If you’re planning a trip to Stockholm, you may have come across Drottningholm Palace. Not to the confused with the Royal Palace in Gamla Stan, Drottningholm Palace is a royal palace near Stockholm that is also open for tourists. I was originally just going to say it’s a place you can visit when you’re in Sweden’s capital but during my visit, I made way too many notes to be condensed to a paragraph in my post on Stockholm.

So, here’s a full blog post on Drottningholm Palace!

A Brief History of Drottningholm Palace

The origins of Drottningholm Palace date … Continue reading

From its beautiful exterior to its lengthy history, Gripsholm Castle has been towards the top of my Sweden bucket list for a while. Just a little while away from Stockholm, it made an easy day trip and is quite a lovely place.

A Brief History of Gripsholm Castle

You may have heard of the Vasa ship, which is named after the Vasa dynasty of Sweden. That same dynasty built Gripsholm Castle. It was first constructed by King Gustav Vasa in 1537 on Lake Malaren, surrounded by hunting grounds. It was built to be a home but also a defensive structure, … Continue reading

Just a hop and a skip from Stockholm, Sigtuna is a popular day trip and also a historic destination. I was initially drawn to its quaint look and long history, so going on a day trip there was a no brainer for me. It was a nice little trip through several eras of time.

A Brief History of Sigtuna

Sigtuna was founded during the Viking age in 980 by Erik the Victorious, Sweden’s first king, and is considered Sweden’s first town. It was a trading town and a main center of power, and held that role from the end of … Continue reading

Gotland and its city Visby are both names you’re probably familiar with if you’ve studied medieval, particularly viking, history. The area is filled with artefacts from the viking and medieval ages that have made their way to museums and the Battle of Visby in 1361 is notorious in Swedish history. Being a history lover, Visby was at the top of my list for places to visit in Sweden. And it did not disappoint!

Here’s my overview of things to see and do in Visby.

A Brief History of Visby

On the ancient island of Gotland, Visby has a relatively more … Continue reading

It’s easy to see the medieval Visby church ruins have such a strong presence in the old city. Aside from the Gotland Museum and a handful of other things to do, they’re one of the main attractions – particularly for medieval loves as me. While seeing the medieval churches of Visby was something on my list, I didn’t think much about it because most are in a ruined state.

A lot of maps in Gotland are in Swedish only, so I’ve put the Swedish names in parenthesis. Some other helpful words include Sankt or Sankta for “saint,” Kyrk or Kyrka… Continue reading

Many people visiting Gotland visit Visby, which is a lovely city, but there’s way more to see on the Baltic Sea’s largest island. To be honest, I had a difficult time finding about things to do and see because Visby was always listed as “the” Gotland attraction. Many lists will have maybe 5 things to do on the island and it took a bit of research to finally get a decent list of things to see. And then… the list just kept growing and growing!

Here’s a list of some things I got to see on the island – and … Continue reading

Stockholm, Sweden was always really high on my bucket list so I finally decided that I was going to visit, and even though my trip was much shorter than I would’ve liked, it was absolutely wonderful. Then, I missed it so much that I decided to visit again! It’s such a lovely city with lots of history and rooted deeply in Scandinavian culture – and one of my favorite places.

A Short History of Stockholm

The origins of Stockholm are more obscure, and even its name meaning “log-islet” is of unknown roots. In the viking era, the main towns were … Continue reading