Stockholm; Saturday, 28 July, 2007

Up early and out to the station to catch the train out to one of the most important Viking era sites in Scandinavia. Uppsala is the seat of the church in Sweden, and has been for many centuries, but it hasn’t always been in it’s current location. About 20 minutes bus ride away you reach Gamla Uppsala, Old Uppsala, which was abandoned after the cathedral here burnt down, and the city decided it would be wiser to rebuild it inside the new port town slightly further down the river, but took the name with them!

But the area had been important for longer than the church. Next to where the Cathedral was (and now a small church is located) are 10 mounds, three of which, at least, contain the remains of Vikings, these are fine examples of mound burials which were carried out in the latter part of the first millennium. In the past you used to be able to clamber all over them, but damage, and a better understanding of their importance, had lead to the mounds being fenced off, but a museum tells the history of the excavations of the site and the founding of the area.

I spent quite a lot of time looking around the mounds and the museum, before catching the bus back into Uppsala, to look at the town that was built to replace the original settlement. Sadly, the Cathedral was being used for a wedding later in the afternoon so I only got to get a quick look inside, before having to leave, but along with the spire of the cathedral, there is one other structure which stands out on the skyline of the city, and that’s the castle.

Today the castle still houses the offices and residence of the regional governor, but also house a small art museum. To see the main parts of the castle you have to go on a guided tour which happen a couple of times a day, thankfully I was in time to make the English language tour, which turned out to be just me and the guide. She took me around the castle, telling it’s history and the important role it has played in the life of Sweden. The tour ends in the remains of a massive chapel, absolutely covered in carvings, sculptures and plaster work.

The castle has been remodelled and rebuilt on several occasions, with an entire chunk of it being dismantled and taken to Stockholm for the building of the palace there, only a small part of the original castle remains. This has been turned into a small museum, with waxwork tableaux’s telling about castle life.

After looking around the grounds of the castle and the botanical gardens it was time to head back to the station and get the train back into Stockholm, pausing briefly to look at the small collection of large rune stones which was dotted around the university grounds, by the cathedral. Once back in Stockholm I wandered down to the quays near the palace to book an evening boat tour. When I last visited I had done most of the tours, but they had all been during the day. I wanted to go on one that would allow me to be out on the lake as the sun set, and the 8:30 under the bridges tour fitted that bill. In the gap before the tour I stopped for a quick dinner, then headed back to quay.

The tour crosses from the Baltic in Lake Mälaren, travels around some of the islands and then back into the Baltic. It’s an interesting tour, made more interesting by being able to watch the sun sort of set over the lake (this being Scandinavia in the summer it was never going to get completely dark, but most of the way there).

The tour ended back at the palace and I caught the bus back to the hotel.

Weather

Sunny Intervals Sunny
AM PM
Hot (20-30C, 68-86F)
23ºC/73ºF