Stockholm, Sweden

In Älgö with Martin & Josefin, Eevery meal was
on this deck - made it easy to relax!

We had a pretty awful overnight flight from New York to Stockholm. Not sure what we were thinking when we booked that! We knew however, that we were in for a few days of relaxation in Stockholm so we were looking forward to that.

Both Tony and I spent time living in Sweden as exchange students. Tony was there many years before me! This wasn't how we met, but we discovered it very quickly and the fact that we can both use the language is a unique skill of ours!


We were so lucky to reunite with many of our friends and host families. We were given amazing food, great welcomes, laughed at memories, did lots of swimming (in water ranging from 24 degrees down to 15 degrees), had very family friendly food (which after lots of travelling was very, very welcomed), drank lots of strong coffee, watched lots of sunsets, slept, watched kids develop confidence and make new friends, spoke Swedish and generally felt very spoilt and lucky.

There was heaps of jumping!

Firstly we went to a small town just outside of Stockholm first, called Älgö, where we spent time with Martin Broden his wife Josefin and their two children Samuel and Mikaeala. This family have just spent 6 years living in Brussels and are about to relocate to Geneva, so the children speak three languages (Swedish, French and English) fluently. We were instantly made to feel welcomed and at home. All the children became instant friends and we had a fabulous 4 days of sleeping, swimming, eating ice-creams, chatting, dancing, learning the Swedish game Kubb and enjoying the sun.

and lots of ice-creaming eating too!

We were privileged to see many dance performances ...

and we loved learning how to play Kubb.

The whole Broden family came for dinner one night. 

From Älgö, which is just south of Stockholm, we headed north into the archipelago. The Stockholm archipelago is made up of about 24 000 islands. It sits in the Baltic Sea, but the water mixes with the fresh water of the lakes in Stockholm, so the water is known as "brackish" - a mix of salt and fresh. It feels lovely on your skin and you don't need to shower after swimming. In fact, mostly you wash in the water ... take the body wash into the water and wash there!

Nisse and Kerstin with our family

We went to another family connection from Tony's time in Stockholm - Kerstin and Nisse Zetterberg and their large family. They have a summer house on an island called Blidö. There are four houses on the island, so each child in the family has their own house for their part of the family. They spend many weeks there over summer and enjoy time together. 

One of the games in fem kamp

We had a fun couple of days, playing "fem kamp" which are traditional Midsummer games, which was in mid June. We spent time with each part of the family which allowed us to get to know their children (all young adults) better. We even participated in a traditional sauna (usually done naked, in winter, in the dark .... we did it with swimmers, in summer, in the morning ... so not really traditional in any way). Kids loved that - we kept the sauna to 60 degrees and then jumped into the 16 degree brackish water! 

Warming up nicely....

 .... the run down the jetty into the water!

We watched the moon rise at 10pm, 

and hung out with lots of great people .... Malin and Karin below, but also Johann, Tobias, Isabelle and many other members of the Zetterberg family.

Peter, me, Gus, Ove & Tony

 From Blidö, we returned to Stockholm again, to visit another member of the Zetterberg family who wasn't at Blidö. Gus and her husband Ove have actually visited us in Canberra, about 4 years ago. Their son Peter, visited about 13 years as a 20 year old and spent quite a lot of time with Tony doing some hiking in Koscuiskzo, so great fun to reunite with all of them.

tough setting!

another sunset from the end of the jetty, overlooking Lake Mälaren 

The highlight for the children however, was a ride on Gus' horses. They all loved it. Olivia has announced that she has a new hobby.... not sure I'm ready for that one! Gus and Ove also had two dogs and for those who know my two daughters, they are rather apprehensive (read terrified) around dogs. Well .... after just a few hours, Sophie and Olivia could not leave these dogs alone and are asking for a dog (as well as a horse). There is hope of curing this dog fear they possess!

Our final night in Stockholm was with Bernt and Britta. We had spent time with them and stayed in their house at Blidö but we had one night with them in Stockholm.

Bernt and Britta, with their son Johann.

So Stockholm was all about the people, which made it very special. We hope to reciprocate the kindness back in Australia one day soon!