Sunday morning dawned sunny and warm and many boat club members came down to launch and mast on their boats. It was quite busy on the wharf and the weather forecast has predicted rain for Monday (again!), so in an effort to make hay while the sun shines, we set off on the short 5nm hop across to the sleepy township of Berg, where the next stage of Göta Kanal begins, with the rather scary thought of the eight stepped Carl Johan’s lock system.

I was still feeling a little sore and miserable after yesterday's fall, so we thought it wiser to forgo a more thorough visit to the township of Linköping (especially as it lies a good three kilometres from the club). Instead, we decided to rest at the outer pier at the small hamlet of Berg, visit the area a little more on Monday and be ready to attack the locks on Tuesday. Lars-Göran assured me that this was a quiet, sleepy backwater and ideal for a day of peaceful rest and recovery. Now why did I believe him, I wonder?




I know it was a Sunday and it was a nice day, but I never expected to see such an enormous crowd of people. A quick flip through the Göta Kanal brochure provided the answer - it was Kanaldagen, plus a dedication of a new statue which you can see sitting out in the distance on the sea wall. My husband and his impeccable sense of timing strikes again.





The picture above was taken part of the way up the eight step lock, so we could get an idea of what it looked like. We were still amazed that so many people were here. Even higher still, the place was packed with families, there was an airshow with jets screaming overhead, a car show, demonstrations of sea rescue boats, water-skiing, pony riding, icecream sellers, a petting zoo.....




We left the boat at the guest harbour and wandered around a bit, then continued through the throng of people and along the canal a little way where we found our own little peaceful oasis.




We admired several of the lovely homes along canal and later visited nearby Vreta Kloster (Vreta Convent). This is Sweden's oldest convent, which was founded by King Inge and Queen Helena 1110 for the Benedictine order. Parts of the church date from even earlier - from around the year 1000. The church towers are very striking and as it is located on the top of a hill, it dominates the surrounding landscape. The church is one of the most interesting ones we have visited, with many medieval works of art. But it was the architecture that really made an impression on me.




By now, with the sun shining down it was becoming quite warm, especially for the more furry member of the family. Lars-Göran thinks I spoil her outrageously, but I suspect that if he had a fur coat, he'd appreciate the shelter of an umbrella and a nice bowl of water on a sunny day! Okay, I know she doesn't really need a cushion, but what can I do? She flatly refuses to sit on a bare wooden seat. She simply glances at the wood, then looks up at me as though to say "I hope you aren't seriously expecting me to slum it?" and continues to stand there staring at the seat until a suitable covering is provided for her delicate skin. She must have royal blood.




The countryside around the church and convent was beautiful - it consisted of rapeseed fields, flat, gentle landscapes and distant woods. It is somewhat of a contrast to the cliffy areas we saw in the previous stretch of countryside and we are looking forward to seeing more of this in the next few days.




A short distance from the church was a small, older area with pretty wooden homes set in lovely green gardens. I love walking down these little country lanes as you never know what surprises await you around the corner. The other advantage of taking a long walk was that by the time we came back to the harbour, the crowd was dispersing and peace and quiet was descending on the township.




The following day we watched an Irish boat come across the lake and promptly go aground just outside of the harbour area. They managed to get off ground and Lars-Göran helped guide them in and tie up. We introduced ourselves and invited them aboard for a drink and chat. They were a delightful couple, a little older than us and they were attempting to do the canal in four days. They had had some unfortunate luck with their boat engine on their journey down from their winter harbour at Södertälje and were running out of time to get their boat across to the west coast before they were due home. Lars-Göran contacted the canal office on their behalf and sorted out their timetable for them, so they will be joining us on the next stretch to Motala tomorrow. They will then do the next two stretches over consecutive days and leave the boat at Sjötorp, picking it up later in the summer. They were very grateful that we could help them sort out their dilemma and we spent a lovely evening chatting and laughing together.




Peace and quiet reigned on this our last evening in Berg. I love these long, warm summer evenings. The sky is clouding over in the west, which does not bode well for tomorrow. I really hope that it doesn’t rain as we have 28 locks and 10 bridges to negotiate. At least there are only the two boats, so it ought to be fast, but even so, we estimate that we will be at it for 9 hours. I know I’ll need a good night’s sleep when we finally get to Motala.