Västerås is an historically important city of about 100,000 people situated on a finger of Lake Mälaran. The word västerås can be roughly translated as western ridge. The town is first noted in 1120 and became an early religious center. Although Stockholm is about 100 kilometers away, Lake Mälaren provides water transportation between Stockholm, Uppsala, Västerås, Vadstena, and other important Swedish historical sites.
In the middle 1500's it was at the Västerås castle that King Vasa assumed the throne, and decided to make Lutheran the official religion of Sweden. The Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) was held here on a number of occasions in the 1500's. Västerås has its Gamla Stan with narrow steep cobbled lanes that we navigated the husbil through while trying to find a parking lot. Battles were fought here when King Vasa was trying to drive the Danes from Sweden, and recent construction has uncovered piles of bones from the soldiers who died in those bloody fights.
In Västerås is the famous Domkyrka
(Cathedral) where many important events took place. This is where Len's ninth
great grandfather, Johannes Rudbeckius, was Bishop in the 1600's.
A statue of Johannes by Carl Mills (the most famous Swedish sculptor) stands in front of the Domkyrka.
The Mills statue has an angel whispering in Johannes ear Or, maybe Johannes is giving advice to the angel?
The interior of the Domkyrka is in
the traditional gothic style. It contains the tombs of many important Swedes
including Erik XIV (the crazy king). 
Many of the tombs and memorials are decorated with elaborate sculptures, plaques, and epitaphs. Although the Domkyrka has been added to and remodeled many times, parts of it date back to the 13th century.
Underneath a memorial stained glass window in an otherwise dark section of the
Domkyrka are the tombs of Johannes Rudbeckius and his son Nikolas Rudbeckius.
Nikolas followed Johannes as Bishop, and was Len's eighth great grandfather.
Just down the street from the Domkyrka is a town square that has a delightful sculpture depicting a group of elderly bicycle riders.
On an arm of the very complicated shoreline of Lake Mälaren is Sigtuna, one of Swedens oldest towns. We had been traveling around Sweden for about five days at this point, and never saw any crowds of people, anywhere. We chalked it up to the midsummer holiday, and decided everyone must be at home celebrating. But, the tiny village of Sigtuna was crowded!
Sigtuna is a small town (population 5,000) on one of the many arms of Lake Mälaran, and boasts the oldest street in Sweden. The town has been around since before the year 1000 BC. On the day we were there it was hard to find a place to park, and hard to navigate the streets because of all of the people strolling around. We finally parked near the ruins of an ancient church, and walked around the narrow town streets. Because this is a popular tourist attraction, there are many shops in the old part of town. There is a nice park along the shore, and many folks were to be seen launching or removing their boats for trips around the lake.
While walking around town we discovered a small cabin that was built in the old style, including a sod roof. We were too late in the day to see them, but apparently demonstrations were put on here showing some of the traditional crafts and iron making that took place in this area a thousand or so years ago.
From Sigtuna, we drove to the Euro Stop near Arlanda airport north of Stockholm. We made this our headquarters for visits to Stockholm.
We had three days to see Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, with a population of around one million. Once again we were frustrated by our limited time. It would be easy to spend three weeks in Stockholm and not see everything. Our Stockholm visit however, was special because here we met the first of Len's distant email contact cousins.
We made phone contact with Christer
Lindgren (another descendent of Johannes Rudbeckius) and agreed to meet him at
a hotel where there would be room to park the husbil.
Chris is a native of Stockholm, and even though it was a rainy Sunday morning,
he was able to show us some of the highlights of the city. We did a quick
driving tour of Gamla Stan, visited the Gallieria mall, and had a wonderful
lunch at the Operakällaren's Restaurant. Chris is the kind of person that
makes you feel like you are old friends.
The next day we drove about 3
kilometers from the Euro Stop to the Märsta train station, and rode with the
commuters to the Stockholm Central Station.
We met with Mats Naslund, who is the one who got Len hooked on genealogy in
the first place, and who was indirectly responsible for our taking the trip.
He was always helpful in providing information on renting the husbil, and
traveling in Sweden.
Mats is working on a Ph.D. in
Cryptography at the National Technological Institute in Stockholm, and is
another of Len's distant cousins. He led us on a nice excursion through Gamla
Stan. Here you see Len and Mats on the narrowest street in town. You can reach
out and touch the walls on both sides of the street at the same time. Then we
went over to the Djurgårdon
island where the Wasa Museum is located.
The Wasa is a warship built in the
1600's; it sailed for about a half an hour before sinking. Was it top heavy?
Did someone forget to close the gun ports? Or was the original design changed
after the designer died? The blame was never established. It rested below the
cold water until the 1960's when it was raised. The Swedes have been working
on preserving and restoring it ever since. It now rests inside a museum built
especially for preserving this unique ship. It is amazing beyond description. 
The number and quality of wood carvings that decorate the ship, along with the
degree of preservation, make it a must see for any Stockholm visit.
The Wasa is on the same island as
Skansen. This is an open air museum where buildings from all parts of Sweden,
and representing many historical eras. are located. People dress in
appropriate costumes and help interpret the early life and times of Sweden.
Diana caught these young dancers posing for pictures. 
The island is also the location of a Nordic museum and amusement park that we
did not have time to visit.
On our third day in Stockholm we saw the changing of the guard at the palace,
toured the Swedish Parliament,
had a nice lunch in a cafe located in an underground grotto,
and took the All Around Stockholm boat ride. And took in many other sights. There are many that we did not have time for.
Stockholm is built on 24 islands, and is located where Lake Malaren enters the Baltic Sea. The boat trip traveled through two locks and under 15 bridges, and provided a good perspective from which to view the city. The Swedes are very protective of their environment and it is possible to fish for salmon in downtown Stockholm.
On the train ride to and from Märsta, we noticed that almost every flat surface (signs, small buildings, electrical boxes, etc.) were covered with graffiti. This was the only thing in Sweden that was other than well kept and clean. On one train ride we sat next to a fellow from Nigeria who was talking to some girls from Turkey, and another African who had lived for a time in Chicago. In the next row of seats a conversation in Spanish was taking place. These people were not tourists but were recent immigrants.
The Euro Stop where we were staying was between Stockholm and Uppsala, so it was an easy trip to our next major stop. The original settlement in the Uppsala area (around 500BC) was built by the Svea tribe from which Sweden takes its name. Christians built churches here in the 1100's and the first Swedish university was started here in 1477. The great cathedral (domkyrka) here contains the tomb of King Gustav Vasa (the same Gust Erickson who drove out the Danish King Christian and started modern Sweden).
We had an excellent personal guided tour of Uppsala by Marta Ronne, a Ph.D. student majoring in literature. Len had made email contact with Marta as a result of discovering articles she had written that mentioned Johannes Rudbeckius.
Her office is in the Castle that was started by Gustav Vasa, completed by his children, and is the very same place from which Queen Christina (daughter of Gustavus Adolphus) abdicated. Imagine studying the history of women's literature and having your office in such a place.
Marta was born and raised in
Uppsala and provided us with many stories of events that took place in the
area.
A major figure in the history of
Uppsala was Olof Rudbeck, a son of Johannes Rudbeckius. Olof was a professor
of medicine, botanist, engineer, scientist, and at one time chancellor of the
University. 
Right across the street from the
domkyrka is this building with an unusual dome.
The dome contains the first operating theater in Sweden and was designed and
built by Len's Uncle Olof. The building now houses a very interesting museum.
The Castle was built on a hill so that it would be higher than the church (the King believed that he was more important) and below the Castle is a large botanical garden originally designed by Uncle Olof.
One of Olofs followers was Carl Linne, the father of modern botany, who later added to the extensive collection. Olof attempted to create a book that would contain all known plants and flowers. He had a collection of 16,000 woodcuts to be used in the production of the book, but most of them were lost in a great fire that destroyed much of the city in 1702.
If you know the Black Eyed Susan,
you may
know that the scientific name is Rudbeckia. The name was given to the flower
by Carl Linne in memory of Olof Rudbeck. So, Len has decided that Rudbeckia is
the official Nasman family flower.
There is a smaller botanical garden
near downtown Uppsala with a museum dedicated to Carl Linne that contains this
bronze statue.
Although again there was more to
see, it was time to move north toward Sundsvall, about 200 kilometers away. We
headed up highway E4 and came on a nice Rastplats beside a lake north of Gävle
where we spent the night.
