Despite travelling more or less full-time, it’s not often that we get to go on a real holiday. Our trip to Stockholm last month, unusually, felt more like a holiday than any of our travels so far this year.
This was no doubt partly because for the first week of our visit, we were staying with friends who were themselves on holiday and had been for a while.
Here's what we did during our two week holiday in the summer in Stockholm.
On our first day, our friend insisted that we went for a swim in Lake Mälaren, the third largest lake in Sweden that feeds into the Baltic sea at Stockholm. Since it had been an especially hot day for Sweden (32C) the water was pleasantly warm but still refreshing. But we forgot our new triathlon goggles, which was quite a bummer.
The next day we went for a walk with our friend’s dog in the forest near Drottningholm Palace, the Swedish royal family’s residence out on Lovön island, on the western outskirts of the city…
…where we found wild raspberries growing!
At home, we cooked, relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company.
Later, when our friend’s husband came back to Stockholm from visiting his parents, we all took a drive out to Björnö peninsula and nature reserve, on the south of Varmdö island, where Stockholm’s archipeglo begins.
We walked through the forest…
…climbed over rocks
…and lounged by a tranquil lake.
Back in Stockholm, Pride Week began, and as well as meeting up with other Swedish friends and being lucky enough to see Conchita Wurst perform, we attended the pride parade and cheered on the various groups, especially the Proud Parents of LGBTQ Children.
In our second week in Stockholm, we moved to a suburb in the south to do our first ever housesit looking after three cats.
We worked a little harder than we had the previous week, but we managed to continue relaxing and enjoying the city, especially the proximity to nature.
Going for a swim in and walks around the lakes of Nacka nature reserve was a definite highlight of being out of the centre of Stockholm for me.
Another one was learning how to prepare a lot of new raw vegan recipes.
This was not my first visit to Stockholm, but rather my second, and Zab’s fourth, but it was the first time I’d really spent some time getting to know the city and its surroundings, and I can most definitely say that summer is the time to do that!
Largely due to our several friends in the city, but also just for the city itself, we thoroughly enjoyed our little slice of summer in Stockholm, and definitely plan to return.
We may just end up making it an annual event!
