Last day Göta Canal; & return to Göteborg

So the aim is to walk the 6 kms into Mem at the end of the canal - and back in time for breakfast.

I set off early (ahh, the luxury of a kettle so I can have a cup of tea before I leave!) and it is well worth it: no-one else around, and lovely colours in the sky.  At 5:30 am the sun is up well high but not intense - there is a light cloud cover. 14 deg C.

No boats either - too early. The water is as still as a millpond.

I arrive at Mem just before 7 am and MF turns up shortly after - a 20 minute bike ride for him!

Half an hour here taking photos of Stegeborg Harbour - and then off again. It’s about 6-7 kms MF tells me to the Baltic Sea from here. 

Back for a wonderful (!!) breakfast - well earned I reckon after my 11.7 kms walk. 

We take our time right up to checkout at 11 am then wander back into town (noting from Google Maps the right direction to the bus station). I have to say, my legs are tired!! Söderköping is busy now; it is a very pretty town.

So the plan was to catch the bus to Nörrkoping - and I worked on taking a bus earlier than we needed just to be sure, to be sure. From there we take two trains to Göteborg.

Hmm … that works provided you get the correct bus.

But first:? Tickets - which we’d been told you can buy on board. And as we have not used cash in Sweden AT ALL we thought that would just be a swipe of the card. But no, it looked like you needed an App. And our experience so far is that when you use your  card like this, it often wants an authentication code from your bank which we have not been receiving to our number (I suspect because we are using an E-sim - go figure …).

So, picture me standing at the bus stop (to which we’d just walked 30 mins from our hotel) trying frantically to buy tickets on the app AND Google Translate directions from Swedish including type of ticket AND finding bus route number - frantic!!! Gave up!

Bus arrives - lovely driver - he says to just get on.

Fine. I started to relax. NOT FINE! I happen to do a Google Map - we are going the wrong way! This is 20 minutes into the journey. 

It is Sunday and the buses on this route are running only hourly.

So out we get out at Ringarums which seems to be in the middle of NOWHERE. Now I REALLY AM frantic. Yes, I had allowed time to get to Nörrkoping but that was if we were going IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

Across the road we went to the bus stop to go the other way, and would you believe it (MIRACLE) there was a bus due in 3 minutes - but would the driver take pity on us THIS time for not having tickets? My stress levels were through the roof. (BTW we have not seen a taxi in a week!).

Driver is sweet and lets us on. The traffic back near Söderköping is banked up and the bus is already running late. Oh no - a sign for the Göta Canal which means if there is a boat passing through, the traffic is stopped while the road lifts out of the way. Fun to watch when you are on the canal but not today!! Phew! No boats!! 

We have been very lucky.

So we finally arrive at Nörrkoping and it is a short walk to the station where we work out correct train (two are going at the SAME time … we don’t want any more mistakes!).

So, we are on a little ‘sprinter’ train to Katrineholm; then change for Gothenberg.  Quite warm now (24 deg C).

VERY fast train from Katrineholm to Gothenberg. MF now sound asleep - too much excitement for him today … it starts raining.

We arrived into Gothenberg at 5:30 pm - the ground was very wet but thankfully the rain had stopped so we got to our hotel (same one as when we were here a week ago) dry.

Straight back out again after a shower to an interesting little joint called ‘2112’ owned and run by two guys from an (apparently) top Swedish heavy metal band ‘In Flames’. Food was burgers/spare ribs; MF enjoyed his beer.

We walked around after dinner - this is the Saluhallen foodhall area. 

As we walked back to our hotel along the water, we were just in time for a lovely sunset. How gorgeous!

And I am LOVING this pig every time I go past it!!

Up to the rooftop bar for a nightcap and views over the river with ships passing through; the bridge has a magnificent mechanism for lifting a section of the road out of the way (stopping the traffic of course).

All very entertaining. 

Walked 21 kms (!!).
MF? cycle 12 kms; walk 8 kms.