Sweden - Uppsala and Sigtuna

One of the last things we did while in Sweden was to catch the train up to Uppsala, which is a university town not far from Stockholm.

We spent some time wandering around the town visiting the cathedral and museum, but actually our main point of interest was Gamla Uppsala where there was a number of burial mounds that are up to 2000 years old.

We had fun wandering around the burial grounds and imagining the times of the vikings buried there. Gamla Uppsala was the spiritual and political center of what would become Sweden.

We also had some hot chocolate as it was actually quite cold that day. Fortunately there was a viking themed tea house in the grounds - and we bought a bottle of mead to drink later.

We'd rented a car for the day not only because Gamla Uppsala is a little outside of Uppsala itself, but also because we were keen to visit Sigtuna, which is meant to be the oldest town in Sweden.

We had a very pleasant (although quite slow) drive to Sigtuna which was very quiet by this time, being quite late on Saturday, although we did find the local cafe apparently built in the old post office, apparently also with little regard to building codes as the floor and roof sloped quite dramatically.

We spent more time wandering around the town, visiting ruined churches and spotting menhirs.

After this we returned the car to Uppsala and spent more time wandering around the town and having dinner. We also took some photos of the river flowing through the town since the water was really high - possibly as a consequence of all the melting snow in Springtime Sweden!

Our last day in Sweden was relaxing but a bit frustrating, as we'd planned to leave our bags in the central station to do some last minute wandering and shopping but in the end there was no lockers available for our bags. So we just caught the train to the airport and shopped and ate there instead, and we ended up returning to Switzerland with bags full of souvineers and gastronomic treats. We had a fantastic time in Sweden and I think we were genuinely surprised on a number of levels at how nice it was. We spent our flight home planning future Scandanavian holidays!