In the moat of a castle!

The route from Göteborg to the Baltic consists of three major stretches: the Trollhättan canal, Lake Vänern and the Göta canal. But even the Göta canal is not all man-made, apart from the real 'canal bits' one crosses several lakes. Yesterday, we crossed lake Viken (at almost 92m the highest point of the canal) and today we crossed lake Vättern. There are more lakes to come, but we'll keep those for later!
Lake Vättern is Sweden's second biggest lake, long (140 KM) in the N-S direction, but fairly 'thin' from West to East. So our crossing was some 17 miles today. The direct route is from Karlsborg to Motala, but we had heard about Vadstena, so that's where we went, just a few miles South of Motala. The reason was that there is a Gästhamn in the moat of the Vadstena castle. And sure enough, there we are:





But apart from that, Vadstena is a very nice small town, teeming with interesting history!
The castle dates from the 16th century and was built by King Gustav Vasa, the first 'accepted' king of all Sweden (which in those days was quite a bit smaller than now). He built it as a fortress, but soon after, King Johann III transformed it into an early renaissance palace. We had an intersting guided tour of the castle and saw Onbekommerd from one of the windows:






Apart from the oldest town hall in Sweden, Vadstena also has an Abby church, which was part of a monastery / convent, even before the castle was built. The church is still there, reminding us of Saint Birgitta, Sweden's only Saint (so we are told). The monastery and convent disappeared during the reformation, but there now is a convent in Vastdena again.

This is the inside of the church:




Earlier tonight there was an organ recital which we attended.
So we still get a dose of culture every now and then!

Location:Hamngatan,Vadstena,Sweden