After we dropped off the bags we headed off to see some of the sights around Uppsala.  With a local guide we didn't have to do any planning, which is always the hallmark of a great trip, for us at any rate.

The first place we went is what I've started calling the Royal Rocks.  Apparently, all the kings of old were crowned while standing on these rocks out in the field where they live.  The house that covers them came later sometime.  The rocks are carved with runes, and the ceremonies date to around 1100 AD.  Some of the greatest kings that Sweden had, before it was even Sweden, got their start on these rocks.  Basically, Uppsala is the oldest place where the people that became Sweden started.

We went to visit the Linnaeus Museum.  If you recall back to your grade school education, Linnaeus was the guy that figured out how to categorize and label all the plants that are found in the world.  This became the system of categorization that we use today for all plants and animals.  

This is his house and farm.  And in what we came to understand as the typical Swedish low-key style, you just walk in and take a look.  There are no guards or fences.  All the old furniture and paintings are still on the wall.  And a lot of the old papers are still waiting around in the old cabinets.  

I figure old Linnaeus must have been one of those truly anal retentive guys to have sat around his entire life cataloging every single piece of plant life he came across, and then teaching his students to go to the ends of the earth and bring him back more stuff to catalog.  And then some of the Bergman films I'd seen started to make sense..

We set off for the old church in Uppsala.  This church dates back to around 1100 AD, which was shortly after Christianity came to this part of the world.  But it was time for lunch, and what better way to get into a proper Viking frame of mind than to have some Mead with lunch.

Mead is one of those concoctions that was made in a lot of places where you couldn't get grapes to grow.  It's made from honey and a bunch of other spices are added, stuff like cinnamon and cloves usually.  I figure it was just straight honey in the old days, but the recipe has gotten better over the years.

To make for a perfect experience you have to drink your mead from a horn.  We didn't turn into a Viking and run out and burn a village or kill anyone  afterwards, but the mead was a very different flavor than anything you might be used to.  And this particular mead had about the same alcohol content as beer.  But it's easy to imagine how you might feel after drinking some of the really hard core stuff.  You would immediately upon waking go out and conquer some neighboring tribe just to work it off. 

The old church itself is pretty modest.  It seems pretty plain after seeing all those highly decorated French churches.  But then again, all those churches were redone after various wars, or just because the region they served was feeling prosperous and needed to keep up with the Medicis or the Hapsbergs, or some other nearby Duchy.

The church itself is made of the local stone and masonry.  The inside is painted with simple decorations.  There is almost no iconography anywhere, and the windows are quite plain.  The organ is modest and the pews are well made but simple.  It's almost as if a bunch of Unitarians got hold the plans instead of a Catholic group.  All in all the effect is much more comfortable than most of the churches we'd been in.  All the gory scenes of saints getting slaughtered and mutilated, or Christ himself being cruelly tortured and mutilated were absent.  The Swedish version of Christianity seemed almost humane to the casual observer.

The old church is located on a site that holds the old burial mounds of past kings.  In the old tradition the kings were buried in a boat with the supplies they would need for the journey to Valhalla, or heaven.  Then everything was burned and covered with a mound of dirt. 

This picture shows the three mounds that are in old Uppsala, or Gamla Uppsala.

After we finished touring the mounds and church we headed into Uppsala to look around a bit and do some shopping for dinner.  Then we retired to the house for cocktail hour and dinner.

Christine has one of those high tech dartboards that keeps score for you when you play various games.  She and I played a few games.  Here she's showing me how to improve my technique - Not!!  :-)

We ended the day with a terrific dinner accompanied by a couple of good bottles of wine, and then some port.  All in all our Viking Princess really knows how to play host.

Tomorrow we head for Stockholm..