I’ve only had ten days in Sweden this year, but it’s been fun exploring new areas.

My friend Viveka is now living in the Småland region. She has a cottage in a beautiful rural area with lakes, forests and many traditional red buildings.

One weekend we found a medieval fest.

We couldn’t decide which bread to buy, so we took all three! Same with choosing between the red, white and striped beets!

We were happy to cook some great meals as eating out is eye-watering expensive (compared to countries I’ve just been in).

Eksjö is a well preserved wooden town that was close by.

Another day we drove into Jönköping. It started to pour with rain, so we did our Ikea stop first. And if you happen to be in Sweden, in IKEA, at lunch time….

Then it cleared enough to continue our tour.

Viveka combining colours of yarn for a project

On Friday we took the train three hours to Stockholm. The weather was a perfect sunny 21/22 all weekend.

Stockholm is buildings, bridges and boats! It is built on 14 islands with more than 50 bridges.

We walked miles but still took full advantage of our 72 hour transit pass that covered the buses, trams, metro and ferries.

Town Hall

Gamla Stan, the Old Town on a little island, has the castle, churches, narrow streets and tourists.

Changing of the Guard, with serious ‘crowd control’

Main train station

Tivoli entertainment park, from our ‘bus boat’

We also took Number 89 ‘bus boat’ to the end of the line and back for a relaxing two hour rest.

And another ‘relaxing’ break….

Looking up at the inside of these umbrellas would make any rainy day beautiful!

Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde is the home and museum of an artistic prince.

It’s not hard to be close to water here, but our hotel was on the edge of the Royal National City Park and overlooked a lake. The original buildings were full of character and the courtyard was a peaceful garden.

Markets selling ‘Swedish Gold’ chanterelles

Today is quiet day at home, doing our laundry and packing for our trip to Albania tomorrow. We have a 2.5 hour train ride to the Copenhagen airport, then a flight through Vienna. See you there!