Stockholm - Grisslehamn, Sweden

Sunday 15th August 1999

We left Stockholm today with a brief tinge of regret to see the city behind us. We'd had a thoroughly enjoyable three days but it was time to move on if we were to get to Nordkapp and back before the weather starts to get too cold. Summer is short in these countries.

We headed north for the ferry port of Grisslehamn, nearest point to the Åland islands. We took a detour though to the town of Uppsala, once home to the countries rulers. We first visited Gamla Uppsala, about 3km north of the main town. Three very large and a couple of hundred small burial mounds are here, dating back to the 5th century.

After pausing besides the tumuli for lunch we headed in to town to look at the castle. They were running guided tours of the palace but we were more interested in the ruins of the old castle which have been cleverly used to recreate scenes from the 16th century.

We then walked down to the cathedral, resting place of Gustav I, much loved for overthrowing the Danish rule of Sweden, and St Erik, patron saint of Sweden. The cathedral itself was quite impressive, with very high vaults and arches.

We continued past some university buildings and a collection of Viking rune stones before heading back to the van and on to our final destination. We ended up driving amongst many lakes and found a spot to stop just near one and not far from our ferry port for tomorrow.