Sweden - Becky Ohlsen [186]
Next to the unexcavated flat-topped mound, Tingshögen (Court Mound), is Odinsborg (32 35 25; buffet Skr165; noon-6pm), a restaurant known for its horns of mead and Viking feasts (although daintier refreshments are offered at the summer cafe downstairs).
If you feel like a wander, Eriksleden is a 6km ‘pilgrims path’ between the cathedral in Uppsala and the church in Gamla Uppsala. Its namesake, Erik the Holy, was king of Sweden from around 1150 until the Danes beheaded him 10 years later. The story is that his head rolled down the hill, and where it stopped a spring came up. The main trail also provides access to a ridged wilderness area called Tunåsen, with a panoramic viewpoint (follow signs along Eriksleden just south of Gamla Uppsala to ‘utsiktsleden’).
Buses 2, 110 and 115 run to Gamla Uppsala daily and are very frequent (between them there’s one every 10 minutes Monday to Friday, and every 40 minutes at weekends).
UPPSALA SLOTT
Pink and ponderous, Uppsala Slott (54 48 11; www.uppsalaslott.se; admission by guided tour only, adult/child Skr70/20; tours in English 1pm & 3pm Tue-Sun Jun-Aug) was built by Gustav Vasa in the 1550s. It contains the state hall where kings were enthroned, and where Queen Kristina abdicated (Click here). It was also the scene of a brutal murder in 1567, when crazy King Erik XIV and his guards killed Nils Sture and his two sons, Erik and Svante, after accusing them of high treason. The castle burned down in 1702, but was rebuilt and took on its present form in 1757.
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EVERYDAY GODS
Some of the greatest gods of the Nordic world – Tyr, Odin, Thor and Frigg – live on in the English language as the days of the week: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, respectively.
Tyr was the god of justice, a deity who lost his hand to a giant wolf. The gods tried to trick the wolf, Fenrir, into captivity by challenging him to break an indestructible chain. The wolf was suspicious, but accepted the challenge on condition that one of the gods place a hand in his mouth. Tyr agreed and the gods succeeded in fettering Fenrir, but the furious wolf retaliated by biting off Tyr’s right hand.
The most eminent of the Nordic gods was one-eyed Odin, whose eight-legged flying horse, Sleipnir, had runes etched on its teeth. Odin gave up his eye in exchange for wisdom; he also gleaned information from his two ravens Hugin and Munin, who flew daily across the worlds in search of knowledge. As the god of war, Odin sent his 12 Valkyries (battle maidens) to select heroes killed in battle to join him at the palace of Valhalla.
Frigg, Odin’s wife, was a fertility goddess and the goddess of marriage.
The thunder god, Thor, protected humankind from the malevolent ice giants with his magic hammer, Mjolnir (Thor’s-hammer talismans are frequently found in Viking graves). Immensely strong, he would hurl Mjolnir into the clouds to create vast thunderstorms before the hammer came boomeranging back again.
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In the dungeon below the castle’s south tower is the Peace Museum (50 00 08; www.fredsmuseum.se; adult/under 19yr Skr40/free; 2-6pm Wed, noon-4pm Sat & Sun), with displays on various world conflicts and atrocities, as well as Sweden’s long record of neutrality and the achievements of former UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld.
At the castle entrance marked E, the Uppsala Art Museum (727 24 82; www.uppsala.se/konstmuseum; adult/under 20yr Skr40/free; noon-4pm Tue-Fri, 11am-5pm Sat & Sun) displays Swedish and international contemporary art and ceramics as well as the art-study collection of Uppsala University.
DOMKYRKAN
The Gothic Domkyrka (Cathedral; 18 72 01; www.uppsaladomkyrka.se; admission free; 8am-6pm May-Sep, 10am-6pm Sat Oct-Apr) dominates