Gota Canal
Sweden'S Great 19th Century Canal, Opened In 1832 With 58 Locks Across The Country From Lake Vanern To The Baltic, Now Travelled By Classic Steamers, Private Boats, Bikes And Walkers · Berg, Ostergotland County
The Gota Canal (Gota kanal) is Sweden's great 19th-century waterway, cutting across the country from Sjotorp on Lake Vanern to Mem on the Baltic, about 190 km of canal and linked lakes with 58 locks. It opened in full in 1832 after more than twenty years of digging, largely by hand, by soldiers - the usual figure is some 58,000 of them, working millions of man-days. The engineer Baltzar von Platen planned it as a trade route that would dodge the Danish tolls at the Oresund, but by the time it was finished the railways were coming, and it never paid its way as freight. Today it is a summer ribbon of leisure: classic steamers on multi-day cruises, private boats rising and falling in the locks, and cyclists and walkers on the old towpath. Its showpiece is Berg, near Linkoping, where the seven-lock Carl Johan staircase steps boats down to Lake Roxen. The honest caveat: it is slow by design and strictly seasonal - outside roughly May to September the locks are unstaffed and the boats stop.
Carl Johan's lock staircase at Berg, near Linkoping; the waterway runs about 190 km from Sjotorp on Lake Vanern to Mem on the Baltic, Berg, Ostergotland County, Sweden
The canal banks and towpath are open all year and free, but the canal as a working waterway is seasonal: the locks are staffed roughly from early May to late September, with the longest daily hours from about mid-June to mid-August and shorter hours at each end of the season - check the canal company's current schedule. Outside the season the locks do not operate, the steamers are laid up and most canal cafes close. The classic multi-day steamer cruises run only in the summer season and are usually booked months, often a year, ahead. Getting there: Berg is about 12 km north-west of Linkoping, which SJ trains reach from Stockholm in roughly 1.5-2 hours; Ostgotatrafiken buses run from Linkoping towards Berg and Vreta Kloster, less often at weekends. Motala and Borenshult sit on the same eastern stretch; Sjotorp, at the Vanern end, is easiest by car. A car or a bike along the towpath is the simplest way to link several lock sites in one day.