Haga Palace, north of Stockholm city, will become the Swedish Crown Princess Victoria’s home after she has married her beloved Daniel. We went there a winter afternoon for a walk - it’s a well known recreation area for Stockholmers.

Haga Palace were built in 1802-1804 and were during the 19th century home for different persons from the Swedish royal family. Our current King Carl XVI Gustaf did spend his first years there together with his 3 older sisters, popular called the Haga princessess, while Stockholm Palace were renovated.

It has been used as a foreign guest residence by the government, but is right now being renovated. The Swedish government is giving back Haga Palace to our Swedish Crown Princess Victoria and her fiance as a wedding gift. They are getting married in June.

They are moving the walking path which up to now has been passing by very close to the palace and will be behind fences to protect the princess. Later it will be possible to stroll by down at the lake instead.

There is a pavilion nearby: Gustav III’s Pavilion, built 1787 with instructions from our favorite Swedish King, Gustav III and an excellent example of the European neoclassicism of the late 1700’s.

Despite the fact that this is a pavilion and not really a palace, it belongs to the 10 Swedish Royal Palaces.

Up on a hill with a view over the lake, The Temple of The Echo was built in 1790 as an outdoor summer dining hall, especially King Gustav III loved to dine outdoors. Who doesn’t - and with that surroundings!

Today the Echo Temple is a very romantic place where you even can be married. If you’re already married, like we are, I recommend standing in the temple shouting to each other: I love you! Listen to the echo…

Our favorite building in Hagaparken though is: The Copper Tents from the year of 1787, so colorful and different from our other buildings we use to have in Sweden with those marvelous decor painted copper facades.

It was from the beginning stables and lodgings for the guards, but today it’s a park museum, a cafe and a restaurant which is an excellent place to rest after a walk in the park.

The Haga Park is part of the worlds first National City Park together with other park areas of Stockholm and really worth a visit, there is more to it than we’ve mentioned here.

Our tip is: go there in the summertime when you can have a romantic picnic in the park without freezing your butt off… *giggles*

Click to see Lifecruiser Haga Park photo slideshow.

Lifecruiser ♥ Haga
 

There is some very creative hotels even in Sweden and we did a roadtrip to one of them a couple of weeks ago: Hotell Hackspett or in English Hotel Woodpecker, about 40 feet up in an old oak tree in one of the parks in Västerås.

This is a very traditional Swedish red cottage, just placed a bit unusual. It was built in 1998 and renovated in 2006. No damage to the tree was done when they built this cottage, no nails - it’s carried up by very powerful steel wires.

Mikael Genberg is the Swedish artist that came up with this unusual and fun project and this is not the only place he want to place a red cottage - he also want to place one at the moon before 2011, thus creating quite an interesting challenge for the Swedish Space Corporation!

I’m not so sure that I could manage to book the Woodpecker treehouse hotel suite for the night, not that I wouldn’t dare to sleep there, but because how on earth would I get up there in the first place? I’m afraid of heights and it’s only accessible by a (wobbly?) rope ladder!

No, but I like the use of the rope ladder for something else though: to get up the yummy meals!!!

In this photo you can see how the ropes goes up in a hole at the floor at the treehouse, but I saw no harness - which I think they use to get you up there, you don’t have to climb thankfully.

… and yes, it does has both a kitchen and a toilet up there too, so you don’t have to worry about getting down the rope ladder in a hurry! *giggles*

Personally, I think they have a rather expensive room rate: 1100 SEK (146 Dollar / 108 Euro) per person and night without any meals, 1250 SEK with breakfast, 1500 SEK per person and night with breakfast and dinner.

One could think that you really could get some peace and quiet alone up there, but I wonder how it is with all the people passing by in the park? Would it be like to be on stage?!

Tempted to give it a try? The treehouse can be booked by Västerås Tourist office (+46 21 39 01 00).

It can only be booked between 1 April - 31 October since it got no electricity or heat (other from yourself!), but I recommend June-August since nights can be very chilly!

…and sometimes very windy too, but that might just do the trick to get you to sleep…

Lifecruiser ♥ Unusual Hotels
 

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Stockholm got a new awesome world attraction: SkyView. Glass gondolas goes up on rails outside the Globe which gives the visitors a fabulous opportunity to see Sweden’s capital 130 m above sea level.

SkyView attraction premiere, Stockholm Globe Arena, Sweden. Photo Copyright Globe Arenas.

This is actually a top attraction of a top attraction since it’s situated on the Stockholm Globe Arena which in itself is quite remarkable - the worlds largest hemispherical building, used for sports events and music concerts.

It was built in less than 2 1/2 years, constructed on top of 48 curved main columns a Mero space frame carries the dome shaped structure. The new SkyView where built on top of that with help from ski lift builders.

The two SkyView glass gondolas has room for 16 persons in each and the ride to the top takes 3 minutes. The gondola stays at the top of Globe approximately 10 minutes before going back on the same rails.

Skiss of SkyView glass gondola attraction, Stockholm, Sweden, Image Copyright Globe Arenas

• Size of each gondola: 4.5 meters in diameter
• Weight of each gondola: 7,000 kg
• Maximum speed: 1 meter per second

Impressed? No? Maybe these facts will impress you:

42,000 kg of steel have been added to the original structure to strengthen the exterior and 70,000 kg of rail have been assembled on the outside of the Globe with the help of mountain climbers and a helicopter!

Have we been up there ourselves? No, we’re waiting for the spring with better weather - or to get a special invitation with a free ride…. *giggles*

Seriously: it’s fully booked all weekend and they have even squeezed in extra rides, that gives a hint of how popular this is gonna be.

There is no doubt at all that SkyView really will become one of the most important symbols for Sweden internationally, visited by every tourist that comes here.

They claim that you should prepare yourself for shivering kneecaps and sweaty palms - would you like to take a ride in it…?

Read more about SkyView here.

Lifecruiser ♥ SkyView