June 25, 2025
We are off on an adventure to explore of runriket”, a famous trail of Viking sites along with medieval churches and the history of the transition from paganism to christianity. Sounds like an interesting day…..right????
After a drive of about 30 minutes we were at our first stop where Runes from the Viking era were discovered. Runes are a way of telling the story of a deceased person to honor them. Our guide was very knowledgeable about how to interpret them (ok, way too much detail)!! I got a bit distracted with the metal Viking ship in the playground….oops!
During the Viking Age 800-1050AD in Sweden , many Viking expeditions set off to both plunder and trade along the Baltic coast and the rivers that stretched deep into present-day Russia
Our next stop was a hike to see the rocks that made up their meeting place where all conflict between the residents were discussed and resolved. The rocks form a circle with one in the middle for the person who is talking. An early rendition of a soap box.
We continued on to Granby fram where we will enjoyed a traditional Swedish “fika” which is homemade pastries and coffee. Then we climbed through a muddy cow pasture to see the largest rune discover so far.
We continued to the charming town of Sigtuna, which was founded in the late viking era. We had a bit of free time to explore the charming town. We found a putt putt golf course that feature both runes to putt through and a Viking ship. Then we came across a wooden Viking ship in the playground were we had to pretend to be Vikings heading off to plunder.
We explored he ruins of Saint Olaf church, the Norwegian Viking warrior, who later converted to christianity and finally became a Saint.
Our next, stop is was Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala) with all its famous burial mounds, which date back to the first centuries AD until the end of the Viking era.
Gamla Uppsala was also the spiritual center of the Vikings in all of Scandinavia and there they gather together for Midwinter blot festivals. From legends it is said that the pagan temple was burned down in 1087, a church was built on top of it, which became the main cathedral for the country and the seat of the country’s first archbishop.
Our last stop will be the university town of Uppsala, where we visited the main cathedral in Sweden.
I had anticipated that we would see some artifacts from the Viking era so I was disappointed but it was a beautiful day and we had fun. Note to self if the description of the tour includes academic level as part of the description do not book.
When we got back to the city we went for dinner at a traditional Swedish restaurant. I had Swedish meatballs….YUM!!
Tomorrow our stay in Stockholm ends and we take the train to Oslo to continue our adventure. So no blog tomorrow. Hope you are enjoying adventuring with me!!!
