Thurs 1st - Fri 2nd August - The Lakes - Viken and Vattern

Thursday 1^st – The weather was perfect for our passage through Lake Viken, which is one of the loveliest parts of the journey – a complete contrast from the grey, wet weather of a couple of days ago.  Blue skies and sunshine meant that we saw Lake Viken at its best …

Some of the channels were incredibly narrow, with many rocks and dangers on either side.  Here we had to navigate between the green poles on the left and the wall on the right – not much space if you meet another boat coming in the opposite direction!

Here’s another very narrow bit …

… and another …

.. and this bit was twisty too …

Another swing bridge had to open for us – this is the view looking down the road from the boat …

Then Forsvik Lock, which is the highest point on the Göta Canal – it actually hardly changed level at all, just very slightly ‘down’ …

… past some attractive lakeside villages …

… through one more lock and we were in Lake Vattern.

We went alongside the pontoon and spent a few hours in the town of Karlsborg.

We walked along the shore of the lake …

… to explore the massive Karlsborg Fortress, which occupies a whole peninsula.

It took them so long to build it (90 years) that it was out-of-date almost immediately, but it is still a military base as well as a tourist attraction and has a small town within its 2 mile perimeter wall.  This is the main building which houses the church and museum …

This is the interior of the garrison church, with its chandelier made of 276 bayonets …

The gold crown on the top symbolises royal power, the bayonets represent military power and the chains represent the prisoners …

This is a distinctive Swedish telephone box within the fortress town …

Later in the afternoon, we had a leisurely sail across Lake Vattern …

… and arrived as the sun was setting over the medieval city of Vadstena, where boats can tie up in the moat of the castle – a magical spot …

Friday 2^nd – We enjoyed fantastic weather in Vadstena the following day and visited the castle …

… with its gloomy dungeons and gun emplacements, as well as 16^th century interior – this is the banqueting hall …

We also visited the impressive Abbey Church …

We had a frustrating round of crazy golf with real greens and bunkers! Jo won!

… and a lovely refreshing swim in the lake …

Here is Astraia tied up alongside in the moat …

… and here we are about to leave for the short sail to Motala …

… where we had to go under this bridge, which had only 22 metres clearance …

Astraia’s mast is almost 21 metres high, so it looked awfully close!!

Will it fit …?

Just!!  Phew!

We celebrated getting under the bridge safely by going out for dinner in Motala – tomorrow we’ll be back in the Göta Canal and going down towards the Baltic Sea.