An Afternoon in Uppsala, Sweden
aka: the perfect daytrip from Stockholm
Hej hej, friends, happy weekend! I hope this post finds you well rested, correctly caffeinated, and, ideally, in your coziest pair of fluffy socks. I’m interrupting your Sunday for just the briefest of times to share my short-but-sweet latest guide with you: An Afternoon in Uppsala, Sweden. In case you missed it, Husband and I travelled to Sweden back in November last year and fell totally head-over-heels for the place — it’s stunning! We spent four glorious days there: three were spent eating our way around Stockholm, and one was spent exploring the university city of Uppsala. If you missed my Stockholm guide you can catch the link here, but today’s post is all about Uppsala! Shall we?
Listed below is everything we got up to during our afternoon exploring the city. As per usual, I’ve divided the guide up into three familiar categories: getting there / where we ate / where we tourist-ed.
Enjoy, friends!
getting there
Getting to Uppsala from Stockholm is a breeze! Here’s how we made the journey:
from Stockholm Central Station, we purchased two train tickets at the desk bound for Uppsala Central. The tickets cost 140SEK each, and, seeing as there was no discount for buying return tickets, we opted to only get one-ways as we weren’t sure what time we’d want to leave Uppsala at.
the train departed Stockholm Central at 9:37am and arrived into Uppsala Central a speedy 38-minutes later. The journey was comfortable, with some lovely views of the Swedish countryside along they way.
Uppsala Central is about a 10-minute stroll away from the city centre.
for our journey back to Stockholm a few hours later, I downloaded the SJ app and purchased two tickets through that. We were going to buy them at a desk in Uppsala Central, but the guy at the desk told us it was cheaper to just get the app & buy them online, so that’s exactly what we did! Okay, at 120SEK each this time ‘round, the saving was small — but every little helps! Would recommend.
according to the internet, there are 75-93 trains going between the two cities every day, and the travel time varies between 38- to 49-minutes depending on what train you get. For more info on trains to Uppsala, click here. If you’re looking for info about getting the bus to Uppsala instead, click here.
where we ate
Kafferummet Storken // the best find ever! In search of a quick lunch before our journey back to Stockholm, some very solid Google reviews led me here and we were very pleasantly surprised! Think Serendipity kind of vibes: cutesy exterior, antique lighting fixtures, mismatching furniture, tables with cozy armchairs/couches etc., it was so cute! Together with a coffee & a hot chocolate with whipped cream, we shared a large baguette loaded with salami, brie, cucumber salad and green peppers for lunch, and a Snickers traybake for lunch-dessert 😉 Everything was fantastic! The baguette was ahh-mazing, the traybake was so chocolatey and moreish, and as an added bonus, everything was super cheap! A must visit. Address: Stora TORGET 3, 753 20 Uppsala
where we tourist-ed
Listed below is everywhere we stopped for a light spot of culture during our handful of hours in town.
Uppsala Cathedral // a gorgeous cathedral! It happened to start drizzling as we were entering the cathedral, so our visit here was perfectly timed. The inside was as calm and beautiful as you’d expect: impressive gothic architecture, smaller chapels within the vastness of the cathedral as a whole, stained glass windows, and tombs of past Swedish royals. There was also a fascinating video art installation showing when we visited, which highlighted the thin veil between the realms of the living and the dead. Seeing as our visit coincided with our one-year wedding anniversary, we lit a candle for our future together ❤️ Fun fact: this is the tallest church in all of Scandinavia! Would recommend. Address: Domkyrkoplan, 753 10 Uppsala
Ingmar Bergman’s childhood home // not something for every tourist, perhaps, but certainly one for this film-loving couple! Bergman, who is widely considered to have been one of the greatest film directors of all time(!), was an Uppsala native — it would’ve just been rude to visit and not pay homage! An informative plaque at the property read: ‘Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) spent large parts of his childhood in this house. The environment provided inspiration for several of his plays and films. The house was built in 1887-88 and owned by his grandfather Johan Åkerblom (1844-1919). Bergman’s grandmother Anna Åker-blom (1864-1934) lived here until her death’. For film nerds, would recommend. Address: Trädgårdsgatan 12, Uppsala
Uppsala Castle // the city’s very own pink castle, perched on a hill overlooking the whole town below. Less castle-y looking than I was expecting — maybe Vianden’s Castle has knocked my perspective out of whack? — but still pretty cool looking. We didn’t actually go inside, but we enjoyed wandering the grounds & taking in the views of Uppsala from on high. Would recommend. Address: Slottet, 752 37 Uppsala
Botanical Garden // a very lovely spot for a stroll! We made our way down into the Botanical Garden from the Castle, and it was so pretty! We wandered around, admiring the flowers and pretending we knew more than we really did — you know how it is. We also saw a couple getting their wedding photos taken in the garden, which was trippy because it was our wedding anniversary! Maybe November 9th is a popular wedding day? Crazy! Would recommend. Address: Villavägen 6-8, 752 36 Uppsala
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo location spotting // at the risk of sounding like this film’s biggest fan, we didn’t actually seek this location out! We literally just happened to be walking down this street and the two of us were like “wait… does this look familiar to you?” I swear! The street above is the location for the Children’s Parade in the movie, which is a big point of the storyline because it’s the last known sighting of the girl before she goes missing. In case you missed it, we actually did seek out some TGWTDT film locations in Stockholm; click here to see where we went movie tourist-ing! Address: 11 Drottninggatan, Uppsala
English Bookshop // we stumbled across this store by chance on our way back to the train station and thought it was rather lovely. Delightfully quirky, it was packed to the brim with all manner of books, haphazardly stacked in towering piles dotted around the place. A pleasant place to while away a little extra time in town! Would recommend. Address: Svartbäcksgatan 19, 753 32 Uppsala
And there we have it, friends: An Afternoon in Uppsala, Sweden! A short yet sweet recap of everything we got up to in the university city. Have you visited Uppsala before? I’m so glad we explored a little bit more of Sweden while we had the chance!
Hugs,
Vicki xo
*Date of trip: 9th November, 2024*
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