After a week in Stockholm, including the trip to Helsinki, we decided to move on, first to Uppsala, and then west toward Norway. Stockholm is a great place, a city we have been impressed by and enjoyed as much as any we have seen. But we are ready to move on.
Uppsala is about 40 miles north of Stockholm, enough separation to be a completely different place, both historically and culturally. It is, of course, Sweden's university town, but it is also its historical religious center, with the Cathedral housing the bones of St. Brigid and St. Erik, the site of royal coronations and burials, including King Gustav Vasa, and also the tombs of two major Swedish academics, the philosopher Swedenborg and the biologist Linnaeus. The cathedral itself is Gothic, very attractive inside, with many interesting and enlightened features (see illustrations).
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| Uppsala Cathedral, 12th-13th century |
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| Interior |
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| Swedenborg tomb; he's remembered chiefly for Kant's ridicule |
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King Gustav Vasa tomb, flanked by his two wives, only one of which can be
seen from either side, and which can't "see" each other |
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| The kid's play-room chapel; every cathedral should have one of these |
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This cracked me up; I have been a fan of the Unemployed Philosophers' Guild
and their products for many years; these are their Jesus dolls (from their "Little
Thinkers" line) for sale in, you guessed it, the Cathedral gift shop |
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Linnaeus' tomb; he was the guy who thought up and
established biological taxonomy (phylum, genera,
species, etc.) which we all had to learn in the 10th grade |
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Linnaeus' garden, still maintained according to his classifications, by the
U of Uppsala |
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