Sweden Road Trip 2006- Day One

We are finally on the road. Though this is not going to be the most exciting trip we have ever taken, it is going to be a good choice…I hope. The first time I came to Sweden, it was at the end of October and I swore that I would never come back to this country. I was traveling Europe for four months. I had every piece of clothing I had in my pack on and was still freezing my butt off. Love changed all that, but to be traveling Sweden in the late fall, is that really a good idea?

The one benefit to a trip like this, compared to the planned trip to Cuba, is that if anything goes wrong, we are not too far to back home. Of the 14 days we are going to be on the road, at the longest point away, it would take only 7 hours. Let’s be honest, that is nothing. So we are playing it safe. With N, that is always a good thing.

Our goal was to leave the house by 9 am. We knew that was not going to happen before we went to bed the night before, so we changed it till 10. At 10 after we were pulling out of the parking lot. Considering the fact it is pissing down with rain, I am happy with the result. We filled up with petrol and checked the tires (two separate petrol stations of course) and got on the road, only to realize that we left our hostel cards at home. Now most of the things that we packed I would argue we did not need (the stroller being the one thing that pops into my mind, though my only argument to not bringing it was that it is a pain in the butt to pack), but since we are staying in youth hostels almost every single night, we probably need it. So back to the apartment we went!

We take our first stop less then an hour away from the house in Västerås at the Ikea. Not that we needed anything there, but they have good place to heat up food and sit down. We did not even bring in any money, in case we did find something. My first question to M was, “Do you think that Ikea will become our new Wal-Mart?” When we traveled the states for three months in a pickup truck, we stayed the overwhelming majority of nights in the back of the pickup while parked in a Wal-Mart parking lot. For the record, I hate/hated Wal-Mart at that time. After our short little break, back on the road we went. M and I ate while driving, no rest for the wicked.

We got the Göta Canal Hiking Centre youth hostel at about 3 pm. They wanted us there before noon- yea right. So they hid the key out for us. We were to be the only guests tonight. The hostel sits on what seems like in island, but it is not. You drive onto the island and continue to drive until you reach the end of the road- the youth hostel. The buildings are old, but done nicely. The keys they left us went to everything. It is amazing how trusting people are. We had access to everything, thank goodness for them we are honest people. We have a double bed.

The hostel is located on the Göta Canal foot path. We followed the path, in a light rain, for about 3.5 kilometers and then turned around and returned to the hostel. We passed some beautiful houses, a water power plant, several bridges and an apple farm. No locks though. We also crossed over an aqueduct. When M went to school, she learned that Sweden only had one aqueduct, which is up north (we plan on stopping at that one on one of the last days). This one was built in 1993, not too strange that she did not learn about it in 1983 then.

The Göta Canal was opened on September 26th, 1832. The canal is 190.5km long. If one includes the other canals that are connected to it, then the canal system in Sweden is 390km long. If one was to travel the entire length of the canel, one would go through 58 different locks. 58,000 solders from 16 different regiments worked 7,000,000 working days building it. Today, it is one of Sweden’s most popular tourist attractions. You can take a small cruise boat the entire length of the canal.