Sweden and Estonia
- seanick9
- Jul 17
- 8 min read
Sweden
While in Sweden, I went on a Viking History tour as I’ve been interested in Viking history since watching the Vikings series!
A large part of this tour was viewing locations of events in Viking history that were commemorated in Runestones, which made the history more tactile and visual, even though it was so far removed. Sweden’s history as a country seems quite intertwined with the history of the Vikings - even though the Viking era largely came to an end in the mid thirteenth century, many of the family lines continued on, with some countries still being ruled by Viking descendants.
The tour started around Vallentunasjon, a lake just north of Stockholm, where many runes have been discovered over the years. We stopped at a couple of historical places that had runestones and some signs describing their place in history. This area is called the Kingdom of Runes given the number and variety of them that have been found.
Jarlabanke runestones
Jarlabanke was a chieftain in Vallentuna, who owned much of the land around this lake and built a bridge there. We visited the spot of the bridge where many of the runestones were stood along a path, along with some signs describing his family tree and other discoveries around the area. Jarlabanke is a well known historical figure, partly because he made many runestones to himself, which was not super common in the Viking era. Often, runestones were memorials to folk who had passed, rather than folk who were still alive. As a result many folk believe that Jarlabanke was quite self-important, but as he had so many runestones constructed for himself and his family over generations, historians have been able to use his stones to fill in more details of Viking history, such as the spread of Christianity and attaching specific timeframes to known events in history
Arkils tingstad
The gathering place - there were two runestones here that described the purpose of the place as well as some of the events that occurred here. Councils would meet in a circle of stones, and were often used for votes to make decisions for the town or kingdom. Much like the supreme court in the US, these councils always had an odd number of stones in the circle so as to avoid a tie.
Vallentuna kyrka (church)
Christian churches were being built all over Sweden around the same time as Vikings were ruling the land, so early churches often had Viking runestones in part of their construction. Vallentuna church had such runestones and was also a part of the history here. We couldn’t go in as there was a ceremony there at the time.
Sigtuna
After visiting Vallentuna, we continued north to Sigtuna, and spent some time there walking around and grabbing a bite to eat. Afterwards, we met at St Olofs ruins which were built around 1100 - the guide talked a bit about the history of the church itself, and the unmarked grave inside it which was probably one of the clergy. There are runes in the construction of the church and it was built in honor of Olav who was the Norwegian Viking king around the year 1000.
St Mary's church is also in the same area but was built starting in 1230, considerably more modern architectural style.
Gamla Uppsala (or Old Uppsala) was our next stop, and we visited the Gamla Uppsala church which was a location both of the pagan church when early Norse religion was making a resurgence, as well as the archbishop of Sweden later after the Christians took back the throne. Of interest, the scientist Anders Celsius (who defined the Celsius scale for temperature, though originally backwards) is buried there - underneath the middle of the church- alongside his grandfather. Outside the church we heard about Saint Erik, his crusades to bring Christianity to Finland and his assassination in Uppsala by the troops of his rival Magnus Hendrikson.
We also visited the barrows of Gamla Uppsala and heard the stories about how these were rumored to be the burial mounds for the Norse gods Thor, Odin and Freyr. Obviously folk were skeptical and in more recent history (mid 19th century) excavations were done to see if these really were burial mounds or just natural formations. In fact, they were burial mounts, and clearly of some form of royalty given the adornments found.
Our last stop was Uppsala, at the Uppsala Cathedral, which was quite mind bogglingly large. They had many arcades that were built into the castle when it was catholic, but after the reformation, all of the saints were removed and they were replaced with important political figure’s casks, etc.
The guide talked a bit about the reformation, and how it was brought forth by King Gustav Erikson. We saw the “Catholic corner” of the church, which had the remains of Saint Erik in his relic casket, and the tomb of King Gustav and his three wives. Outside the cathedral are a few more runes from the area!
Quite a fun tour, and I learned a bit about Vikings, the roles the runes play in understanding that era of history and how many of these bloodlines continue on today, often in the highest levels of government and rule in northern Europe.
Vasa museum
What an interesting story. The Vasa was a ship that was commissioned by the king of Sweden, but which sunk on its inaugural voyage due to poor design combined with a variety of factors such as being overly loaded, under-ballasted and high winds. The Vasa museum is 5 levels, with many deep dives into things like the historical context of why the ship was built, what life on such a ship would be like, an analysis of the failures that led it it’s sinking, and descriptions of the boat itself such as it’s features and design.
Stockholm Archipelago Tour
This was just a two hour boat ride around some of the islands - the guide spoke in a number of different languages and the speakers on the boat weren’t that great, but it was fun to ride around the area and see some of the islands and sights near the center of the city.
Tallink Overnight Ferry
One of the motivating factors for this leg of our journey was actually this overnight cruise from Stockholm to Tallinn, Estonia. We’d heard from Anna’s sister that she had done the tour and had a great time, so when we were deciding where we should go next between Sweden, Denmark or somewhere else, this tipped the scale and made us choose Sweden (and Estonia!) I had no idea what to expect - Obviously this is a ferry through a large sea, and it accepts cars, so I was envisioning something slightly larger than a Washington State Ferry. I wasn’t sure what the cabins themselves would be like, though I did expect them to be small .. just an overnight cruise you wouldn’t need all the amenities, right?
Well, I was way off in what I imagined. This thing is literally a proper cruise ship, and a big one at that! We’re talking 12 decks, many restaurants, shops, music venues and casinos. It was still a bit toned down compared to our last cruise, on the Sun Princess, but the Baltic Queen greatly exceeded my expectations despite a bit of a mix-up on the bedding itself (there were no sheets or pillows for Emily to use, just a couch … but we were able to get that sorted pretty quick).
Emily loved the two kid play areas and spent as much time as we would let her there.
The restaurant we ate at had proper sit down meal service for dinner and a pretty solid buffet for breakfast.
Traveling along the Baltic Sea was pretty great too. I had no idea the scale of the islands in Stockholm’s archipelago - we just kept sailing by more and more islands with beachfront houses for hours before I went to bed.
Estonia
Tallinn was a place I knew literally nothing about, and had very little expectations. Anna, being in travel, knew more but even so we were unprepared for how beautiful and interesting we would find the city.
The main old town of Tallinn is surrounded by many fortifications, city walls and towers that had been in near constant use and construction since the 12th century. Due to its location near Russia, Finland, Sweden and the Baltic Sea, the city has seen many attacks and regime changes over the centuries, up to and until the fall of the Soviet Union. I won’t try to re-state all the history I read about as I’ll get most of it wrong, but I’ll at least share some info and pictures of the places we visited.
Four towers and Bastion museum
Kiek in de Kök
What an unfortunate name for a place! But it doesn’t mean what you think - Kiek in de Kok means “Peek into the kitchen!” which apparently is a common name for high towers and fortifications in Europe, as you’d easily be able to see into compounds above their walls, and see what folk were having for dinner!
At any rate, this tower is a 50 meter tall structure that had been constructed in 1475 and improved upon for hundreds of years, with 13 feet thick stone walls and many windows for cannons and guns to protect the city from invaders. The tower itself was turned into a museum in 1958.
Each floor was devoted to one era of history, with the armaments used during that era, some of the common uniforms worn and other info about the tower and its role in history. The bottom floor had info about the Brotherhood of the Black Heads, its role as city protectors and fire brigade.
Maiden Tower
The Maidens tower has been many things over the years, after the tower was no longer needed for fortification, it had been used as residences, art studios and is now a cafe and part of the museum.
Walls of Tallinn
There were at one point 46 towers in Tallinn though only 26 remain - this page had a lot of interesting info about them including some of which that have been destroyed. The walls themselves are interesting and some have passages where you can walk between the towers, and look down at the city below.
Bastion passages
As part of the fortification of the city, many hundreds of tunnels were constructed for defense, and they have played an active role in many conflicts over the years, including used as tunnels to escape German air raids in WW2. The entrance to the passage is a wet staircase down into the caves, and each section of the tunnel has some decor to show how its been used over the years, including recently as housing for homeless folk before they were swept and turned into a museum.
Katariina Kaik
St Catherine's Passage - a pretty little alley that has a monastery on one side and which recently has had a lot of art studios move in.
Headless chicken
While walking through Katariina Kaik, I heard someone say that they served mead here! So obviously I had to pop down for a taste.
Olde Hansa
Part of the charm of this city is its connection to the medieval history of the region, and Olde Hansa is a restaurant that serves a medieval feast, to bring you back to what living in that time of history may have been like (as a lord, of course, since peasants would not be able to eat so well). Quite a fun experience and would recommend a visit!
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