In the 1980s there was a cute car sticker for SAAB cars which said, “Made in Trollhättan by trolls.” The assembly plant closed down in 2011 but Trollhättan remains an industrial town. Which makes it an odd choice for one of our stops on our tour of Sweden. Yet what made Trollhättan the centre for industry is the very same thing which attracted me to the town: the hydro-electric power created by the waterfalls.
Every week (every day in the summer months) the power company releases 300,000 litres of water per second into the old river gorge, making this a spectacular event for visitors who crowd onto Oscar’s bridge just before 3pm to witness the breathtaking sight and thunderous sound. Our hotel was situated on the other side of the river to the main part of town, high up over the water. When we arrived, having driven from our last stop, Askersund, we were just in time to scramble along the hill path to one of the viewing platforms and wait for the gates to open.
But Trollhättan isn’t just famous for its trolls, industry and waterfalls. It has now become the centre for a film production company which is informally called Trollywood. The town even has its own Walk of Fame on Stortgatan. We took a stroll down there, hoping to see some celebs. None to see, but evidently they have been here – take a look:
There were a lot of Swedish names I didn’t recognise but after taking shots of Lauren Bacall’s star I spotted Nicole Kidman’s and again got busy with the camera.
Rory had other ideas!
Great series of photos. How lucky that you got there just in time! I love that your last photo has been "trolled" by your son, like mine often are too! 🙂
I like that – trolled! Why didn't I think of that? ;-))
Aww you can't beat a good waterfall! I don't suppose there are many internationally famous Swedish stars, except Abba, Bjorn Borg and erm.. Sven Goran Eriksson
Ha! But how many of them have made a film in Trollhattan?? Mind you, I'm wondering what films Lauren Bacall and Nicole Kidman made there; they maybe just visited?
How long are the sluices left open – 300,000 litres of water sounds a lot but I' m guessing flows quickly?
What about the Swedish chef from The Muppets – a famous Swede?
I looked into that again, Troy, and it seems most websites say it's 300,000 litres per second, which is even more impressive! May change my figures. Comes through at quite a lick for about 10 minutes?
The Swedish chef was in The Muppet Movie so is a great candidate.
Trollywood – brilliant! The waterfalls look thrilling – such power!
They were pretty huge, it was very exciting.
That must have been really cool. It's amazing what humans can do!
It was fascinating to learn how they built a series of locks to link the rivers and lakes from Gothenburg on the west coast through to Stockholm on the east so that there was a passage for trade to the Baltic Sea. It amazed me that anyone ever thought it was possible, never mind actually create such engineering feats.
Ooh… I so wanna go!
I'll take the bigger cases next time. Can you curl up small?
One day Rory will realise how cool his parents were for taking him to see such interesting things.
Bless him, I think he does appreciate all the places we've taken him to. He enjoyed sticking his foot in the picture, like the daft kid that he is. I did take another shot but this one is so much better!
Wow that waterfall is a sight. I think my fearless little grandchildren would want to jump in rather than watch though :-). I echo what a previous comment said, your children are lucky to have gone to such a quirky place in such a cool country. I always thought it was important to make sure my kids experienced the 'great outdoors' as much as possible.
We do what we can to make sure his holidays have a good mix of things to do. Mind you, in general our son is very much an indoor boy – thankfully on holiday he seems happy to be out and about!