Come out to play while the Swedes are away

In Stockholm round now you just can't help noticing all the locals outside their homes working away on boats and bikes and any other holiday gear that needs sprucing up. They are getting ready for the great Nordic summer, when Swedes grab that precious, short spell of warm days and long nights and squeeze it for all it's worth.

In Stockholm round now you just can't help noticing all the locals outside their homes working away on boats and bikes and any other holiday gear that needs sprucing up. They are getting ready for the great Nordic summer, when Swedes grab that precious, short spell of warm days and long nights and squeeze it for all it's worth.

June marks the start of the madness. Midsummer's eve is celebrated exuberantly with maypole-dancing, strawberries as well as the odd glass of schnapps. By July, when we visited, the weekend exodus is well under way to the countryside and the islands of the archipelago, where many Stockholmers have a summer bolthole. That leaves the city pleasantly uncrowded, and we made the most of it.

First stop the waterfront. If you are feeling energetic it is easy to rent a bike, roller-skates or even a kayak to get around. If you want to get even closer to water, the Centralbadet, a fabulous art nouveau swimming pool, is less busy in high summer. Or you could just dive into the Baltic - the water is pristine, even in the heart of the city.

For an overview, take the Katarinahissen (Katarina lift) to enjoy the fine prospect from the streets of the old town, 120ft above the centre. The 500ft-high but slightly less central Kaknastornet TV tower offers another skyscraping vantage point, and it has a restaurant, too.

We joined the throng at Djurgarden, the spacious park which, conveniently, is also the setting for several of the best attractions. Recommended is Skansen, the open-air museum with 150 typical Swedish residences, from a turf-roofed log farmhouse in traditional red to an elegant yellow manor. Every day there is a folksy event on: today glass-blowers in period costume were showing off their craft.

Nearby is the Vasamuseet, a striking modern edifice housing the royal ship Vasa, which sank in 1628 on its maiden voyage and was spectacularly raised again in 1961. You cannot board the ship, but you can view it - prow to wonderfully carved stern - from every conceivable height and angle. There are copious displays about the historical context, and - rather typical of Sweden - a film narrated in English. Next door is the Nordiska Museet, the museum of Swedish - and Sami (Laplander) - cultural history.

Then we strolled across to Waldemarsudde, a gallery of Swedish art, though our main purpose was to take a rest in the café. Museum cafés tend to be good, but in summer there are also plenty of pavement eateries, for example in Kungstradgarden, the central park, where there is a restaurant festival in June.

The city is rich in museums. We visited Millesgarden, where the work of the sculptor Carl Milles - mainly humanistic figures - are displayed at his pretty house and on stone-paved terraces facing across the water to downtown Stockholm. Design fans should visit Svensk Form, the design centre, and the Arkitekturmuseet.

Later, we took a three-hour ferry trip to Uto, one of the larger outlying islands. As our ship threaded its way through some of the 24,000 granite islands of the archipelago, dotted with pinewoods and summer homes, we watched people messing about in boats, fishing, swimming ... It was hard to imagine that in winter the ice is sometimes so thick you can skate almost to Finland.

In this resort, once favoured by Greta Garbo, we sampled sophisticated modern Swedish cuisine at the award-winning restaurant in the Vardshus (inn): moose carpaccio and seared pike-perch with fennel-seasoned potato.

Westward from the city, on Lake Malaren, there are castles and palaces, including the royal family's home, Drottningholm, with its fine Baroque theatre which hosts operas and ballets in summer.

Back in town we strolled through the Gamla Stan (old town), with its cobbled squares, imposing Baroque royal palace and medieval Riddarholm church, down Prastgatan, a quiet and narrow side street lined by tall, old buildings which evokes times past. We continued past the iconic Stadshuset (town hall) to Kungsholmen, a fashionable area where the bars were buzzing. As the sun lingered late into the night, we found it difficult to prise ourselves away for another day.

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