Äppelknyckar Day 7: Cannons and Mister Nobel
Göta canal to Karlskoga
After a few days of sleeping outside and it being quite hot we decided that we should find a hostel or similar for the next night to shower and reset everything for the last third of our trip. Our initial searches online in the next towns did not yield any good results so we decided the best chance to find something would be in Karlskoga, some 130 km further along our route. The first hour of the day we continued along the canal until it reached lake Vänern and from there we headed north towards Karlskoga.
For lunch, e.g. bread and what passes as Spanish sausage in Sweden, we stopped at the construction site of a wooden church that had been destroyed a few years earlier - mind you not by crazy Black Metal dudes but a thunderstorm. Torben was able to find and secure a B&B in Karlskoga so we rode the last part of the day knowing we would have a real bed and a shower waiting for us.
Karlskoga itself is very industrial and seems out of place in the pristine landscape. The reason for this is twofold: Alfred Nobel - of Nobel prize and dynamite fame - lived in the town and ran his business there. Later his factory morphed into a mayor manufacturing site for weapons.