A Midsummer's Night Dream!

We noticed immediately that the traffic in the metro on our way to our B&B in old town Stockholm was one way: Outgoing. All of the locals were leaving town for their summerhouses to celebrate the summer solstice which in this mart of the world is called the Midsummer fest. This is as big a celebration in Sweden as the 4th  of July is in the States. We were a bit worried that the city would be empty, but we relaxed later that today that we had nothing to worry about.

The city is beautiful and the buildings we walked past on cobblestone streets felt like they were filled with the potential of facinating stories collected over the centuries. The little street that led to our B&B was itself part of a tourist ghost walking tour, and is located in the oldest part of Stockholm on the island of Gamla Stan, right next to a beautiful old church that kept up on time by striking every 15 minutes, and right in back of the King's palace.


In the distance we heard a band, so like the good detectives we are, we went to investigate. The changing of the guard in front of the kings palace was going on and what a show it was. We felt like we were seeing a halftime show at a U of H football game!

Our next stop was two islands over and it houses a wonderful outdoor museum called Skansen. This is where we celebrated the Midsummer Fest, and where the rest of Sweden was spending the day. We were on a mission to find a Maypole to dance around and off we went. On the way we picked up midsummer wreathes to wear made of birch and wild flowers, and saw traditional clothing everywhere.
Just as we thought we were never going to find it, we heard music again. We headed in the general direction where we found the Maypole! Hundreds of people were gathered around the beautifully decorated pole and a band started to play songs that started a huge surge of people to move first one direction
around the pole and then the other.

 IF you didn't understand what to do, no worries! there was always someone glad to help you along. We danced the Frog dance which was much like the Chicken dance but more fun, and so many more that we stopped trying to keep up and just had fun dancing.


The day was over way to soon, and even though the sun was still high in the sky at 10:30 pm , we headed back to old town Stockholm, to recharge for our visit to the Energi Museet  the next day.