On the Göta Canal aboard M/S Juno

How could a morning be more peaceful than this! The boat jolted; where were we? I opened our cabin door – the chilly, early morning air was refreshing. I looked at my watch – 5 am; it was already light outside. On deck, a few fellow passengers were waving to early joggers along the canal. The city of Söderköping was waking up. I could feel […]

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Table Etiquette and Food Aboard a Steamboat

Only 3 weeks until our Göta Canal cruise!  Now is the time to read up on Victorian table etiquette. What food could you buy on a Swedish steamboat in 1850? Augusta never described in her diary what she ate on her Göta Canal trips – did she and her family bring their own food or did they buy food on board? What food could you […]

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Travel Advice and Hotel Etiquette for Ladies in the 1800s

Berlin, 3 July 1847 “In a couple of exquisitely decorated rooms in Hôtel de Rome on Boulevard Unter den Linden, yours truly is sitting with pen in hand to recall from memory the wonderments I have seen since my arrival in the great Prussian capital.” This is Augusta’s first description of a hotel on the European continent during her and her mother’s journey down to […]

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Stockholm, March 12, 1851

Since Saturday evening I am here in Stockholm, our Swedish Paris, the dance-hungry’s Eldorado. Our journey here was miserable; unfavorable road conditions for the sleigh and grey, chilly weather. We ate bad food and slept miserably in cold, unpleasant lodgings, chatted with drunk coachmen, drank mulled wine, and finally arrived frozen and exhausted to our nice and beautiful Stockholm where we took in at Hotel […]

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Join us for a canal cruise through Sweden, as we recreate Augusta Söderholm’s voyage in 1850.

Join us on May 30, 2017, for a 4-day cruise on the legendary Göta Canal! Augusta, in a diary entry in 1850, describes her journey on the legendary Göta Canal as “one of the most beautiful and pleasant trips one can make.” Augusta’s diary – which she kept faithfully throughout the voyage – provides us with an eyewitness account of her trip: her fellow passengers, […]

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Augusta’s voyage on the Göta Canal – “one of the most beautiful and pleasant trips one can make”

In July 1850, Augusta made a memorable voyage on the Göta Canal. The reasons for Augusta’s voyage was to wave goodbye to her brother August, who was to sail from Gothenburg to Cape Town on the brig Mimer. And of course, Augusta provides a colorful eyewitness account of her voyage. On the outbound trip to Gothenburg, onboard the steamer Götheborg, she spends a lot of […]

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