Uppsala

Here's another travel blog "tradition" thanks to Colin: a fascinating street sign. Apparently there's a beloved story in Uppsala about a cat that lost its tail. I wish I could remember more of the story but I've heard a lot of stories today...

This morning, I caught the 8:30 bus to the train station where I met Klas. We rode the train to Uppsala which is a gorgeous town -- many flowers, beautiful old buildings, very attractive people (many of whom remind me of slimmer versions of my students in Oshkosh). We met first with Lars Tornstam, a very well known social gerontologist. He invited several of his research colleagues to join us and the conversation was very interesting, ranging over many topics related to various studies of older persons. Next, we walked to a place where we joined a group from a new organization being established in Uppsala -- the Newman Institute, which is being run by a very tall, handsome, incredibly bright, nice Jesuit priest from Germany. They showed us around their new quarters (in a very old building) and then we went to lunch. There were 8 of us at the table, plus one 11 month old. There work is quite interesting, given the fact that Catholics have not been exactly welcomed in Sweden for about the past 5 centuries! Lunch was in a very old restaurant, and we sat in a room that had been the PRISON for misbehaving students from Uppsala University (which is over 500 years old).

We took the train back to Stockholm and then rode a "trolley" (really a fancy above ground train) around to take in the sights of the city. We stopped for coffee and I bought a sandwich to bring back to my room -- the earliest I've returned so far in this trip (about 7 p.m.). I'm trying to organize my bags for the early morning departure for Oslo tomorrow. I have accumulated many books and papers...