Stockholm: A Reminder of Why I Love Europe

I've just returned from a wonderful long weekend in Stockholm with my son Jack. It was my first visit to Sweden and, having been lucky enough to visit Copenhagen and Amsterdam many times, I was interested to see how Stockholm compared.

I came away reminded yet again just how much I love Europe.

I've lived in the US for 17 years now, and every time I return to Europe I get a kick out of how completely different one country can be from the next. Cross a border and the architecture changes, the language changes, the food changes and even the people look different.

There's ancient history sitting alongside modern history, and somehow every country has managed to develop its own personality.

Stockholm certainly has one.

The city is spread across 14 islands, with water seemingly everywhere. Beyond it lies the extraordinary Stockholm archipelago, made up of thousands of islands and islets stretching towards the Baltic Sea. It means that even when you're right in the city, you can find yourself cycling beside the water, passing boats and ships, beautiful old buildings, modern architecture and enormous green parks.

We stayed for three nights in SoFo, in Södermalm, which I loved. It felt like somewhere locals actually lived and, perhaps more importantly, somewhere locals wanted to hang out.

I think this is something worth considering whenever you visit any major city. Be careful about automatically staying in the grand geographical centre, surrounded by banks, embassies and famous hotels. Often that's not where real life is happening. Most European cities have excellent public transport, so I'd rather stay in an interesting neighbourhood with independent restaurants, bars, cafés and shops, and travel ten or fifteen minutes to see the classic sights.

One of the best ways we found to explore Stockholm was by electric bicycle. We spent a day with a local guide riding through the city centre and surrounding neighbourhoods. Stockholm is wonderfully bike friendly, and because it's built around so much water, the scenery constantly changes. For those that don't like to bike, it's easy to walk too.

We were also lucky with the weather. While much of Europe seemed to be melting in the summer heat, Stockholm was almost perfect. And after a long Scandinavian winter, the Swedes certainly know how to enjoy sunshine when it arrives. Parks were full of people stretched out on towels, swimming and generally making the most of summer. Naturally, we joined them and went for a swim ourselves.

On our second full day, we headed out into the archipelago with a local guide, taking one of the lovely old ferries to Vaxholm, about an hour from Stockholm.

This gave us a completely different glimpse of Swedish life. Out here are the summer houses and cottages where Swedes escape during the warmer months, many of them beautiful old wooden houses sitting beside the water with immaculate little jetties from which you can jump straight into the sea. We had lunch, wandered around and spent time talking to our guide about life in Stockholm and the surrounding islands.

There's something particularly special about Scandinavia in summer. I hadn't experienced it properly for a very long time, and I'd forgotten how enjoyable it is. The days are long, everybody seems determined to be outside, and there's a palpable sense that summer is something to be celebrated rather than taken for granted.

Winter Scandinavia can be beautiful in an entirely different way, but this trip has made me want to see much more of it in summer.

I'd happily recommend Stockholm for a long weekend, as an extension to another European trip, or as part of a longer Scandinavian journey combining Sweden with Denmark or Norway.

And I'm certainly not finished with Sweden.

My next trip might be to fly into Copenhagen, take the train across to southern Sweden and slowly work my way north through the country to Stockholm, perhaps continuing even further north from there.

Who knows? There's always somewhere else to explore and, unfortunately, never quite enough time to do it.