The oldest town in Sweden

12 May 2009

The oldest town in Sweden

I awoke the next morning at Anna’s apartment feeling rejuvenated from a good night’s sleep. We had another delicious Swedish breakfast of filmjölk, crispbread with cheese and caviar. Our destination for the day was a small town called Sigtuna, which has been named the oldest town in Sweden, founded 1,000 years ago. Anna and I walked from her apartment to the Uppsala train station. There is a special bike parking lot outside the station that is honestly bigger than the car parking lot! There are rows upon rows of bicycles locked up. Closest thing I have ever seen to this sight was the enormous bike lot in Amsterdam. From Uppsala, we took the train to the town of Märsta, and from there, another train to Sigtuna. It was nice to be a lazy traveler for a change, no longer having to navigate my way around, instead relying on my native friend!

It seemed that as soon as we arrived in Sigtuna, the clouds blew in and the rain came down. It seemed as good a time as any to stop for a caffeine break and Anna took me to an adorable little café. The house was small, narrow and tilting a bit to one side. It was called Tant Brun, named after a character, Aunt Brown, from a famous Swedish children’s book. The inside of the café had low ceilings and cozy booths with lumpy stucco walls. Anna had a hot cup of cocoa and I opted for the higher caffeine content of a cappuccino. Finally warmed up and with no more rain falling, we peeked outside the café and continued our exploration.

The town of Sigtuna is built adjacent to Lake Mälaren, the very same large lake that is home to the many islands of Stockholm. The first Swedish coins were minted in Sigtuna in the 11th century. It was also the location of a Dominican monastery, built in the 13th century, which produced many of the Swedish archbishops. It actually wasn’t until the 1300s that Sigtuna was surpassed in importance by the cities of Stockholm and Uppsala.

Anna and I spent the better part of the day wandering around this quaint, colorful little town. After our coffee break, we walked along the shores of Lake Mälaren admiring the large homes that overlook it, many of them made of red timber. We walked up and down the small streets of the town with all of the brightly painted wooden homes, so perfectly maintained that I might have guessed I was in Disney’s Epcot center. It seemed that each home had a flowerbox outside its windows full of perfect blooms. The inner windowsill of each window also seemed to be decorated with colorful bottles, miniature ships and other eclectic collectibles. We stopped in many cute shops selling everything from eyeglasses to children’s books to designer shoes. When the sun was out momentarily again, we were able to eat outside of a cute café on the main street. I had a lovely crayfish soup with thick granary bread and Anna ate prawns with mayonnaise and salad atop bread, I guess this is a popular lunch dish in Sweden. After that, I spotted a tiny little bakery and I had to try a dessert! The smiley Swedish woman working there, of course, spoke perfect English. I think I had her describe every single different pastry to me. I wished I could have tried one of each, but she assured me that all of them were delicious and home-made. Since I couldn’t decide, I bought about four different kinds, and they were wonderful. The Swedish sure do know how to make a good dessert!

On the backside of the town, we found the ruins of the aforementioned Dominican monastery. All that was left of it was a tall stone tower somewhat overgrown with trees and vegetation. In the same area, we found another rune stone. This was one was free standing, much like a tombstone, as opposed to the one we saw the day before on the side of a church, just another reminder to the Swedes of their strong Viking history. I really enjoyed my visit to this pristine little village, but after a few hours, we had seen it all and were ready to head back to Uppsala.

When we returned to Uppsala, Anna took me on a walk through the downtown shopping area. We stopped into a few stores that sell Swedish home and kitchen goods. All items were chic, stylish and practical. Anna took me to Systembolaget, or “System Bollocks” as her English friend liked to call it. Systembolaget is the only store in Sweden where one can buy alcohol and it is government owned. Essentially this government store has a monopoly on the alcoholic beverage market and can charge a high tax. At least I can say that they had quite an extensive selection of wines! As we were walking down the main pedestrian shopping street, we noticed a crowd of people was gathering in the street and looking upwards. As is human nature, we followed suite and looked up too. Perched in the tree above us, was a large owl, just hanging out on the inner branches. Over the next few minutes at least twenty to thirty people were congregating in the street to look at this owl. People took pictures on their mobile phones and cameras. One man showed up with not just a professional camera, but a lens the length of my femur all set atop a tall tripod, he was taking this owl sighting very seriously. Naturally, I had to turn my camera on him and snap a few pictures of this crazy guy! But it is quite unusual to see an owl hanging out in the middle of a city in broad daylight.

After the owl excitement Anna decided a good way to end the day would be with a visit to the botanical gardens where Carl Linnaeus catalogued many of his specimens. Unfortunately it was already closed for the day, but we wandered around the large bright yellow building. I could just make out the cacti and tropical plants inside. We also saw a group gathering for some early evening Tai Chi outside the gardens looking towards Uppsala Castle. With dinner time approaching, we started to make our way back to Anna’s apartment. Along the way, we stopped at a grocery store frequented by the Uppsala University students which got Anna reminiscing about her university days. We picked up a few items for dinner, and headed back to wind down another busy and fulfilling day.