A beautiful evening turned to a wet and windy morning.
I chose Soderkoping over Noorrkoping to visit, primarily due to the canal. Norsholm is located on the canal and I decided to visit the last place where the canal meets the Baltic.
The original idea for a waterway linking the Baltic and the North Sea dates from the early 16 century but only in 1810 did work start, completing in 1832. The two large lakes in the centre of southern Sweden, Vanern and Valtern are both linked by the canal forming a waterway aver 600km long.
Norrkoping and Soderkoping lobbied the Swedish Parliament for decades for the canal to run through their towns, with the final decision awarded to Soderkoping. They expected that the canal would transform their economy but, with the arrival of the railways 20 years later as well as the impact of the Crimean War removing tax dues levied by Denmark for boats using the Oresund, it was never the success that its backers expected. Soderkoping remains a small town with a population of 7000. Norrkoping's population is 137,000.
I arrived in the rain with a coach full of retired Americans. They headed straight for a restaurant; very sensible. Reading a leaflet in the library waiting for the rain to stop Soderkoping isn't at the edge of the Baltic but 3-4km inland from the Baltic: Mem is the final lock.
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| If you're in Soderkoping.. visit this bookshop. It treats new and old books with the same reverence.. all mixed together. I bought a book on Swedish Brutalist Archtitecture; surely a misnomer.... |
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| Bustling Soderkoping.... |
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| Traditional church spire built on the ground |
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| The bustling central square |
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| The busy basin in Soderkoping |
Mem
A drive through the country to reach the last lock.. it was so quiet, for the right reasons. Still and fresh salt air of the Baltic...
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| The grandest rabbit hutch I have seen |
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| So quiet, the family resting on the dock... |
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