Djurgården, Stockholm

One of the best parts of our recent holiday to Sweden was visiting Djurgården, an island in the city centre with forest and parkland. Both of us were really hoping it would snow on our trip so when we opened our curtains to find it had (cue lots of bouncing and squealing from me!), we knew it was the perfect day to head to the forest. It would have only taken us 30 minutes or so to walk to the island from our hotel on Skeppsholmen but we quickly abandoned the idea when we clocked eyes on the river ferry (Djurgårdenferry).

Within a few minutes of hopping on and off the ferry, we arrived in Djurgården! This part of the island was full of old wooden buildings – I loved the hodge-podge of colours and styles. Our next house needs to be one of these…

The snow on the island was much deeper than the thin layer covering the main city. I had walking boots on but was a bit underdressed on my bottom half. But to be honest, I was so happy to be walking around in ankle deep snow I didn’t care about having soggy tights!

Scott has an unusual skill; deer spotting. If they’re around, he’ll see them. We were walking towards this clearing when he suddenly put his arm out to stop me and pointed ahead. Three deer were running across the park in front of us completely silently.

This snowy clearing full of pine trees will forever be one of our favourite places in Stockholm. We walked through the trees and as we reached the top of the little hill the sun came out. It was lovely and warm so we spent a little while up there looking at the building tops in the city.

No Scandinavian holiday is complete without a photo of pine trees!

Scott took a photo sphere up here. My photos don’t really do it justice, so take a look at his.

We made our way through the middle of the park to Rosendals Trädgård for lunch. Rosendals is an open garden project where they serve/sell garden produce in the cafe and shop. Foodie paradise! Take a look at my post about it if you want to oggle our lunch and the greenhouses.

After stuffing ourselves at lunch we slowly waddled back through the snowy park.

This area of water was frozen solid. We debated whether it would be strong enough to walk on but neither of us were willing to go first. So we behaved like proper adults and carried on walking.

Djurgården was deserted that morning. Clearly we were the only people bonkers enough to get up early on a freezing cold Sunday morning in the Winter to go and play in the snow. I’m glad we did though because it felt like we were in the wilderness. And there aren’t many places you can explore a deserted pine forest in the centre of a city. Perfect day.