A year ago, I went to Sweden with the idea of spending a little more time in Stockholm than a one-day cruise ship stop allowed me years before. I really like Stockholm and its different neighborhoods, its surroundings (water!), and its old town. But, as part of this short trip, I also felt the urge to explore what lay beyond Stockholm – off the beaten path Sweden, if you will. What was the countryside like? What were its smaller towns like? How was nature inland (versus on the coast)?
So a plan was concocted for a day trip around the countryside, starting and ending in Stockholm while “circumdriving” (I just made that word up) Lake Mälaren. The only stop we had planned on doing that day would be on the way back to Stockholm: Uppsala, a charming college town not far from Stockholm. But we did realize we would have to stop somewhere around lunchtime to eat, and also we realized we may make short stops should we see something interesting. Both of those combined when we decided to jump off the highway as we drove west of Stockholm on the E-20 highway when we spotted what seemed a large town in the area: Eskilstuna.
I will be the first to admit that I had never heard of this town. Not surprisingly for a non-Swede, I suppose. Eskilstuna’s population is over 67,000 inhabitants as of 2015 (so larger by 2.5 times than Andorra’s capital which I recently visited!). The history of the town takes it back to medieval times when an English monk named Eskil made the existing tiny town his home; he was killed by pagan Vikings and he is now a saint buried in a monastery in the area. By now, it is a very industrial town (at some point it was known as “The City of Steel”) but it was not dirty at all, as one pictures towns with heavy industry (picture Pittsburgh in the 1980s, for example). We passed a Volvo plant of some sort in getting there and other factories / heavy industry sites.
Its main square was pretty and very spacious but, at the time, I did not see any “café” life.
The main square of Eskilstuna: large, clean and empty
Looking out onto the square
However, we did find a great pizza shop (Redfellas) on the main square after exploring first the pedestrian shopping street in the heart of the town. Not a quaint or charming street, just a regular shopping street. I could see Redfellas being very lively at night given its spaciousness and decor; sadly, I was not staying intown overnight.
The old building where Redfellas is located
At Redfellas
The town’s church, Klosters Kyrka, dating from the 1920s, certainly looked a little different than the ones I am used to and that made it interesting but we skipped checking it out as we were wanting to keep moving on our day trip. The view towards it was graced by a statue celebrating the workers which made for a great foreground to the picture below.
Looking towards Klosters Kyrka (Church) with the town’s plaza behind me.
Eskilstuna may not be a tourist destination per se but it was an opportunity to see beyond the well-trodden places in Sweden and peek at a “non-descript” (pardon me, Eskilstunians!) town.
Pin to your travel board for off the beaten path places to explore!
