A few quick facts about Lake Vänern:

Area: 5 648 km²
Max. depth: 106 meters
Shoreline: 2 000 kilometres
Islands, islets and rocks: 22 000
Altitude above sea level: 44 meters
It is approx. 420 km to drive around Lake Vänern

Did you know....
• that there are 10,000 wrecks on the bottom of Lake Vänern.
• that Vänern's water constitutes one third of all fresh water in Sweden.
• that there is room for the population of the entire earth on Vänern's surface.




I don't really think of Vänern as a lake, but as more of an inland sea. It is Sweden's largest lake and is the third largest lake in Europe and as such, there are literally dozens of places to choose from to visit. As we would like to be out on the west coast by midsummer, we are going to narrow our exploration down to the lower part of the lake, visiting the town of Mariestad and then through the Ekens archipelago in the south east and across the lake to Vänersborg, where we will take a canal and a river journey through the west of Sweden to Göteborg.

The winds were very contrary on the lake. The forecast direction and strength bore not a shred of resemblance to reality, so we ended up having to motor almost the entire way down to Mariestad, with strong winds directly on the nose. The area around the town is extremely shallow, so you must take the buoyed route. We had rather looked forward to raising the sails and cruising along, but could see that this was not going to be the day for it. After around three hours, we moored the boat at the guest harbour and set off to take a look at this lovely town, dominated as it is by the tower of a magnificent sixteenth century cathederal. Of course as it is called "Marie's town", then it would have to be good. Eller hur?




The older part of town (Gamla Stan) is located around the harbour area and contains steep, narrow cobblestoned streets, lined on either side with beautiful old wooden homes painted in warm, vibrant colours. Many of them also had rambling rose bushes climbing over the walls and several had the most adorable wooden letterboxes. My favourite one was this one styled as a henhouse, complete with chickens. I SO coveted it, but Lars-Göran refused to steal it for me!




High on a hill, overlooking both the town and the shores of the lake is the cathederal. I was rather surprised that such a small town could boast of having its own cathederal. It was built between 1593 and 1625 as a result of a religious rivalry between the royal brothers Duke Karl (who named the town after his wife, Maria of Pfalz) och King Johan III. In 1580 Karl detached Värmland and the northern part of Västergötland from the diocese of Skara and had the new cathedral built. It is a copy of the Santa Klara church in Stockholm, which was deliberate as this building was considered his brother's crowning glory. Aren't family feuds wonderful?




Whatever the motivation, the town still has this lovely church and its green, leafy surrounding streets to enjoy.




It was so restful to walk along the medieval streets and see some of the old buildings; the most interesting of these lie along Kyrkogatan, right by the church itself. Sadly the centrum area of the town has been infected by the "Sweden in the 1960's" disease, whereby everything was covered in tons of ugly, utilitarian concrete structures, which tend to make these areas cold and soulless. Fortunately Mariestad retained some of the pretty trees to soften the view and this old area still gives you a feel for what a town would have been like in earlier times.




Another of its saving graces is the proximity to the water and the views it offers. In all, I found Mariestad to be small, welcoming and very pretty. We have been able to stock up on fresh vegetables and fruit and are now ready to set out and look at the surrounding archipelago, which comes highly recommended.




Today's sailing was memorable because we were able to hoist the sails for the first time since we were in Vättern. The one big disadvantage of canal travel is that you have to motor the whole way, which is a tad annoying when you really want to sail. But today we had wind and we were able to set off for the 20NM trip across to the headland of Kållandsö where the fairytale castle of Läckö is situated. I had particularly wanted to visit the castle, so I was happy that we were able to do so. We had to follow a marked channel for part of the way, never daring to go outside of the route as the area was so shallow. We did see a couple of local boats out cutting corners, but decided to play it safe and so we did a spot of motor sailing first, then we were able to head over towards the headland. It was a beautiful, sunny day though we heard on the afternoon weather report that rain is expected overnight.

We could see the castle from a long way off which gave us a perfect landmark to aim for. It is situated in a group of islands, so of course as we neared the area, we had to watch out for the marked channel as the lake has many reefs and shoals as you approach the shore. Just to test us out, the wind chose that moment to increase to around 12 m/s, which seems to be a pattern as we approach tight, shallow areas. How does it know?

With our speed rapidly increasing and land approaching at an alarming rate, we both frantically searched for the marked route, which remained stubbornly hidden. At this stage we thought it would be reckless to just continue hurtling towards the shore and hoping for the best, though that had worked for us at Linköping and Vadstena. We turned and rolled in the sails, opting to carefully motor along until we found the markers and made our way towards the guest harbour at the foot of the castle.




The entrance to the piers was marked with buoys and looked extremely tight and shallow, wedged as it was between several rocks. We initially doubted that a boat our size could squeeze in, but we saw a large German yacht moored there and decided that if they could get in, so could we. It was a little hairy, but we managed in the end and hopped out to explore the castle further. It looked really beautiful in the late afternoon light.





Läckö Castle was built in 1298, though not in its present form. At that time, a fortified castle was built here by the Bishop of Skara as it was strategically located right in the middle of his diocese. After the Reformation, the crown siezed the castle. Despite today's appearance of peace and calm, you have to remember that this is the Swedish hinterland, the scene of centuries of struggle for power, which culminated in the ascendancy of the Vasa dynasty. The castle had a chequered history after that, passing from hand to hand depending on the whim of the ruler at the time. It was Count Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie who went on an extensive building spree in the mid seventeenth century and created the castle we see today. So you find that it is a blend of medieval and baroque.




Inside the gates, we entered a magnificent courtyard where they were busy setting up for a season of Rossini's opera La Pietra del Paragone. Inside the castle, there was an exhibition inside to celebrate the eighteeth anniversary of Louise Adelborg, a designer at the renowned Swedish Rörstrand porcelin factory. I really love her simple, elegant, neoclassical designs, which are so distinctively Swedish. Other exhibitions showcased treasure from the time Sweden was a great power, the life and extravagant foods that were eaten here and a garden exhibit.




One of the more amusing features of the castle was this little black box I noticed hanging off the outer wall of the castle. I've highlighted it with an arrow in the next picture so you can see it more clearly. Believe it or not, this is a high class medieval toilet! Apparently there is a door inside and you step out onto this box, like room. The box is suspended directly over the moat, so all of the waste products dropped straight down into the water. I imagine that it could be a bit chilly and breezy in the middle of winter, but I guess it was one way of dealing with the problem. Thank goodness I live in an age with modern plumbing and sanitation!




When we returned to the boat, we saw that Bruce and Sheila had found a new friend to chat to. This is the first time I've seen gulls since we left the east coast and it was a welcome sight and a reminder that we are nearing the sea again. The bird was quite unconcerned by being so close to us and happily sat on the pier checking out our birds who were busy sunning themselves in the cockpit. I know that gulls are basically scavengers, but they are so beautiful. I said to Lars-Göran that I was reminded of the seventies book Jonathan Livingston Seagull and would you believe he had never heard of it. I tried to tell him that it was also a movie with a famous soundtrack composed by Neil Diamond, but he thought I was making it up. How could you have lived in the seventies and NOT heard of it, I wonder?




The following day, it was cloudy and drizzly. We haven't had much luck with the wind in Vänern and today was no different. We set sail through the archipelago, but several times the wind shifted direction, died off and generally misbehaved. We found ourselves a little underwhelmed by the archipelago itself. Maybe our expectations were high after locals raved about its beauty or maybe we are totally spoiled by living on the doorstep of the east coast archipelagoes or maybe it was just the overcast conditions. Whatever the reason we thought it was okay but nothing really that special.

Ekens archipelago consists of around 120 islands and skerries. The most dominating feature were the vast areas of sea reeds. Within them you could see hidden rowboats and fishing nets. There were also many small, smooth, stony islets covered with pine trees and early summer flowers. Certainly it is very tricky to navigate here as the place abounds with rocks so you are forced to stay on the marked routes. We like to sail outside of the main routes, so it was a little frustrating to be forced to stick to the only available passage through the shoals. However, it does make a nice break from the open waters. Sailing across the open lake can be a bit dull if you are far from land. At least this way there was something to look at while we sailed.

Poor Lambi was not well today, the result of a tick bite. We removed the little bugger last night, but she was really ill today, shivering and unable to keep warm. We had her well wrapped in blankets and she slept most of the day, so that was an added worry. In the early afternoon we passed out of the archipelago and past the lighthouse at Naven.




I was happy to see this lighthouse as I have always wondered where it was. For those who listen to the late night weather forecast on Radio P1, you will recall that at the end they give the actual wind observations from various lighthouses around Sweden. I remember the name Naven, but never knew it was here until I looked at the chart today.

The afternoon was frustrating, though at least the sun came out again. We thought we would try and cross over to Vänersborg, but the wind was not in the right direction. "No problems", we thought, "we'll tack". But the wind kept turning and weakening and we seemed to actually be heading in the opposite direction. We looked at the log and saw we had travelled 15NM but were only 6NM closer to our goal when we measured the position on the chart. Rather than motor, we decided it was better to quit for the day and try again tomorrow. We found a pretty little bay with the amusing name Klittkäringen and dropped anchor, determined to enjoy the sunshine and worry about sailing another day.




The bay was located near a marked route and the buoys made us laugh out loud. I mean have a look at them positioned so close to one another? Are people stupid or what? Is this the test course for "Navigation for Dummies"?