Uppsala-Falun

Red Baron is getting older, so I vowed to stop flying four years ago and limit myself to rail travel in Europe.

Then came Corona and later the official trip of the city of Freiburg to our sister city in the US, Madison. So I decided to book my very last flight to Chicago, followed by the onward journey to Madison. Then it was to be the end of flying.

In early 2023, Professor Rudolf Denk told me about a cultural trip to Sweden with literature and landscape. We are both members of Freiburg's Museumsgesellschaft, and since bookings were slow at the beginning, he asked me to promote this trip on our website.

Long story short. Many members of the Museumsgesellschaft, including myself, signed up, and I may add right away that it was a very successful trip that took us to Stockholm, Uppsala, Falun, Mårbacka, Karstad, Karlskoga, Mariefred, and back to Stockholm from May 12 to 18.

My gentle readers may remember a Museumsreise, i.e., a three-day trip with the Museumsgesellschaft to central Switzerland. The highlight at that time was an open-air performance of William Tell, which impressed Elisabeth and me. Rudolf and his charming wife Christel had organized a fantastic trip then.

Will Swiss LX 1250 Zürich-Stockholm be my last flight?
The sparkling wine is from Geneva, where I spent 32 years of my professional life.

This time, too, we were not disappointed. Together with our "Scandinavian-phone" tour guide Tina, Rudolf, and Christal pulled off a program that led from one highlight to the next. The encounters we had, the information we got, and the photos we took were so dense and numerous that one blog is not enough to describe everything. Therefore, Red Baron will write a blog for each full day in Sweden, so the complete report will result in a pentalogy.

Uppsala, Cult site of the Vikings and of Knowledge

On our way to the cathedral: A house of 1666

After a first night in Uppsala, in the morning, we visited the Gothic St. Eric's Cathedral, which is the highest church building in Scandinavia at 118.7 meters.

The interior

In the center of the choir is a 1583 funerary monument to King Gustav I Wasa. He liberated the Swedish territory from the ruling Danes in 1520. The Swedish Riksdag elected Gustav Wasa hereditary king in 1523. Below the monument, he and his three not-at-the-same-time wives are buried in a crypt.

Mark 16: And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary,
the mother of James and Salome, got spices so that they might come
 and put them on him. And very early after dawn on the first day of the week,
they arrived at the time of the coming up of the sun to the place
where the body had been put. And they were saying among themselves,
 Who will get the stone rolled away from the door for us? And looking up,
they saw that the stone was rolled back; and was of great size.
They saw a young man[sitting on the right side]
clothed in a long white garment, and they were affrighted.

The visit to the University Library Carolina Redivida was the day's highlight because we were allowed to see the Codex Argenteus, also called the Wulfila Bible.

 

©Wikipedia

On his Nordic journey, Johann Gottfried Seume was still allowed to hold the remains of the Gothic Bible in his hands during his visit to Uppsala. By the way, today, May 22, is Goth Day.

 

The Codex's itinerary

The Lord's Prayer in Gothic

A group photo

The Viking is everywhere.

Looking back to St. Eric's.

Crossing Uppsala's river the Fyrisån

Carl Linnaeus smoking the Dutch pipe seen at the Carolina Redivida

One of Linnaeus' mottos from his Philosophia Botanica:
Everything is miraculous, even the commonplace.

At the Linnaeus Museum

A look at the Orangery with a copy of the Medici Venus.

Linnaeus on the sexuality of plants

Well deserved: A brygg kaffe and a pekannöt paj
(A brewed coffee and a pecan nut pie) at the Café Linné

Café Linné

Falun, Home of the Swedish Red

Before we gained our Falun hotel, we visited the Stora Kopparberg church and its graveyard.

Gravestone in the churchyard of Stora Kopparbergs kyrka: "In memory of miner Mats Israelsson, killed at work in the Falun mine, 1677." What makes this grave so particular?

The disappearance of miner Fet Mats Israelsson in the Falun mine in 1677, just before his wedding, and the finding of his corps in 1719 became a historical and literary event. His bride could identify the body almost entirely preserved in copper vitriol.

Among others, Johann Peter Hebel described the Faithful Love, "Gray and shriveled up, an old lady comes on a crutch, recognizes her bridegroom and sinks down more with joyful rapture than with pain on the beloved corpse."

View of Falun's ski jumps from my hotel window.

*