Linking to Linköping

I left Malmö this morning on a train that travels to Stockholm, my final destination of this trip. But rather than go there today, I’m stopping in Linköping for a couple of nights. The train ride from Malmö to Stockholm takes about four and a half hours, and although that’s well within the limit I’m willing to spend on a train in a day, I decided to break it up when I planned this trip.

I looked at the stops the train made and compared them to cities with entries in my Sweden guidebooks. Linköping was recommended by one of them. And while it’s a bit closer to Stockholm than to Malmö, it made for the most logical place to stop and explore.

So here I am. In Linköping, linking from Malmö to Stockholm.

By the way, unlike the first two trains I took on this trip, the announcements on the train I was on today were in both Swedish and English. The previous two provided only Swedish announcements.

Linköping sounded the same when pronounced in the announcements for both languages, and not at all how I would have pronounced it without that help. It’s pronounced something like “Lean, sure ping.” I kid you not. I couldn’t detect much, if any, of an English “k” sound. And the “sure” just dropped from the heavens to an anglophone’s ears.

The name was spoken a few times in the announcements as a future, and eventually current, stop. A couple of those times, I thought I detected the faintest of “g,” not “k,” sounds at the end of the “lean,” but the other times I didn’t hear it at all.

It might have been easier to remember if it sounded like, “Lean? Sure thing.” But you take what you get. It’s not my language.

Midsummer

A bit of a temporal note. Today is June 20. Tomorrow, June 21, is Midsummer (Swedish: Midsommar), a holiday in Sweden. Today is Midsummer Eve, also a holiday here. And unlike Christmas Eve, the whole day of Midsummer Eve is a holiday here

I didn’t know that when I planned this trip. I should have. In an episode of an Apple TV series, The Reluctant Traveller, Eugene Levy visits Sweden (I forget where in Sweden) during Midsummer.

Learning that it’s Midsummer here now brought that episode to mind. The major activity during Midsummer is dancing around a decorated pole. Among the decorations, the pole has two balls at the top (actually, just circles). If I remember correctly*, a local in that episode of The Reluctant Traveller told Levy that the decorated pole is considered to be a fertility symbol. You figure it out.

(*I remember that was said, but I’m not certain if it was a local who told it to Levy or if he related it to the camera as something he was told there. I know the preceding sentence is pedantic, but I don’t want someone to read this and reply to tell me haughtily that’s not how it went down. I hate confrontation.)

Linköping: Closed

Midsummer and its Eve could put a damper on my visit. I’ll get to that anon.

I arrived at the train station before 1:00 in the afternoon. I found my hotel about a ten-minute walk away, right where it was supposed to be.

I hate it when people don’t put hotels back where they found them. It makes it so difficult to find them. Wait. Maybe it’s house keys that I hate to not be put in their place. And perhaps it’s only me who does that to myself. Never mind.

My room wasn’t ready yet. So I checked my bags and took a walk to the main sight that my guidebook recommends in Linköping, the Domkyrkan (Cathedral).

I passed a number of stores and restaurants on the way to the Domkyrkan. All of the stores and many of the restaurants were closed. The streets weren’t deserted, but there were very few people out. I guess people get out of town on Midsummer Eve.

The streets and buildings along the way were pleasant enough, but not nearly as charming as in the old sections in other cities I’ve visited in Sweden on this trip before today. But I haven’t seen much of Linköping yet. So, we’ll see.

I approached the Linköping Domkyrkan from behind. Its backside was beautiful. It’s a hulking, old, grey stone cathedral with a couple of green spires rising from the back end of the roof. Another, taller and bigger green spire rises above a tower on the front end of the roof.

Most of the side view is also attractive.

The front of the Linköping Domkyrkan might also normally be gorgeous, but, in my opinion, it’s kind of ugly when blocked by construction scaffolding, as it was today.

Fortunately, the front tower and its spire remained exposed.

Don’t let the scaffolding worry you. Worrying is my job.

Signs at a couple of locations around the Cathedral grounds showed where the side entrances are, including one wheelchair-accessible entrance, which are to be used during construction.

There was also a prominent “Entré¹” sign by the entrance that was to be used at this time by people who don’t need a wheelchair. The door was locked. I also tried the door on the other side, which was the designated wheelchair entrance. It was locked, too.

Before I went to the Cathedral, I had checked Google Maps. It said that the Domkyrkan was open until 6:00 p.m. today. However, underneath the opening hours, it also said:

I guess the hours differed.

With the help of the Chrome translate feature, a webpage for the Domkyrkan told me, right in its top banner, that it’s open from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. It didn’t say anything about holiday hours.

I walked back to my hotel to claim my room. On the way, I found a coffee shop that was magically open and had a sandwich to make up for my lack of lunch.

Back at the hotel, I asked at the front desk if everything was closed in Linköping today. I was thinking of tourist attractions, but she assumed I meant restaurants.

She said, “We called around and there are only two restaurants that are open all weekend. But all of the restaurants in the main square [which is just a few blocks from the hotel] will be open Saturday [tomorrow, Midsummer]. Unfortunately, our restaurant is closed except for breakfast [room rates include breakfast] all weekend for Midsummer.”

(The hotel restaurant is closed every Sunday. But it was closed today (Friday) and will be closed tomorrow as well for the holiday. New rule: Hotel restaurants (at least one of them, if they have more than one) should be open every day. Hotel guests can’t cook for themselves, even if they wanted to. They should have an option for meals, even if everything else in the city is closed.)

The desk clerk wrote the names of the open restaurants on a piece of paper for me and gave me my key card.

The fact that restaurants are open in Linköping’s main square on Midsummer, but not on Midsummer Eve, gives me some hope that the Cathedral will be open as well tomorrow. Some, but not much.

Oh, speaking of my hotel, I got a room on the sixth floor with a balcony. I look out on the river and the city behind it. I posted a picture of the city view here. The only thing separating my hotel from the river is a path and a bit of green space.

It’s hard to see the river for the trees in that city view shot. If I’d just turned my camera a bit, the trees would be a little sparser that way, and you could see a bit more of the river. So it’s a good thing I turned my camera a little bit so you can see more of the river. I posted that picture here, too.

Stångån River Walk

The river that flows through Linköping is the Stångån. By my hotel, there are river walks on both sides of the Stångån, heading in both directions along it. After my failure at the Domkyrkan, I decided to stroll along the river for the rest of the afternoon. They can’t close the river, can they?

I started walking upstream on the far side of the river from my hotel. The river is fairly calm there. I didn’t realize I was walking upstream because I couldn’t see the flow of the water. But I got proof of that later. I’ll get to it.

The riverwalk is beautiful. There’s lush vegetation, including lots of trees, on both banks.

And there are water lilies at some points on the river. Some of them were starting to open up their flowers when I was there. Sure, flowers like me. Cathedrals? Not so much. Then again, the water lily buds were only just starting to open up. The blossoms weren’t bursting yet. So maybe they just like me, not love me. It’s not easy being me.

There are benches at frequent intervals along the river walks on both sides of the river. I made use of a few of them to rest my legs and take in the views.

Here comes the part where I discovered I’d been walking upstream. Admit it. You were getting worried I’d forgotten, weren’t you?

After I’d been walking for a while, the river split in two. After a very short walk along the channel, I was presented with some locks. And there was a sign which, with the help of Google Translate, told me about the Stångan and the Kinda Canal. That’s its name, the Kinda Canal.

“What’s that?” (*points to the canal*}

“Kinda Canal.”

“So, your saying it’s not a real canal, just a kinda canal?”

“No, it’s the real Kinda Canal.” …

On the other portion of the river, there were a series of three or four short waterfalls. They were manmade. The edges were straight and made of concrete; one was V-shaped. There were three large urns on one of the ledges, with water brimming over the top and spilling into the river.

My guess is that there were originally rapids at that point in the river, because why would they convert a natural waterfall into a series of shorter ones?

I’m not quite clear on the Kinda Canal. As best I can tell, it is a series of channels that skirt around the areas of the Stangan that are not navigable. But I might be wrong about that.

And that concludes my afternoon in Linköping, and despite things being closed, the river walk was very pleasant and beautiful.

Unfortunately, I didn’t see any Midsummer poles today, let alone anyone dancing around them. That’s a shame because I would have liked to have seen some pole dancing. Wait. No. That’s not the sort of pole dancing I meant.

Wish me luck for tomorrow, my only full day in Linköping. That is, luck for things being open, that is, not necessarily luck for catching some pole dancing. Sheesh. I think it’s past time for me to sign off now.