The Göta Canal and Örebro

We stayed at a beautiful camping aire called Skeda Strand in the forest by Lake Furen. After finding a sunny place to park up, we wandered through woodland to the lakeshore. It was too windy to swim but I had a paddle. Afterwards we relaxed, cooked dinner and watched the sun set. What a gorgeous spot!

The next morning I woke with a headache… this damn cold is still lingering… and I was reluctant to get on the road again. It was raining though, so no point hanging around and once I was up and moving, I felt better.

We drove for a couple of hours to visit Bergs Slussar on the Göta Canal. The canal was built in the 1800s and connects Stockholm and Gothenburg… 190 kilometres of waterways, 87 of which were excavated, and 58 locks. The canal is known as Sweden’s blue belt. The canal goes over the road in places and I hoped to see a boat above us, but sadly didn’t.

There’s a series of 7 locks at Bergs Slussar… the longest flight on the canal, rising almost 19 metres between Lake Rosen and the Berg marina. We had hoped to see them being used, but were unlucky. The waterways were very quiet! We thought there’d be more leisure craft on a Sunday.

Back on the road, we headed north for another 2 hours to Örebro where we’d found a nice camping aire by a swimming lake and river. From there it was a pleasant 40 minute walk along the river into town.

Örebro was destroyed by fire in 1854 and was rebuilt with a spacious layout on both sides of the River Svartån, with plenty of parks and a long and pretty promenade.

We passed through an area called Wadköping, which is made up of houses and courtyards moved from the centre of Örebro. On one side of the main Street, red low houses date from the 17th to 19th centuries and, on the other, the houses are those built after the fire. The area is home to small shops and craftworkers.

Next we reached the 13th Century castle, Örebro Slott, which is on an island in the river and dominates the town. There are some beautiful and impressive buildings along the river.

We wanted to try some traditional Swedish food, and John also wanted to try their beer! We visited two bars with plenty of choice of beer, and enjoyed Swedish meatballs with new potatoes and lingonberries in the second before walking back to Molly Moho along the river.