Trolls, Hats and Canals - the Swedish town of Trollhättan

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I love visiting small towns with unusual names. I see them on the map and it always makes me wonder what they are like.

When my firends Ryan and Siril suggested a weekend getaway across the border to a placed called Trollhättan, I didn't need much more convincing. I could only imagine what might be awaiting us there.

The trip was ostensibly for Ryan to compete in a Magic the Gathering tournament, but I didn't mind being the transportation as it meant exploring a new place and stealing Siril away for a couple of days. That is, assuming the Adventure Wagon would get us there, which isn't always a sure bet in wintery conditions:

We slipped, slid and skidded our way what turned out to be close to 4 hours to Trollhättan, but the Wagon performed admirably in spite of the weather. We'd arrived.

Day 33

Country count: 6

Trolls wearing hats: ???

The following day, Siril and I went out to explore while Ryan wert off nerding. It quickly became obvious what the defining characteristic of this town of 50,000 or so was, and no, sadly, it wasn't trolls wearing hats. It was canals!

Canals may not seem that exciting, but coming from a hometown (Akron, Ohio) where canals have a huge significance in the history, I have a something of a built-in interest.

Inland transport via canals seems like a very old-fashioned way of transporting materials, but in Trollhättan, it is alive and well. As you can see on the map above, there is not the much separating the lake Vänern from *Kattegat*, the stright running between Sweden and Denmark that conencts the North Sea and Baltic Sea. Vänern is quite large and opens up transport routes to and from large parts of Sweden, so it is understandable why they would want a canal system here. Construction of the locks dates all the way back to the 1600s, but it wasn't fully connected until 1800. (source)

As we began exploring the main series of locks nearest the town, I began hoping a ship would come through so we could see them in operation. It didn't take too long before a barge loaded with logs came piping through.

We suspected it was coming, because we could see the water level changing in the canal several minutes before it appeared. It was neat to see it push through all of the ice chunks floating in the canal.

As we kept exploring, the waterworks system got even more interesting, as we discovered how they can route the water out through a hydropower plant to generate electricity. This was actually quite a bit more fascinating than I imagined. Or maybe I'm just a nerd. But it was pretty in the snow at least, I think we can all agree on that.

The outlet from the power plant shown above runs parallel to the canal route that shipping barges and boats use. Here is the power plant marked on the map, but it is the channel further to the right that is the main canal line.

Siril and I hiked further through the woods, and eventually crossed over to the opposite side and down to the green park area (gamle dal) shown on the map above.

There, we found the series of locks where the biggest elevation gain takes place. The photo below shows a defunct group of locks that are parallel to the active ones, but it at least gives an idea of the elevation change we're talking about here.

If I'm being honest, I didn't have too high of expectations for Trollhättan, but it turned out to be much more interesting that I thought it would be. I actually really enjoyed exploring the canal system and seeing how it works. Plus, it's always fun to go out adventuring with these cool kids!

By the way, if you were wondering about the name and made it this far through the post, I can inform you that it came from the water splashing on a rock at the base of the falls, which was apparently thought to resemble the theoretical hat that a troll might wear. I don't have a photo of that unfortunately, but gives a reason to return to Trollhättan!

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