Day 8: 8/3: Uppsala and Relatives

      Despite barely half a day in Stockholm, we snuck in a quick run this morning and were off to Uppsala to visit distant relatives and check out the town. Ingegerd and Lars are something like 4th cousins once removed but have met a lot of my relatives and even traveled to the U.S. for a couple family reunions and to visit Pete and Kirsten. I had gotten their contact info from Kirsten, and knew all this, but even so as we boarded the train, I had this thought of what the heck are we doing visiting a couple of random people that we've never met.

     The visit turned out to be a highlight of the trip. They met us at the station and while neither one of us knew what the other looked like, they were clearly looking for someone and we were clearly looking for someone, so it wasn't that hard to meet up. We spent the day with them, first meandering through the campus and checking out the Cathedral. It was cool to learn about Uppsala's history. So much of it; what a storied university. It was even cooler to converse with Ingegard and Lars; connecting on everything from politics to cultural differences, and family ties. 

     They drove us out to the old Uppsala with some viking mounds and a church that dated back to something like 1200. Also really cool to check out. They also served us an excellent dinner of pork loin and a great dessert. The only regret was deciding when to take the train back. We were waffling a bit and decided on a train that made it a tighter time schedule than I really calculated, which made it a bit of a rush to get there. To the point that Ingegerd was having some trouble keeping up. And on top of this, the rain set in, basically out of nowhere. It was a very unfortunate way to end such a great meeting of distance relatives.