Blogs from Uppsala County, Sweden, Europe - page 3

So up again early to head out to Lake Malaran for a BBQ with Bre. We stopped by the market for a one-time BBQ, some steaks, grill cheese, fruit and such. Yes, they have grill cheese. You actually throw it on the grill for a few minutes to get grill marks and then slice it up. It's like Tillamook squeeky cheese. Weird but good. We seemed to have gotten a defective grill cuz it took about an hour for the briquettes to finally heat up. Two other picnic parties had started their grill after us and they were almost finished eating by the time we started cooking. Oh, well. There were lots of young kids at the lake. Some actually were swimming. It was about 68 degrees. The sun came and went so either you were ... read more

This day was a blur. 18 hours of travel time does wonders to your mental state. Bre met us at the airport around 12:30am Sweden time. About 10:30pm at home. Because we couldn't get into our B&B until 5:30pm we went to Bre's appartment and changed clothes and decided to check out downtown Uppsala. We stopped by the river for lunch and watch the bike riders. Biking is a big thing here. Too tired to do much more, Ted and I went to Bre's to take a nap and then to our B&B to take a shower. Out again for dinner by the river then home early to sleep. Nothing too exciting. I'll add pictures when I upload later. ... read more

The date was August 10, 1628. It was a beautiful Sunday morning and Stockholm’s many shorelines were crowded. After three years of hard work and the felling of over one thousand oaks, Sweden’s newest warship and the crown jewel of their powerful fleet sat at the quay below the royal castle ready to sail. At 69 meters in length and 1210 tons of displacement, the Vasa, named after Sweden’s royal family, was one of the most imposing warships in the world. Its 64 large guns ensured that it would be a formidable power on the seas. Its ornately carved hull was a work of art meant to intimidate anybody that would come against it. The ship was loaded and its guns were all tied fast as it was kedged to a point near modern-day Slussen. All ... read more

today we packed it in and took the train where a friend picked us up. we went to a viking museum and church - viking burial ground where cheiftans were buried under hugh mounds I think with their ships and assorted stuff. then we went to the university and to the kings palace and then over to Gabor's house for dinner. His wife is from Srilanka and fixed us a home town dinner. great and now we're at the hotel.... read more

After two and a half months in Sweden I felt the need to spread my wings a little outside the confines of Stockholm and its inner archipelago (well, Vaxholm to be precise). New partner in crime Rachel was up for a weekend away so we set off to Sweden’s fourth largest city, Uppsala. Uppsala is a city famous for its university, its cathedral and as the long-time home of Carl Linnaeus (for the forgetful scientists among you he was the one that invented the system of binomial classification that is still used in identification of plant and animal species). It’s also smaller than Bromley. A fact which shouldn’t really surprise, given that Sweden has a population of only 9.2 million. Saturday morning dawned and it was due to be one of the hottest weekends of the ... read more