June 23, 2025
Mid morning our ferry arrived in Stockholm and we headed to the hotel to drop our bags. Then we headed out to explore the city. We took the Hop on Hop off bus to get an overview of what areas we wanted to visit.
Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, encompasses 14 islands and more than 50 bridges on an extensive Baltic Sea archipelago. We are definitely heading back to the Old Town area as the brightly covered building intrigue me. I took a few pictures to show you the flavor of the city but since I was on a bus not the best pictures.
For the evening we headed out on a wildlife safari and midsummer meal adventure. Just a few miles outside of Stockholm city limits it becomes rural. Lush green fields and dense forest. Our first stop was an old burial ground that included a rune stone.
Then we headed to an old home where we set up for a picnic dinner that included all of the traditional food that are served for the celebration of Midsummer, the longest day of the year. When you are in darkness for 3 months you have to celebrate the long days. The wild flowers that surrounded the home we so fragrant and beautiful.
It started raining while we were eating but we kept eating and sharing stores.
After we packed up all of the gear we headed out in the rain in search of wildlife. We saw deer but they were too far away to get pictures. A mom and her two babies were so fun to watch as the babies romped through the field.
We came across a field that had two Highland cows and two babies. I have been in love with these cows since I was on Scotland.
Our last stop of the evening was at a castle that had a beautiful lake. It was almost 11pm and the daylight was just fading. Because of the rain there was a bit of a fog on the water. Folklore refers to this as Fairy Dancing.
It was almost midnight when you got back to the hotel so a very long days but a great introduction to Sweden.
