Europe - Trip 4

Day 3 - February 2, 2002

The hall in the main university building

This morning we got up at a reasonable hour, though moving a bit slowly, left the flat and headed up to Uppsala and Old Uppsala. A nice drive in Thomas and Cydney’s nice new Volvo (surprise!). First stop in Uppsala was at Thomas and Cydney’s friends, Tony and Christina for a cup of tea.

The cathedral in Uppsala

The six of us did a walking tour of the town, learning a bit about the university and how it is laid and run. We learned a fair bit about the town and Todd was especially pleased about seeing the garden of Lanaeus. A quick lunch at the largest nation, (like a British university college – previously led by Christina) where the fare was tasty and incredibly cheap, led to a tour of the main nation building and the renovations underway.

The cathedral was another site where the first proper King of Sweden is buried – it was stunning, built by dispensation of the Pope in the “new” town, hence the Uppsala and Old Uppsala (the old town).

The original church in Old Uppsala

Todd really wanted to go and see the Viking graves in Old Uppsala as such things do not exist where he lives so he was indulged and the 6 drove to the site. We arrived and saw the string of large mounds, each a grave for a king or chief, each with a marker stone on the top. It was getting dark by this time so we did a quick stop in the old church near the site, and excellent example of rough old construction that had lasted for hundreds of years with minimal alteration.

The viking graves and marker

Back to Uppsala and a stop at a coffee shop for a bite and we headed back to Stockholm for dinner. Cydney and Thomas put on a fabulous dinner with 4 courses including advocado and caviar, herring and potatoes, snaps with singing and toasts, Tandoori pork tenderloin and then dessert. Not all was traditional like the snaps and herring, but all of it was very tasty.

A latish night yacking again and we headed off to pleasant slumber.

Another nice crisp day with some snow and some sun.