Drottingholm Palace in the Summer

Drottingholm Palace is the permanent home residence of the Swedish royal family. While part of the palace is closed for this reason, much of the house and gardens is open for tourists. Drottingholm also has the distinction as being placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Drottningholm Palace is located on an island in Lake Mälaren on the western outskirts of Stockholm. The palace was constructed according to a French prototype by the architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder, by commission of Queen Hedvig Eleonora.

The palace features magnificent salons from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a beautiful park, a unique palace theater and a Chinese Pavilion.

View from inside the palace looking into the gardens

Portraits of a royal family

Hedvig Eleonora's state bedchamber was the heart of the state reception suite in the 1600s and was created by the country's foremost artists and craftsmen.

The queen is holding a portrait of her son, the King of Sweden.  She was appointed his regent ruler as he came to the throne at a very young age. 

Belle had enough of the royal palace

 Since Belle was good during the palace tour, we rewarded her with her first ice cream bar. 

 As you can probably tell, she loved it!

After our ice cream break, we explored the gardens.   The palace gardens, which were influenced by the baroque style, were created at the end of the 17th century under the direction of Hedwig Eleonora.  The architects were inspired by newly planted palace gardens in France at the time, where the ideal was strict, ordered and symmetrical.

 

The Chinese Pavillion

King Adolf Fredrik surprised Queen Lovisa Ulrika on her birthday in 1753 with a small Chinese palace in the Drottningholm Palace park

Another successful day of sightseeing...but I think Belle had had enough!

GLAD MIDSOMMAR

In Sweden, the midsummer holiday is one of the most important holidays. It's not surprising that celebrating the arrival of the summer solstice is such a popular holiday given the fact that Scandinavia has such long, dark and cold winters. For our midsummer holiday, we traveled with Mike and Allison to the county of Dalarna, which is about 4 hours north of Stockholm by car.

We were all a little nervous driving as the car was a manual, but Cyle seemed to have it under control (at least most of the time!).  I think getting out of the busy city of Stockholm was the scariest part of the drive. 
  

When we told our Swedish friends that we were going to Dalarna for midsummer, everyone would remark that we were going to have a true Swedish experience as Dalarna represents all that is quintessentially Swedish. It was in Dalarna that many iconic Swedish traditions were born.  For example, this is the home of the Dala horse (dalahäst), the brightly coloured carved wooden horses.  It was very evident when we entered Dalarna, as we began to see the iconic horse everywhere.

If you look closely, that is Mike standing by the Dala horse.  We were stopped in traffic and as a joke we dared him to get out and take a picture with the horse Mike is not the type of person to take a dare lightly.  

Once arriving, we checked into our cabin for the long weekend.  We had wanted something very Swedish and in-touch with nature.  Our cabin was perfect.  It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere as we couldn't see another house near us.  It had a lake, fire pit and a cozy interior.  It was perfect for a holiday that focuses on nature.

Pictures of the inside:

It even had a sauna!

Our view from the front porch (and Belle took this picture, so it was from her vantage point).

The weather was just chilly enough that we were able to have a fire.  

Lucky for us, Allison is a camping expert; consequently she was able to handle all the outdoorsy stuff for the weekend.

  

Dinner the first night.
It was Belle's favorite-spaghetti!

We ended our first evening by the lake, sitting by the fire pit, eating berry cobbler and making s'mores.  It was perfect.
  

Allison was once again in charge of lighting the fire

A perfect evening

The views were amazing

The next day we began our midsummer preparations.  

Belle was ready in her Dala horse onesie

 According to VisitSweden.com, a successful midsummer party must include flowers in your hair, dancing around a pole, singing songs while drinking unsweetened, flavored schnapps and downing a whole load of pickled herring, dill served with delightful new potatoes, chives and sour cream.  If that is what makes a successful midsummer holiday, then I can say ours was a success!

Our first task of the day was to make the flower crowns. 

Midsummer celebrations have pagan origins, and this time of the year was thought to be a time of magic.  Since anything with nature was thought to have special powers, gathering flowers to weave into wreaths and crowns was a way to harness nature’s magic to ensure good health throughout the year.  Another midsummer tradition is for single girls to gather seven different flowers and place them under their pillow that night.  Legend says they will then dream about their future husbands. 

Traditionally, Swedes enjoy a big midsummer lunch before going to the celebrations.  We broke with that tradition and delayed our lunch for the next day as we wanted to visit the Dala horse factory.  

 The first Dala horse factory was started by the Olsson brothers in Nusnäs, a village in Mora, in 1922. The second one was started in 1928. Both factories are still run by descendants of the Olsson family today.
  

 

What started as a simple toy made for children has become one of the most iconic and popular souvenirs from Sweden.  Not much as changed in the production as every single horse is still hand-carved and hand-painted.  

The largest wooden Dala horse

Belle wasn't impressed

If you visit the factory, you can have your Dala horse personalized.  It turns out that the guy who personalized mine had also painted my Dala horse.  I asked him how he knew that was his Dala horse and he explained that just like everyone has a different signature,  every painter has a different style.

Just look at that little attitude! :)

It was not time to begin the midsummer festivities.  We decided to celebrate in the small village that was close to our house.  Everything about it seemed to be quintessential Swedish town from its flower lined streets to its traditional architecture.  

We arrived just in time to see the raising of the maypole. 

The maypole tradition came to Sweden in the late Middle Ages from Germany, where the pole was decorated with leaves and raised on May 1.  Since spring comes late to Sweden, it was often hard to find enough greenery to decorate it, so instead the tradition was incorporated into midsummer.  Often at the top of maypoles there will be some type of bird, most often a rooster.  This tradition dates backs to France when Carolingian troops would muster their troops on May 1.  Among the contests, archers would attempt to shoot birds that were placed atop the pole.

Today's midsummer celebrations wouldn't be complete without dancing around the maypole.

Traditional Dancers in traditional dress

 Of course, it is mandatory at all Midsummer celebrations to dance to Små grodorna, a dancing game in which you hop around the pole while singing about little frogs.  The song translates:  'Little frogs are funny to look at/ They don't have ears or tails'.

Belle wasn't into the dancing

  

After the maypole dancing, we headed back to the house to prepare dinner.  Since we were having our traditional dinner the next night, we opted for cheeseburgers instead.

After dinner, we went outside to enjoy the longest night of the year.

  

That night, after enjoying some time in the sauna, Cyle and Mike decided to cool off by jumping in the lake.  Since Belle was in bed, Allison and I chose to stay in the house.  Although we couldn't see them, we heard a lot of screaming after they took the plunge.  I guess the water is still a bit chilly.

The sun set around midnight and rose again around 2 a.m.

The next day, we spent a leisurely day around the cabin enjoying the beautiful Swedish summer. 

We began our morning with pancakes and a view

Had a few bocce ball tournaments

Cyle, Mike and Allison (Belle and I stayed back so she could take a nap) took a spin around the lake

That evening, we prepared the traditional midsummer meal.  A typical Midsummer menu features different kinds of pickled herring,



boiled new potatoes with fresh dill, soured cream and chives. This is often followed by a grilled dish of some kind, (we opted for pork tenderloin with cloud berry jam),

and for dessert the first strawberries of summer, with cream.

We also enjoyed lingon berry and cloud berry chocolates
The traditional accompaniment is a cold beer and schnapps. 

Every time the glasses are refilled, singing breaks out anew as Swedes like drinking songs.

Mike was our bartender for the evening and made delicious lingon berry cocktails 

As we sat outside that night (it never really gets dark in Sweden during the summer) we reflected on our weekend.  Midsummer is not only about celebrating nature and the coming of summer, but being together with friends and family.  I think we achieved a truly Swedish midsummer and an experience that we will remember forever.