Practicalities The tourist office QuneAug MonSat 9am8pm, Sun 10am6pm) is due to move into new sununer premises but should be wellsignposted; out of season, you can get information from the first floor at Sundsgatan 6b (MonFri 8am4pm; «052171 528). There's a youth hostel out at Hunneberg, at Bergagirdsvagen 9 (=0521203 40; 90kr); it's worth noting that the #619 bus from Trollhattan runs directly to Hunneberg. More centrally, there are a couple of hotels whose weekend prices are more reasonable than their usual rates try Strand Hotel, Hamngatan 7 (W0521138 50; ®). The nearest campsite, Ursands Camping (midJune to Aug; =052118 666), has a lakeside location; get there on bus #661 (check departures on «052162 160). With transport (or if you're prepared to walk a couple of kilometres), there s ая excellent place to eat in nearby VARGON, between Vanersborg and the tww hills. Ronnums Herrgard («0521232 70) is an eighteenthcentury manor hou which serves a fine 180kr set lunch two courses, drink and coffee u 11.30am to 2pm. The Giita Canal Centuries ago it was realised that lakes Vanem and Vattem, together with rivers the east and west, could be used to make inland transport easier. A continuous vraterway from Gothenburg across country to the Baltic would provide a vital trade route, both a means of shipping iron and timber out of central Sweden and of avoiding Danish customs charges levied on traffic through Oresund. It wasn't until 1832 that the system was completed, handdug canal sections connecting together navigable rivers and the two lakes; nearly 60,000 workers had spent over twenty years on the project. Although no longer an important trade route, it's still in constant use by thousands of tourists who ply the waters from midMay to midSeptember. TTie Gota Canal, as the system is properly known, is 190km long, stretching from the Baltic to Vanem and, together with the Trollhattan Canal (see above) it links the Baltic to the North Sea. Expensive cruises make the whole trip in three and a half days, either way, from Gothenburg or Stockholm; tickets are available from Rederiaktiebolaget Goto Kanal, Hotellplatsen 2, in Gothenburg (W03180 63 15); or book a package in advance through a specialist operator (see "Getting There from the UK and Ireland", p.7). However, a cruise isn't the only option. The canal is also served by a succession of ferries for which you just turn up and buy a ticket; you can go on either short hops or return trips from the larger centres. Places accessible by train, apart from Trollhattan, include Mariestad (see "Vastergotland", below) and Motala, on the eastern shore of Lake Vattem , from where you can take day trips and evening cmises. With a bike you can cycle the canal's towpaths between the two lakes from SJOTORP to VASSBACKEN and then east of Vattem from Motala. Between the lakes: Vastergotland The county of Vasteiotland makes up much of the region between lakes Vanem and Vattem a wooded, lakeland landscape that takes up a large part of the Gothenburg to Stockholm train ride.