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.