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!

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!

Sigtuna was founded in AD 980 by Erik the Victorious, making it Sweden's oldest town. It's famous…read morefor its remarkably well-preserved main street - 'Stora Gatan' - which still runs along its original route, its church ruins, and for having more runestones than anywhere else in Sweden, and the rest of the world. So we decided to spend our last morning in Sweden in Sigtuna (since it's only a 15 minute or so drive to Stockholm airport from Sigtuna). A walk past several of the church ruins was definitely on my to do list while we were in town. We started at St. Olof's, then walked over to St. Lars, and ended at St. Per's. St. Olof's and St. Lars' were built in the early 12th century, but St. Per's was built at the end of the Viking Age in the late 11th century, making the St. Per's ruins one of Sweden's oldest stone buildings. St. Per's has been preserved in a similar manner to St. Olof's - there are arches to walk under and chambers to walk through. It's incredible to stand at a place that old, that has stood for so many centuries. Don't miss the runestone at the site as well. Don't miss this remarkable site if you're exploring Sigtuna.

These ruins are quite interesting to view, even though they are currently fenced off due to safety…read moreconcerns. The outline of the structure is still quite apparent. The majesty of the building is not hard to imagine as the immense stone facade must have been impressive, especially at a time when stone construction was rare. If you are in Sigtuna, it is worth a stroll to this site to get a look.

Uppsala Slott/Uppsala Castle is a 16th century royal castle in Uppsala. We visited last week when…read morewe were in Uppsala for the day. The castle is home to a couple of museums - the Uppsala Art Museum and the Vasaborgen ("Vasa Fortress"), a museum in the ruins of the original foundation of the 1549 royal apartments. We didn't visit the museums, but we did climb up the hill to the castle and walked around its perimeter. I took a lot of photos of the castle and of the views from the castle. It's a great viewpoint of the whole city, so even if you don't have time to or interest in visiting the museums in the castle, it's worth a visit!

A fun little excursion outside of Stockholm. And well connected by transit / ferry so it's pretty…read moreconvenient. I took the palace tour which really added to the experience- I think without the tour it would be a lot less enjoyable. The palace itself is large but the open parts don't take that long to go through, so getting a detailed verbal history helped a lot. The palace interior is beautiful and has a lot of interesting history, and the palace gardens and grounds are nice for a nature walk. Entering the palace and getting the tour aren't super expensive and are worth the price, but I around to a little annoying that there's so many little add on charges to see the other parts - specifically the Chinese pavilion and the theater.

Drottningholm Palace, one of Sweden's royal palaces, is where King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia…read morehave resided since 1981. We took a Stromma boat tour that took us from Stockholm out to the palace and back (with a two-hour block for exploring the palace and its grounds). The interior and the grounds are beautiful, and we enjoyed our two hours of exploring. The tour is self-guided, so you can wander at your own pace. With a charming cafe at the palace, I wish we'd had a little more than two hours, so we didn't have to choose between time at the cafe and continuing to explore the grounds! I recommend getting a guide book to the palace or using the audio guide, because there aren't many signs explaining about the history or architecture of the palace, but the rooms you can tour are beautiful, and the grounds are lovely, too. Overall, I highly recommend visiting the palace, whether by boat or by car if you have one while you're visiting Stockholm!