how to deal with some wind trying to blow the boat away from the wall. 

On the lower left, the type of little dock I leap onto as Mantra glides past

Töreboda is a small city with not much in the way of attractions. At least there was a lot of pleasant scenery along the way, and I had time to read the signs about the canal as I waited for the boat to rise.

Forest along the canal

Homes in the woods along the canal

Older home along the canal

Today, rain was predicted for the whole day, but it was not raining in the late morning, so we decided to cast off from Töreboda and move to another marina just a little way farther (or two hours of puttering and waiting for bridge openings and one lock) because it has laundry facilities, which we desperately needed. We arrived at Vassbacken around noon. The surrounding countryside is bucolic; there is no town. It is a vacation spot with good amenities for people traveling along the canal in boats or in caravans. There is a single restaurant, where we had a delicious meal while listening to live music by a single guitarist/vocalist with electronic accompaniment. We sat at a picnic table and talked with a local man, an immigrant here from England. The last of the six loads of laundry should be finished in an hour or so. It is such a luxury to have good dryers in which everything dries completely.

Musician at the resaurant

But, I haven't written at all about the history and importance of the Göta Canal. Well, that's for tomorrow!