Tourist-ing in Uppsala

I've spent a couple weekends in Uppsala, but this was the first that I did actual Tripadvisor-reccommended sightseeing. Uppsala is Sweden's fourth largest city, though it feels much more like a large town than an actual city. It does have everything you could want from a city - plenty of great food options (I recommend Churchill Arms for anyone who visits, though it's not exactly Swedish), the "standard" options for shopping (all of the popular Swedish brands are here, plus a few decent thrift stores and boutiques), interesting museums and landmarks to visit, fantastic (if a bit expensive) public transportation if you don't feel like walking, and an overall very cute setting for a weekend trip.

The Fyris River runs through Uppsala, which makes for some very charming walking paths.

The public transportation may be good, but by far the best way to get around in Uppsala (and Stockholm) is biking. Bike paths are ubiquitous and there are plenty of places to park your bike. Be warned, though: a bike that is not securely chained may be tossed into the river by unruly college students on Saturday nights.

The biggest problem with Uppsala, and Stockholm, too, is that anything even remotely touristy, from museums to the islands of the Stockholm archipelago, becomes much harder to visit in the off-season. Almost everywhere has more limited hours, and a surprising amount of attractions just close altogether once September rolls around. Still, there was plenty to do and I had a nice weekend just sightseeing at some of the more popular attractions here.

A short ride away from town is Gamla Uppsala, a mind-blowing old settlement that was once an important economic and political center and, according to some myths, the residence of Odin. Today, it is mostly just for sightseeing. The most obvious is attraction is three large burial mounds, which have generated some controversy as far as who, exactly, is buried there, though the consensus now seems to be that it's some sort of royalty.

The mounds are basically just some relatively tall hills on an otherwise flat landscape, so the main attraction here is the view.

That smidgen of blue is the first hint of non-cloud-covered sky that I've seen in more than a week. Fall in Sweden is quite gray, to say the least.

The town center can be seen in the distance, marked by the towering spires of the Uppsala Cathedral and the large, pink castle.

There is also a centuries-old church, surrounded by a mix of old and quite new gravestones. The interior is fairly plain, but certainly worth a look.

There is also a museum, a visit to which might have bolstered my ability to narrate the history in any sort of detail, but it was close to closing and rather expensive, so I cannot offer much insight into that attraction. One final note on Gamla Uppsala is that the restaurant near the museum is absolutely worth a visit for lunch. The lunch specials, which are quite good, come with as much coffee and fresh, warm bread as you want, and may actually qualify as reasonably-priced, a first for my visit to Sweden (I may be a little bitter about to exorbitant price of eating out... One of very few gripes I have about the country).

After Gamla Uppsala, we headed back to town to see the castle and the nearby botanical gardens. We didn't actually go in the castle, as it was closed, and many parts of the gardens were closed for the season or under construction, but it was quite nice to just walk around and enjoy the autumn colors - fall in Sweden may be just as good as it is in New England.

That is indeed a pink church.

The view Uppsala Cathedral from the hill on which the castle sits.

Turns out, the best views of the castle itself are from a little farther away. Still, going up close is a great way to fully appreciate the pink-ness.

Cannons pointing directly at the cathedral. A feud? Symbolism? Ill-planned decorating? Not a castle employee in sight on an off-season Sunday afternoon, so I'll have to find out another day.

The path from the castle to the botanical gardens.

A perk of sightseeing during the off-season is that there are fewer people around to scoff when the American college kids start sliding down the railings.

I'm starting to think that the warm colored buildings all over Sweden may be a way of counteracting the depressing, gray sky that sets in around late September.

Those are indeed cats on the sign. No real cats in sight, though.