Last Updated on April 19, 2025
Take a two-centre break in Stockholm and Uppsala and discover your inner Northman!
Sweden is a big country. A land of rock, deep forests, rivers, lakes and seemingly endless coastline, and it’s from this landscape that Sweden’s Vikings emerged. Part farmer, part pirate, slave traders and warriors, they used their navigation skills and access to explore Eastern Europe’s rivers. Unlike their cousins in Denmark and Norway, they looked east from the Baltic to the Black Sea and on to Byzantium.
Taking time in Stockholm and the delightful nearby university town of Uppsala, offers a perfect opportunity to find out more about those long-gone Swedish Vikings and at the same time experience what makes Sweden such an attractive destination today.
By train, Uppsala lies one hour north of Stockholm, less than twenty minutes from Arlanda airport. It’s an attractive, historic city. Home to Scandinavia’s oldest university, it’s vibrant with a great range of restaurants and a lively cultural programme.
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Exploring Viking culture in Uppsala
Built in the 1620s, The Gustavianum is Uppsala University’s oldest preserved building. Its brand-new gallery, The Dawn of the Vikings, is based on the latest research and tells the story of the creation of Viking culture through displays of precious artefacts. This permanent exhibition is a great place to begin your Viking voyage. While you’re here take time to look at the other galleries including the University’s art collection and the original 17th century anatomical theatre.
The county of Uppland is home to the largest collection of runestones (some 1,300), in the world and in the University grounds you’ll find some fine examples. These large stones with their messages carved in the Vikings’ runic alphabet were used to define property boundaries or commemorate individuals and provide a direct link to their past. A local guide will unlock their secrets for you.
Allow some time to explore the impressive Uppsala Cathedral nearby, where you’ll discover more of Sweden’s past and people who formed its present, and then take a walk to the town’s highest point, the rosy-coloured Uppsala Castle for a fine vantage point. (A new museum opens here in May 2025).
Your next stop is 5km north at Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala), until the middle ages a major political and spiritual centre, where gods pagan and then Christian were worshipped. The lovely 12th-century church is thought by some to have been built on the site of a famous gold temple dedicated to the gods Thor, Freyr and Odin. Nearby was a sacrificial grove where men and animals were strung up as part of elaborate ceremonies. Luckily none of this is visible today, but this intriguing site offers many insights into Viking life and beliefs.
Three large burial chambers, the Kings’ Mounds, dominate the site and in the excellent museum and interpretation centre, you can discover their fascinating story. Tours are given in English with demonstrations and workshops delivered by the knowledgeable museum team.
Before heading off to Stockholm, take a detour to Gunnes Gård, a reconstructed Viking-age farmstead. This small open-air museum shows how the majority of people lived in the Viking times, as farmers, fishermen, traders and craftsmen. You can talk to museum staff dressed in historical clothing, and there is often a craft demonstration to show the skills necessary for everyday Viking life.
The Vikings in Birka and Beyond
Like the Vikings, latter-day visitors to Birka still arrive by boat, although these days they are mainly day trippers from Stockholm. But it’s there on the island, that we truly get into our Viking stride. Regarded as Sweden’s first city it is described by UNESCO as “one of the most complete and undisturbed examples of a Viking trading settlement of the 8th to 10th centuries”. For two hundred years, due to its strategic position on Lake Mӓlaren, with access to the Baltic, it was the largest trading point in Scandinavia. From here Vikings travelled the Dnieper River trade route through what is now Russia and Ukraine and on to Byzantium.
The island is open from May to September and your ticket includes a guided round-trip boat journey, admission to the museum and the reconstructed Viking village, and a guided tour of the archaeological site.
Five fixed tents temptingly offer overnight camping stays by the water’s edge. And this being Sweden, don’t forget your swimsuit for a refreshing dip later in the day. You’ll be following in Viking tradition; the old sources mention the men from the north paid great attention to their personal hygiene!
Your guide will set the scene for you. As with so many ancient sites, it is the landscape which tells the story: earth banks which formed protective walls, plateaux on which once sat kings’ feasting halls, busy harbours now long silted up. On Birka you see the evidence while you walk through the gently rounded graves of the dead, some 3,000 of them, proof that this quiet backwater was once a thriving Viking settlement.
In the excellent museum the exhibition “Buried at Birka” introduces us to the lives of four previous inhabitants through the contents of their excavated graves, items which provide evidence of the importance of the town as a trading port.
The king who ruled over Birka had his residence across the water at Hovgården, which with Birka makes up the UNESCO site.
It’s a lovely location and looking across to Birka from the site of the king’s longhouse you recognise the importance of water as a highway. This house, brightly decorated, would have been seen by all who passed in and out of Birka. Nearby are three prominent royal burial mounds and a well-preserved runestone. There are many sites of interest, but with no explanatory museum yet, a local guide can help with interpreting the site.
Back in Stockholm, The Viking Museum offers an interactive exhibition covering the myths, legends and reality of the era. Tours are available and friendly “Viking” guides are on hand to answer questions and be photographed. The Viking Adventure Ride, offered in nine languages, will take you back in time to hear and see the fictional story, Ragnfrid’s Saga, illustrating the fortunes of a Swedish Viking on a journey to Byzantium.
Unlike Ragnfrid, our Viking journey ends at Stockholm’s Historiska Museet, where all you’ve heard of the Vikings is presented to you in the beautifully curated, permanent The Viking World exhibition. Here you will be able to see many of the original artefacts found at Gamla Uppsala and on Birka and admire the beauty of the different objects on display, Viking-made, Viking-traded or Viking-plundered.
Where to eat?
When in Uppsala, take lunch or dinner at Villa Ana, a delightful boutique hotel in the historic old town centre, and you will have the perfect Swedish experience. Dating from 1874 the building has been lovingly restored in a neutral, yet warm contemporary style and offers 21 bedrooms. The restaurant serves the best of seasonal ingredients, just looking at the elegant presentation will make you feel healthier, instantly.
If a room with view is more your thing then take the lift to the top of Uppsala’s Elite Hotel Academia where this modern business-style hotel, boasts Miss Voon, a fabulous Asian fusion restaurant, Japanese with a Swedish twist! You’ll find a branch in Stockholm too.
The Viking Museum is located on Stockholm’s “leisure island”, Djurgården, alongside a happy gathering of attractions including the Abba Museum, Skansen open-air museum and the Grӧna Lund amusement park. Its restaurant, Eld, with its view over the water, serves high quality Nordic cuisine. One thousand years on, mead, the Viking’s honey-based festive drink is having something of a comeback and here in Eld you can engage in a tasting session to find your favourite. The perfect end to your Viking quest?
Not quite! Before you leave, check out Aifur, a “Viking tavern” in Stockholm’s Old Town where, in a restaurant decorated with replica Viking objects, a minstrel in a gallery adds to the atmosphere while you dine from a menu inspired by Viking dishes.
Further information
Jenny was a guest of Visit Sweden and Destination Uppsala
Hotels:
Elite Hotel Academia, Suttungs Grand 6, 753 19 Uppsala, Sweden https://www.elite.se/hotell/uppsala/elite-hotel-academia-uppsala/
Hotel Reisen, Skeppsbron 12, 111 30 Stockholm, Sweden
https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/sweden/hotel-reisen/arnub?src=corp_lclb_gmb_seo_arnub
Villa Ana, Odinslund 3, SE-75310 Uppsala, Sweden www.villaanna.se/
Restaurants:
Villa Ana, Odinslund 3, SE-75310 Uppsala, Sweden www.villaanna.se/
Miss Voon at the Elite Hotel Academia, Floor 11 of Elite Hotel Academia, Suttungs Gränd 6, 753 19 Uppsala, Sweden https://missvoon.se/
Eld at The Viking Museum, Djurgårdsstrand 15, 11521 Stockholm, Sweden https://thevikingmuseum.com/en/restaurant-eld/
Aifur, Västerlånggatan 68, 111 29 Stockholm, Sweden https://www.aifur.se/
Attractions visited:
Gustavianum, Uppsala University Museum, Akademigatan 3, 753 10 Uppsala, Sweden https://www.uu.se/en/gustavianum
Uppsala Cathedral, Domkyrkoplan, Sweden https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/uppsala/domkyrkan
Uppsala Castle and Uppsala Slotthistoriska, Sweden www.Uppsala.se/slottshistoriska
Gamla Uppsala Museum, Disavägen 15, 75440 Uppsala, Sweden https://www.upplandsmuseet.se/gamla-uppsala-museum/en/
Gunnes Gård, Ryttargatan 272B, 19471 Upplands Vӓsby, Sweden https://www.upplandsvasby.se/gunnes-gard
The Viking Museum, Djurgårdsstrand 15, 115 21 Stockholm, Sweden www.thevikingmuseum.com
Swedish History Museum, Historiska, Narvavägen 13-17, 114 84 Stockholm, Sweden
Everything in the exhibition is available to view online: www.vikingar.historiska.en
Boats to Birka are operated by www.stromma.com and operate from May to October
M/S Mӓlar leaves from Klara Mӓlarstrand, Stockholm mooring 3
Guides your boat ticket to Birka includes your guided tour service. If you are interested in bespoke tour contact Sweden History Tours: swedenhistorytours.se or Kalle, the guide and runestone carver: kalle@runristare.se
Further information Visit Sweden www.visitsweden.com
Photo credits Women at Gamla Uppsala and Boat arrival at Birka – Visit Sweden; all other photos London Unattached
