Uppsala and Gävle

The rent-a-car worker said there had been some sort of mistake. They could no longer give us the original car we booked, instead they had to give us a BMW. What a joke. Did they expect us to drive around in that? Okay, we weren't really upset. Bill kicked his seat back and we strutted through Sweden in style. Until, that is, we realized BMW's aren't luxurious here.

Our first escape from the touristy end of Sweden came on a day trip we took north on the E-4. We didn't have much of a game plan. The idea was to cruise a few hours north and stop off at a few cities along the way. Uppsala and Gävle became our destinations. The E-4 was rather repetitive. Very flat and coniferous. Elements of it reminded me of driving through Makanda back home. Every once and awhile you pass by magnificent golden fields that produce canola oil. Even though the landscape wasn't eye popping, it beats I-57 any day of the week!

Uppsala took about an hour to roll into. With over 140,000 residents, the city already surpassed Reykjavik in size AND it's only the fourth largest in Sweden. Gives you perspective as to how small Iceland really is. Uppsala University has roots in the city since the 15th century and it certainly gives character to the populace. Students roam the streets and crowd restaurants and shops giving me a sense that they drive this place. Our visit to the university was brief. They have a beautiful campus library that contains a museum with many hidden gems. There was a first edition copy of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophie Naturalis Principia Matematica and also a page out of one of Gutenberg's first prints of the Bible. Didn't see that coming. As we walked out of the museum one of the patrons asked us if we paid to go in. Whoops.

Two enormous sites in Uppsala are its castle and cathedral. Little did we know there was an epic story behind both. Uppsala had been the seat of the Church of Sweden since the 1100s and the home of its Archbishop. Around the time of the Protestant Reformation, Gustav Vasa (who also ordered the creation of the Vasa ship!) took control of Sweden in a bloody revolution. When he became King, he sought to institute Protestantism as the national religion. This didn't go over well with the Archbishop of the Church of Sweden and they began a very public tug of war. Long story short, Gustav built the Uppsala Castle and pointed cannons directly at the cathedral threatening to level it to the ground. Guess who won? Protestantism became Sweden's new religion and the castle and cannons stand there today. Its a fascinating thing to view the cathedral from that perspective. Oddly enough Gustav Vasa is actually buried right inside it. We left Uppsala quite cultured.

About an hour and a half north of Uppsala is Gävle, pronounced yahv-la. Completely different city. Gävle is still a university town, albeit much smaller. The population is much older and kind of reminded me of a place Swedes would retire to. It's mainly known for it's wooden homes and affinity for roasting coffee. Also, Cat Stevens was born here! We treated ourselves to a local restaurant hoping for some Swedish recipes. I ordered the spaghetti and expected a famous meatball or two but all I got was pasta and meat sauce. What the! I ate it up with little complaint. The rest of the day was spent wandering the city observing more of Sweden's classic renaissance architecture and the vibrant public squares. It seems like even in the smaller cities, they don't spare any expense. Beautification must mean a great deal to their culture. All I can add to Gävle was that we eventually stumbled upon a block where everyone was dressed in 18th century attire. I'm still not really sure what that was.

Land of Gustavs

It wasn't easy leaving behind Iceland relatively unexplored. Four days is nowhere near enough time to embrace and understand a culture, but it's something I'm going to have to accept with eight countries left to go. Outside the window, with that strange island fading below the clouds, the land of my ancestors became the next adventure. Sweden, the self-proclaimed capital of Scandinavia, was already a radical transformation from Iceland. The countryside is riddled with dense forests and pastures and by sprawling farmlands that are as flat as patches of Illinois. Rivers crisscross the rich landscape coloring the soil extravagant shades of green. It had been a few days, but we could finally see the sky!

When the plane hit the runway it brought us some 40 kilometers north of Stockholm so we arrived without a glimpse of Sweden's largest city. A high-speed train led us to the main central station and the gates swung open to what was in an instant an extraordinarily vibrant metropolis. Not a dirty, overcrowded metropolis, but graceful and modern with a passion for cobblestone alleys and classical architecture. It weaves history with technology seamlessly. Cathedrals loom adjacent to office buildings. Museums, pubs, coffee shops, and art galleries sit corner to corner. This capital of around two million must be one of the most underappreciated gems of Europe.

Bill, Nick and I have traversed the E-4 and the E-20 both north and west across Sweden the past few days, but for now I have to dedicate this entry solely to Stockholm. Grazing over this irresistible city would be an injustice to you and me! Perhaps the most breathtaking segment of Stockholm is Gamla Stan, translated to Old Town. Dating back to the 13th century, Gamla Stan is like walking into a fantasy. The Royal Palace of the King greets you from the northernmost bridge and to the south you have the port of the Saltsjön River. Between those borders, you are flanked on all sides by shops, ice cream parlors, and restauants featuring every delicacy. You can cut away from one cobblestone road, slide through an alley less than a meter wide, and find yourself in an ivy covered pub with a glass of wine and some chicken wings. Not a day passed where we didn't find ourselves in the center this part of town.

On Wednesday, we hiked our way east through town to visit the areas of Östermalm and Ladugårdsgärdet. At this point, we accepted the beauty of this city as inescapable. We walked along the river passing gothic cathedrals and luxurious hotels. Yahts and cruise ships adorned the harbor and fashionable Stockholmers laced the streets. We joked that every Swede who passed by belonged in an ad for some nondescript cologne or perfume. Me in my Saluki hoodie may have had me pegged as homeless. We took in three museums that day: the Swedish National Museum, the Vasa Museum, and the Museum of Science and Technology. At the National Museum, we successfully used our American cunningness to get in via the student discount. The exhibits were pretty impressive. Brilliant artists like Claude Monet, Edvard Munch, Francisco Goya, and Paul Cézanne all had some of their work present. The sculpture "Laocoön," which depicts the Trojan citizen Laocoön and his two sons being devoured by serpents after angering the goddess Athena, was another unexpected treat. The hall itself was gorgeous: huge archways, marple steps, and white pillars. Stockholm really can't help but be a show off. Seriously, even the interior of museums? Afterwards, we paid a visit to the Vasa Museum. Finally an ugly building! The museum touts the remains of a 17th century ship, "Vasa," the largest in the world for its time. It was colossal. Measuring at 226 feet long, the ship inspires, but it also conjures mixed feelings. Vasa was conceived by King Gustaf II in 1628 to be a devastating asset for the Swedish navy in the Baltic Sea. For endeavor that lasted the better part of two years, the artistry was impeccable. Carvings glorify the lineage of the Vasa family and homage Greek myths and legends. However, the engineering was not so good. Vasa only sailed one nautical mile before it barreled over and drowned thirty members of the crew. Oops. Nonetheless, the museum did a good job covering the history of Vasa's construction and the efforts to drag it out from the depths. A local snarked that we were wasting money on a museum that glorified bad engineering, but for 100 krona I didn't mind being the unoriginal tourist.

The last leg of our hike to eastern Stockholm had some interesting elements. We stopped for lunch at a local food stand on our way out of the Vasa Museum. I sat down with a savory bratwurst when Bill thought it would be a good idea to feed a french fry to a bird lurking at our feet. Next thing we know, the three of us were starring in a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. An army of gulls came swarming in trying to tear either us or the little bird to shreds. Ducking and swatting, we grabbed our food and ran for cover. This is how we lay low in Sweden. Unscathed from the violent scene, we popped in and out of the Museum of Science and Technology down the road. The museum was empty and honestly kind of dull so I can't say I'd rate it as a must see here. On the way back we bumped into a film set shooting a scene from a famous Swedish book series. Crime writer Henning Mankell is renown for his "Wallander" books that follow a detective who investigates gruesome murders. I bought the first one a few months ago and brought it on the trip so it was an unusual but neat coincidence.

I'm going to post this novella before it gets too out of control. Tomorrow I'll write about our day trips to Uppsala, Gävle, Örebro, and the hometown of my ancestors!

The Creatures from the Blue Lagoon

Last day in Reykjavik today. Shows how quickly this trip will fly by. Nick and I are still two zombies seeking any semblance of a sleep pattern. Try snoozing when you see sunlight through the curtains at 3 o'clock! We begrudgingly dragged ourselves out of bed in the wee hours of the morning to pay a visit to the much acclaimed Blue Lagoon about 40 minutes outside of the city. Waiting outside the bus station in 40 degree weather, the wind howling at our faces, didn't do much to amp us up for swimming. Nonetheless, we managed to brave on and suck it up for adventure's sake.

Iceland is very strict about hygiene in public pools so we took a quick shower and made our way to the lagoon. You can tell standing in front of the door that you are about to freeze your barely clothed little tail off. A few courageous souls boldly pushed the door open and a few less courageous souls came scurrying back inside. The cold hit you to the bone. Nick darted for the lagoon not even realizing he had his towel still around his neck. Once you got inside this milky, crystal blue water, you are instantly at ease. The lagoon is equivalent to a gigantic hot tub, only this hot tub is said to work wonders on your skin! A geothermal power plant down the road pumps superheated water near a lava flow through turbines and a heat exchanger to make this creature what it is. It works brilliantly. To add to the lagoon's mystique are the mammoth volcanoes that surround it. A girl we met told us that some 90% of the landforms in Iceland are actually volcanoes. Fear not, these did not erupt. I cannot imagine how beautiful this place must look when the landscape is covered in a blanket of snow. A future adventure maybe?

Free from frostbite and our spirits healed by the lagoon, we spent the rest of the day wandering Reykjavik. Our last meal was at a popular seafood restaurant dubbed Sjavargrillid. Instead of ordering fisherman Jon's catch of the day, we dined on catfish and two Viking beers that tasted as awful as Pabst. I still haven't earned my Viking cred I guess. The meal was a hit until the check came. Nick and I are still having some problems with our conversions apparently.

Tomorrow we tumble along to Stockholm, Sweden. Our good mate Bill Ryan becomes our latest companion on the trip, joining us from Ireland. We will leave Iceland in awe of its beauty and with a high opinion of the Nordic people. Such great culture, talent, and kindness.