Uppsala

Uppsala is 70 km north of Stockholm and about 20 minutes from Arlanda airport. It is Sweden's fourth largest city and revolves around Uppsala University, founded in 1477, the oldest in the Nordic countries. Students on bicycles, academic buildings and the student nations—associations with their own premises and 17th-century traditions—set the pace of the centre.

The river Fyris cuts through the city. On the west bank are the Domkyrka, the Gothic cathedral with pointed towers, the largest church in Scandinavia, where King Gustavo Vasa and the botanist Lineu are buried; the Gustavianum, the university's old building with a 17th‑century anatomical theatre; the Universitetshuset, with the ceremonial hall; and the Carolina Rediviva library, which houses the Bíblia de Prata, a 6th‑century Gothic manuscript. On the hill above, Gustavo Vasa's pink castle overlooks the city and the Jardim Botânico.

Lineu, the scientist who created the system of scientific names for species, lived and taught here. The garden he laid out, the Linnéträdgården, was rebuilt according to the original plans beside the house where he lived, now a museum. Five kilometres from the centre, Gamla Uppsala contains three large royal mounds from the 5th and 6th centuries, a medieval church and a museum about the pre‑Viking and Viking eras, when it was the religious centre of the Swedes.

Uppsala works well as a day trip from Stockholm, but it also makes a good first or last night of a trip because of its proximity to Arlanda. On the last day of April, Valborg gathers thousands of students in the streets and on the river to celebrate the arrival of spring.

This destination brings together 1 city: Uppsala.