This is something of a place of pilgrimage for biologists in general, and botanists in particular:…read morethe home and garden cared for Carl Linnaeus, the eminent Swedish physician and botanist, who developed the binomial Latin naming system that has since been used to identify all species of living organisms (e.g. Homo sapiens for modern humans). I visited first in 1984, while researching for my doctorate (in plant pathology), and recently on holiday. Although both the garden and house predate Linnaeus, the house was rebuilt for him in the 1740s, and it is laid out and furnished as it would have been in his time. As well as the domestic items, such as furniture (which is a bit limited), there are personal items connected to Linnaeus, including portraits, notebooks, his grant of ennoblement and some of his collections. The garden itself is laid out in classical taxonomic fashion, with related groups of plants located together. Despite this, it is still a lovely garden (it shows how a systematic taxonomic garden can still be beautiful. They knew how to do things in the 18th Century). A lovely spot to visit, it also has a small shop selling lovely botanically-related items.

Very nice and friendly staff who work there and educational historical things there there are…read moreinformation available in English and Swedish

As a museum I'm not sure this is really worth a trip. It's got three foci: ancient Egypt, the…read morehistory of the university, but the pièce de la résistance is the anatomical theater that is several centuries old. The Egypt part felt fairly common place with mummies and hieroglyphs (beautiful donations by the former Queen Victoria of Sweden from her excavations) that you have seen similar of elsewhere. The building is pretty worn and could need a new coat of paint here and there. The anatomical theater is amazing since it was used for a long time at the medical school to teach gross anatomy to the students. The education was standing only allowing for many students to watch the cuts, and the organs visible.

It was a decent museum, The anatomical theater and the wax skull are probably the only highlights…read morefor me. I'm not sure why they have a Egyptian section. Overall, it is only 50 SEK, you have no regret if you skipped it.

This is a great (and free) museum. Sadly, not much English, but I still enjoyed it and would…read moresuggest anyone visiting Galve to take time to see all the wonderful exhibits. I especially liked the textile exhibit collected by Hedvig Ulfsparres and the exhibit of items sailors brought back home on their travels which I believe was part of the "19th century in Gavleborg".. Also a beautiful collection of 17th to modern art to be enjoyed here. We traveled around Sweden a few months ago and yes, it's hard to compare to Stockholm's museums, but this museum is definitely a wonderful place to spend 2 or 3 hours if you are in Galve!

North of the nature reserve and Dalälven (the huge river that splits northern and southern Sweden),…read moreGysinge has a neat space with a great view of the river, educational displays, and a small restaurant. The Naturum is a free, small museum with educational displays about the geology, animals, and plants in the area. Most signs in the Naturum and around the area are in both Swedish and English. Outside, I'd recommend exploring the area near the creek. If you cross the tiny footbridge, you'll see the ruins of the defunct blacksmith. There is also a nice place to cook lunch between a powerful stream and the huge river. There is an overlook on the ruins themselves that put you over the river rapids themselves. It's hard to explain how incredible that is; check out my video! Overall, it's a great place to stop for a bit!

This place was amazing!…read more It's a hidden Baroque gem about a 45 minute drive from the center of Stockholm. This place is a very old and unique summer castle from the height of Sweden's age of power. I was so surprised at how cool this place was when we showed up! There's an unfinished ballroom that was closed up and untouched for hundreds of years. It looks like the workers building it just went to lunch and never came back. Apparently, this is one of the only places that you can see a real good example of such a thing. I also had no idea that there would be such a nice apple orchard open to the public! I recommend going in August or September so you get to pick some of them. We took so many apples home i'm still kinda wondering what to do with them... LOL! It's hard to keep reminding yourself how old everything in this castle really is! Just looking at the paintings of men standing in their old-school version of M.C. Hammer pants can help a little though, lol! It's a nice place to take your time wandering around in. I don't recommend the "housekeeping" tour other than the fact that you get a glimpse of the large library. They lied and said that they would try to do some english for me on the tour, but they didn't. I would've probably gone on the regular english speaking tour if I had known that. I also feel like it dragged on forever. Everyone with me said she was a weird tour guide who wanted a "discussion" rather than a tour and that she knew hardly anything about history or how to answer peoples questions. Another downside to the castle was the lack of gardens. They had images in the castle library that showed plans for expansive baroque gardens that were not actually on site. It would have been nice to see that either restored or imagined in person. I also think that the "docking area" for ships, that has been let to ruin, would have been nice to see in its restored state as well. The original home of the castle builder on the sight, which is even older than the castle, was also not available for viewing. Kind of a bummer! Apparently, they rent that building out as actual livable apartments. So, if your looking for a unique place to hang your hat you can check out www.sfv.se for a vacancy! The cafe staff were pleasant and helpful despite the food not being so great. I didn't think my caesar salad was very exciting. The other people with me got their overpriced waffles. My significant other went back for a second because it wasn't enough food for a filling lunch. But, we obviously did not come here for the food. On another note, the art exhibits surrounding the halls really didn't make a lot of sense being displayed throughout the castle and cluttering it up. It made it feel a little cheaper than it would've without all that crap. I still don't understand the artist's exhibit that was there at the time. The actual painter that was featured had no real paintings on site. It was just other unknown contemporary artists that were "inspired from his works" so far as I could tell. Strange. What I thought was the coolest thing in the building was the Armory. It's freaking huge! They had such an enormous collection on site, I was thoroughly impressed. It's definitely a must see. I love how everything hanging in a real setting makes it feel so much more relatable than if it were just sitting in a museum. Standing there you could picture being one of the men that could just grab one of those suits and a sword to go do whatever knights go do. :) VERY COOL!