View over the Uppsala Cathedral at sunset
When most people visit Sweden, they focus on Stockholm. But about 40 minutes north of the capital is Uppsala, a smaller university city that has played an outsized role in European history.
Stockholm may be Sweden’s political capital, but Uppsala is known as its academic capital. I flew over in 2021 to visit my history-buff friend. To give you an idea of how much this guy liked history, he offered me a World War II-era folding cot to sleep on.
No thanks, I’ll take the couch.
Uppsala
View of the viking mounds in Gamla Uppsala
Our first excursion was to Gamla Uppsala, where several enormous green mounds rose from the foggy landscape.
To me, they looked like hills.
My friend explained that they were ancient burial mounds connected to Sweden’s Viking and pre-Viking past. Suddenly, the entire landscape changed. I could imagine wooden settlements, warriors, ceremonies and generations of people gathering on the same ground more than a thousand years ago.
My friend and I during my first trip to Sweden
It was here that the first travel lesson was being served up - knowing even a little bit of history before you visit a place can completely change the landscape.
It’s almost as if my friend was watching the world unfold with augmented reality glasses. He saw everything that I saw, plus an extra layer that I could not.
Without the story, the mounds were grassy hills. With the story, they became a doorway into another world - a mystical world.
My friend continued peeling back the hidden layers of the city. He showed me the church where Anders Celsius is buried, the university associated with Carl Linnaeus and his system for classifying living things, and sites connected to the early study of oxygen.
That was when the second lesson became clear: Europe’s university cities make fascinating travel destinations. For centuries, they have attracted some of the continent’s brightest minds, and there is something surreal about standing in the very places where discoveries that still shape our modern world were made.
Outside the church of Gamla Uppsala, where Anders Celsius is buried
Some of our favorite trips have been to the great university cities of Europe - Bologna, Heidelberg, Cambridge and Uppsala. If you want us to help you book the perfect tour of European history, we’ve got you covered! Sarah is a registered travel agent and she can help you book your dream trip to Europe.
Uppsala Castle
Uppsala Castle, just a few minutes after closing
Later, we arrived at Uppsala Castle just as it was closing. My friend started chatting with a curator, who unexpectedly offered us a private tour. Again, another travel lesson.
