Now that we have seen the main cities in the North, we moved on to Uppsala, a city with some amazing burial mounds that have been used for political purposes for millenia. What surprised me was the lack of finds there as they bodies were cremated then buried, so there's bugger all for people to dig up.
The museum was interesting but slightly annoying as it bounced between facts, legends, lore and hyperbole. They had a line line that you read from the modern time back to ancient. That wasn't bad I think they went in the wrong direction. The display talks about certain events and things being rescinded that leave you a bit perplexed until you move onto the next panel and they talk about the event or law that was brought in, linking it to the previous.
The artifacts were amazing. Again, looking at the original items that I've seen in reference books and reproductions worn or used at re-enactment events was awesome.
Moving north is more of an opportunity to see the land, sea and rivers with the towns scattered along the way. The most rememberable one is the locality of Soderhamn (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B6derhamn). We had done our homework the previous day and looked at what we wanted to see on the free map of the area with the numbered points of interest. Prudently, we visited the Information office first as none of the places had addresses and not all the streets on the map were named.
The lady at the office was lovely and after a minute of talking to her, very apologetic. Each tourist spot was numbered and a number was indicated on the map but they didn't match. We eventually had all 3 addresses and we were off. the lady was going to have a bit of a chat with the printers as thousands of tourist maps that have been distributed throughout the region we disturbingly incorrect.
The first place was the town's museum which was closed until August (it would have been good if the information lady had that bit of information). The second place was an ecological, sustainable center about 15 minutes out of town. After driving up and down the long, country road a few times, we figured we had been given the wrong address. We then looked for the third place, a 12th century Church in the town of Trono, about 20 minutes on the other side of the region. Amazingly, it was still there but we couldn't find the folk museum that was supposed to be there as well.
That night we stayed at the town of Timra with a cunning plan to visit an op shop at 11am the following morning and then head north again. We do need to start noting which days these shops are open during the slow season as it was open only on Saturdays and it was a Thursday. Luckily, we found a great little antik (antique) shop where Dee found a fabulous cape and hat and a few English language books were found.
Sweden has a fairly open policy about being able to park for the nights in the rastplats (rest places) but the 2 that we had hoped to stay at had camping prohibited (including camper vans!!). Se we continued to Umea and we've staying at a camping ground.
Currently, I'm sweating in the laundry room, waiting for our washing to dry at 11pm. I had to book for the use of a washing machine and the only one free was from 2200 to 0100 hours.............
Tomorrow, we should be in Lulea, our final Swedish stop, and into Finland the most northern part of our journey. From there, it's all downhill.
:)
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