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. It was built in the early 12th century, but the ruins here have been best preserved and maintained (compared to the other church ruins in town). That means you'll see some modern touches, meant to preserve the integrity of the structure so it can be enjoyed for years to come. A modern church has been built just next to the ruins, and a cemetery spans the grounds of both the modern church and the church ruins. It's peaceful here and beautiful to see the skies through the ruins of St. Olof's. Well worth a visit if you visit Sigtuna.

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!

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!

If a visit to Stockholm allows enough time to get out of the city for part of a day, I can't…read moreimagine a better diversion than a visit to this castle. Our ferry left from the western terminal, giving us a different view of the Royal Castle as we left. The boat ride also gives you water views of the Prince Eugene museum, the "God our Father on the Rainbow" statue/fountain, spectacular summer houses on the archipelago, and a look at some of the prettiest ships I've ever seen. After arriving in Vaxholm, we wandered the town and found a lovely lunch under a tent just steps from the dock. Our daughter (the local expert) tells me that with such a short tourist season, restaurants in Sweden won't survive if they don't provide quality and value to the locals. So, we never encountered a 'tourist trap' restaurant, no matter how close it was to any kind of attraction. A small, cable guided ferry takes you from the town to the castle itself. Vaxholm sits on one of the major shipping lanes into Stockholm, and the castle was built to protect the city from unwanted visitors. Most of what you find inside is a museum outlining the history of the protection of Sweden's coastline. Swedish museums have a delightful tendency to include little things that will frighten visitors, and this one was no exception. I won't include any spoilers, but it made my wife gasp, and then laugh. As a way of feeling like you are leaving the tourist center of the country, and are truly seeing part of Sweden, this is an amazing way to spend a summer afternoon.

Visited this island fortress based on recommendation from friends. Spent ~2 hours here during a…read moreday-trip from Stockholm. Transportation: Need to take ferry from Vaxholm but is just 2 minutes from mainland (could've been easily swimmable). Ferry goes around fortress (within less than 10 minutes) as a scenic route on way to island and goes back direct (2 minutes) on return trip. Museum: Good explanation of historical importance of town and fortress. Exhibits are all in Swedish but translated guide is provided in English. Bit difficult to cross-reference guide with exhibits and not all of them had translations. -1 star because there was enough room on walls to provide English directly on exhibits. 15 minute film provides museum overview, but it plays on loop without ability to rewind/pause - inconvenient depending on when arriving. We spent 1 hour in the museum, but it would have taken 1 hour more to go through in detail. Tower: Climb the tower nearest to the bed & breakfast for a great view of the town. 130 steps but well worth it. There is a bed and breakfast and café with tempting menu for those wishing to remain on the island for longer. Bottom Line: Make a trip to see this place if you 5 hours+ for a day trip from Stockholm.

We went here on a group tour and toured two rooms: The Blue Room, where all of the Nobel Prizes…read moreare awarded (except for the Peace Prize, which is awarded in Olso, Norway) and the Golden Room, where the Nobel Prize reception takes place. Construction took twelve years, from 1911 to 1923. Nearly eight million dark red bricks were used. The Blue Room was supposed to be covered with blue marble, but the designer liked the bricks so much, the marble brick facade was never installed. The staircase to the organ and the balconies are made from a beautiful green marble from Sweden. The floor is a light grey limestone, and the columns are made from a red and green marble from Sweden The Golden Room has walls that are covered with more than 18 million pieces of gold and glass mosaic, created by the artist Einar Forseth. The mosaics contain approximately 18 kilograms (40 lbs) of 23.5-carat gold leaf. As of today, that's 2.25 million US dollars worth of gold. The mosaics represent the history of Sweden, as well as Swedish values. It's hard to describe what this banquet room for the Nobel Prize winners look like, so I recommend viewing the photos I've attached, or better yet, go to the City Hall's website and view this movie: https://stadshuset.stockholm/stadshuset-play/stadshusets-salar-en-digital-visning-av-stadshuset/. It's in Swedish, but you'll get the idea. A visit to a City Hall sounds boring, and many times it is. However, this is WELL worth a visit, when you are in Stockholm. I promise you will be impressed.

Designed by Ragnar Östberg, Stokcholms Stadshus (Stockholm City Hall) is a STUNNER. We reserved a…read moretour of the interior and purchased tickets that allow us to climb up to the top of the tower for the views. But the architecture of city hall? Incredible. Completed in 1923, it seems so much older. And each space in City Hall is so different, with different architectural styles, inspirations, and decor. This is the kind of building you buy books about. A 45-minute tour just isn't long enough! If they had a two hour tour, I'd have taken it. They release the tickets either the week of or the week before, but they still fill out. The tour groups are large, which limits the spaces you can see, but I'm still so glad we were able to get tickets for a tour of this amazing building! You learn about the building, the architect, the building's connection to the Nobel Prize...! And it's just incredibly stunning, too. One of the highlights of our time in Stockholm.