Uppsala, Sweden’s fourth-largest city, is the best day-trip from Stockholm—it’s just under an hour away by train. This happy town is Sweden’s answer to Oxford, offering stately university facilities and museums, the home and garden of botanist Carl Linnaeus, as well as a grand cathedral and the enigmatic burial mounds of Gamla Uppsala on the town’s outskirts.
Almost all the sights are in the compact city center, dominated by one of Scandinavia’s largest, most historic churches—Uppsala Cathedral. While the gothic building was completed in 1435, the spires and interior decorations are neo-gothic, from the late 19th century. The cathedral—with a fine interior, relics of St. Erik, memories of countless Swedish coronations, and the tomb of King Gustav Vasa—is well worth a visit.
