Wayne and Margee Castle's Top Ten

OUR TOP TEN THINGS WE LOVED ABOUT SWEDEN

1. Our favorite was celebrating Christmas with Gordon, Nancy, Gabby, Audra & Sofia.  We also  celebrated our 38^th wedding anniversary with them. 
   
2. Margee ice skated with Gordon & the girls while Wayne watched Nancy & the girls skate another evening.  Margee hadn’t skated in over 30 years.  We also walked almost every place we went in Stockholm.  What great exercise!
   
3. We decorated Christmas cookies and ate them too.  
   
4. We were blessed by going to the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at the Immanuel International Church. There were Christians from all over the world celebrating the birth of Christ. 

   

   post Christmas Eve service - hors d'oeuvres

5. We went with Nancy and the girls to a luncheon hosted by a friend of Nancy's from SIS.  What a great experience it was for us to visit with people who have lived all over the world and are still in their 40’s.     

   

   American food for our international lunch

6. We toured the Vasa Museum.  The “Vasa” was a ship that sank in the Stockholm harbor on its maiden voyage in 1628. It was salvaged in 1961 after 333 years under the sea.  What a great look into life in 17^th century Sweden.  
7. One Swedish custom we loved was the large lighted stars in most windows of every home.  Most stars were at least 24 inches across.  What a beautiful sight at night.  Another custom we loved was everyone putting electric candelabras, each with many candles, in each window of their homes.  They believe that it lights up their dark winter months.  They stayed lit day and night.  Amazing!  Darkness came at about 2:30pm there.
8. We took an Archipelago lunch boat cruise from the Stockholm harbor one day and saw more than 23 of the islands comprising the city.  It was a very leisurely cruise.
9. We went to the Skansen Christmas Market one afternoon where lots of hand-made woolen clothing was sold. It was like a Christmas craft show in America.  We all tried some local food. We had deep fried pancakes filled with pieces of bacon topped with Lingonberry jam.  Heart attack waiting to happen but wonderful!  We also went to a large Smorgasbord and looked at lots of Swedish food that we couldn’t read the labels.  Quite a bit of it was good!  We recommend the experience. 

   

   Gabby and Sofia having fun at Skansen

10. We visited the Nordiska Museet (museum), on Djurgarden Island.   It was amazing to us to cross over a bridge on foot, and be on one of the many islands that make up Stockholm.  This was a great way for us to be immersed in Swedish culture, from doll houses, folk art, home interiors, clothing fashions, and the Sami people.  The Sami people, indigenous to the area, existed before the boundaries of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia were ever drawn up.   

We loved every moment of our trip including the long plane ride (in business class, the only way to go) but the best was number one on this list.