July 29, 2008...(Day 6)...Kvarntorp Mountain and Lake Vanern

400 Steps...Oh my...when will we reach the top of Kvarntorp Mountain? Today was a travel day to the west coast of Sweden. On the way we did a bit of sightseeing, and began with Kvarntorp Mountain, just a short distance from Odensbacken.

Amanda and Jonathan hiked up the steps to the mountaintop, while UllaBritt and I drove up in the air-conditioned car! Hmm...who was smarter? My excuse was that my head concussion was making me a bit dizzy, so I didn't think it wise to try to climb up all those steps. Thank you, UllaBritt, for planning interesting geological sightseeing tours for me.

View from atop Kvarntorp: We had a great view from atop the mountain. We could almost see Amanda's parents' town from here. This was an interesting visit to a place where oil extraction had occurred during World War II. It was a really hot day, the mountaintop smelled heavily of oil.

Warning...Hot Area: There was smoke rising up from the ground, and the smell of oil was almost overpowering. I found that I could not hang around there for very long as I am sensitive to chemical odors, and it just plain isn't safe to breathe those fumes for very long.

This mountain is still hot and the oil shale is still burning deep underground from early attempts at oil shale extraction, the whole goal of which was to create synthetic crude oil to be used as fuel oil. "One of the earliest in-situ processes was the underground gasification by electrical energy process exploited between 1940 and 1966 for the oil shale extraction at Kvarntorp, Sweden.[5] In this process, electric heaters were installed in bore holes and the gas pressure, generated by heating, pressed shale oil and gas vapors to flow through conduits to condensers. Gases were sucked out and treated in the treatment plant."  (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale_extraction)

Modern Sculpture atop Kvarntorp Mountain: There were several sculptures on top of this mountain of oil shale. It made the place seem a bit prettier than it was.

And, now our onto our next sightseeing destination, Lake Vanern, Southern Sweden: This map shows you the location of Lake Vanern, Sweden's largest lake, in the southern portion of Sweden. I like this map because it shows many of the areas that Amanda, Jonathan, and I visited during our trip. If you look to the top right of the lake, you will see the city of Orebro. Amanda's parents live near there. Northeast of there, we visited inland of Gavle, Uppsala, and Stockholm; then, going south of Stockholm we visited Norrkoping, Kalmar, Oland Island, and Kristianstad on the southern tip of Sweden. Follow the map northwest of Kristianstad and we went to Goteborg, and other points of interest up the scenic west coast of Sweden. (Map source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A4nern)  (Don't forget that you can click on the map for a larger view.)

Observation Tower at Hogkullen: This observation tower is located on a ridge about 270 meters above the south-eastern shore of Lake Vanern. The first observation tower was built at this site in 1892. It burned down in 1982, and was rebuilt. We climbed to the top of the tower and enjoyed some very pretty views of the surrounding countryside. We also had a nice picnic lunch here before continuing our journey to Ljungskile (our final destination for the day.)

Lake Vanern: This is the largest lake in Sweden, and is the third largest lake in Europe. It is really like an inland sea, and covers an area of 3515 square miles. Its maximum depth is around 300 feet, although it averages around 80 feet deep.

This lake supports a thriving fishing industry, of which the most common fish caught is the smelt. Vendance, whitefish, and eels are also caught in high numbers. Lake Vanern also supports two subgroups of native salmon species. The world's largest lake salmon, exceeding 20 kg (44 pounds) was caught in Lake Vanern. YOWZER! (Map source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A4nern)

Lacko Slott on Lake Vanern: We viewed this castle from the top of the observation tower. This was as much zoom as my little camera was capable of. The foundation for this castle was laid in 1298 by Brynolf Algotsson, Bishop of Skara. It changed hands many times, and underwent many renovations to make it what it is today. It houses the Lacko Castle Treasury containing artifacts of many of the riches of the 17th century, and is open to the public.