Berg, near Linköping, on the Göta Kanal - Friday, 26 August

Geoff
After breakfast this morning, a local English-speaking guide took us around the ruin of a fortified small castle only a few yards from the boat. It was fascinating and very much tied up with the Swedish monarchy during the 15th and 16th centuries about we, of course, knew nothing. Personally, I'm atrocious at British history, let alone that of other countries. Having said that, I'm learning a little about the Thirty Years War (in a way) by re-reading "1632" by Eric Flint. If you want a serious study of this period then this book probably isn't for you.

At Mem, we entered the Göta Kanal. The weather today started sunny and clear and stayed that way all day, getting quite hot - up to around 30C, apparently.  The boat moored at Söderköping, a lovely town which obviously attracts a lot of visitors. The town was hosting a medieval couple of days and so there were many people around wearing period clothing. There were also many stalls selling leather, wooden and decorative goods with an emphasis on what might have been for sale in medieval times. It is an annual event.

The boat was stopping at Söderköping for a couple of hours. I took a walk up the canal towpath for about 2km. There were a number of locks along the way and I just waited for the boat to come along. I'd taken my Kindle with me to occupy me whilst waiting and dangled my feet in the water of a lock to cool them. I climbed back on board and the boat continued its journey. The canal is very attractive, certainly at this stage. It passes through farming country, mainly arable but we saw a few cattle and horses. There have been a few more locks and also a few swing bridges where roads cross the canal. There was also a lift bridge, carrying a railway.

The journey hasn't been all canal. There have been a few large lakes with the canal joining them up. I assume that the lakes were there before the canal was built. We have moored tonight at Berg, a small village near the town of Linköping.

We have got to know a number of our fellow travellers. At lunch and dinner, we sit at the same table which is shared with four other English-speakers. They are an elderly couple who live in Halifax, Nova Scotia although they are Scottish. They have lived in Canada since 1965. The other pair are sisters, older than us, both widowed. One has been a teacher and has led quite a normal life. The other worked for the Red Cross all over the world and is quite an intrepid traveller.

For breakfast, we sit anywhere. We shared a table this morning with a German couple from Leipzig.

Amanda

The passengers on our deck seem to be early risers - there was no going back to sleep after 6,30. But it was no great problem, and meant that getting up and breakfasting could be done without rush. We were docked at Stegeberg, an island in a beautiful setting, and just by the ruins of Stegeberg Fortress, which dates from the early Middle Ages, and was built to guard the inlet. We had an excellent guide to take us through the ruins and grounds, who filled us in on the history and royal family intrigues up to the 17th century when it fell into disuse. It was an idyllic spot, in beautiful morning weather.

At 10 we were off, with a relaxing morning's cruising ahead of us. At Mem, just before lunch, we entered the Göta canal itself, and then docked at Söderköping for a couple of hours, with plenty of time to explore the medieval  town. We were a little surprised as we left the boat to see an unusual proportion of rather hippy types, and a lot of people including children in what I at first thought were ethnic hippy style clothes, and then realised were medieval costumes. We discovered that it is the annual Viking/medieval fair today and through the weekend, which clearly takes over the whole town. It was an amazing spectacle. We wandered through the numerous stalls and visited the church, before returning to the ship. For me this was a return for the afternoon - I was wilting in the 31 degree heat - but G set off to walk along the towpath ahead of the ship for the next 4 kilometres, while we went through 8 locks, and would be picked up at the last one. I managed to snaffle a couple of mini waffles with strawberry and cream from the afternoon tea offering to welcome him back on board.
The next part of the canal is rural, varying in width, sometimes not much wider than the boat, and often so shallow that the boat scrapes the bottom. There are locks and lift bridges, and for the whole of this stretch, from Söderköping to Norsholm, a young man in a car accompanied us, driving along the wide towpath, closing locks behind us, overtaking us, setting up the next lock, and repeating the process. He and one of the girls in the crew worked really hard all afternoon and into the evening, and made a terrific team.

There have been lots of opportunities already for very interesting conversations with fellow passengers. There are at least seven nationalities on board -  Swedish, Norwegian, German, Finnish, Danish, Canadian, English. One thing  that is very interesting is the interest they all take in British politics. A Finnish lady I was talking to this afternoon had stayed up all night listening to the results of the referendum. People want to know what we think about Brexit. They are genuinely upset.

We crossed Lake Asplangen, then, during supper, waited in the Lock at Norsholm watching several trains on the main Malmo Stockholm line cross in front of us before the the bridge could be lifted for us to go through into Lake Roxen.

Now, at 9.30, we are crossing the lake at a good speed. It feels very windy sitting out on deck, but it's very welcome after all the heat today. We dock for the night at Berg, on the other side of the lake, sometime after 10.