Friday, September 26, 2014

Östergötland part 1

Last saturday in September, the trip went to beautiful town Vadstena in Östergötland.
 Waiting for the bus in Stockholm for the trip to the train.
 Clear blue sky
 Bus is arriving
 Next is the commuter train to Stockholm Central
 X2 from Stockholm C is passing through Stockholm suburbs, here is Flemingsberg
 The first stop is Norrköping
 The autumn is definitely here
 Getting off in Mjölby station, X2 is moving on to Copenhagen
 X2 heading south
 Beautiful house in Mjölby
 The house is called Villa Vik
 The old city hall building
 Clock tower of the old city hall
 Mjölby has many sculptures all around the town
 Sculpture and fountain
 "Mjölnare" sculpture by Elsie Dahlberg. Mjölnare means miller in Swedish.
 The town is placed on a river Svartån, which gave possibility to place mills and create the town.
 Old building in Mjölby, now housing a solarium.
 Back to the train station, now taking Östgötapendeln (local commuter train).
 Mjölby train station is an important intersection station for passengers travelling from e.g. Örebro south to Malmö.
 Östgötapendeln is using old X14 among others
 Inside X14
 Picture of Vadstena castle is decorating the wall inside X14
 Getting of at Skänninge station. This part of the commuter train (Mjölby-Motala) opened 2013.
 The railway Godstråket genom Bergsslagen, has been upgraded from single to double track, primarily for increased cargo train traffic.
 From Skänninge station, there is a bus, passing through fields of Östergötland.
 The bus is arriving to Vadstena train station.
 The trains to Vadstena was operating until 1963 and now there are only museum trains WFJ running here.
 People are sharing their apple harvest on the street.
 The old narrow gauge railway and Vadstena castle
 Vadstena is a small and beautiful town
 Many sculptures here as well, almost in every back yard
 Bath temperature for people wishing to swim in lake Vättern
 Lake Vättern is a narrow and long lake, dividing Sweden in Öster- and Västergötland. It is second largest lake in Sweden, after Vännern.
 Saint Bridget monastery, is now a hotel
 Narrow streets of Vadstena.
 The new monastery of Bridgettine nuns from 1963, currently numbers 13 nuns.
 The story of Saint Bridget monastery
 The place has been recently in focus by Swedish TV cooking programme Landgång
 The cafes in town are making attention of the upcoming Kanelbullens dag (Cinnamon bun day).
 Vadstena castle from 1500 century.
 Back to Skänninge station
 The pictures in the train station windows displays the glory days of Skänninge
 As well as some dark days, when german trains were passing here during World War II.
 The old spelling of the name "Skeninge", named after small river Skena
 The new X61 commuter trains from Östgötapendeln
 X61 is heading to Norrköping
From Skänninge, the trip continues to Motala, which is the end stop for Östgötapendeln.
 Passing by lake Vättern.
 The new high way bridge in Motala.
 X14 at Motala station.
 Station building from the front.
 The square outside.
 X51 from Tågkompaniet is arriving from the north.
 The old and the new
 Motala is one the four places in Sweden where the railway is crossing Göta Canal.
 Old brewery building in Motala
 The old bridge over Motala ström
 Motalabron bridge was opened 2013 as part of the BanaVäg Motala-Mjölby project which included new infrastructure for both road and railway in this region.
 In Sweden McDonald's is mentioned on the traffic signs.
 The new railway bridge and the old.
 Partly demolished old railway bridge
 Some tracks are still in place
 This old railway was part of the Motala-Fornåsa road

 Bridges over Motala ström, a river running from lake Vättern to the Baltic sea.
 Behind the bridge is the Motala long wave radio transmitter, where the first radio broadcasts in Sweden started.
 X61 over Göta Kanal bridge in Motala.

 Tågkompaniet is taking off to Hallsberg.
 Arriving at Hallsberg train station for change back to Stockholm
Railway tracks in the autumn sunset