To celebrate the longest days of sunlight, Sweden has an annual summer celebration called Midsummer. Today is Midsummer’s eve and the festivities have already kicked off.

Most Swedes desert the city and head for the countryside. In the morning we rode our city bikes over to City Hall and climbed the tower for views of the quiet city. While I may have suffered claustrophobia climbing the winding tunnels up, the view was so peaceful at the top.

Afterwards we biked back to Djurgarden for the traditional Midsummer celebrations at Skansen. These festivities are pretty touristy and jam-packed with crowds. But for those of us who don’t have Swedish friends with a country home, it’s a fun place to partake in the fun and get a glimpse of the tradition.

We arrived just after the raising of the Maypole and danced around it for the little frogs song. Don’t ask, just Google it. It’s a thing here in Sweden. We tried the traditional strawberry cake (twist my arm, okay?), more meatballs for Rosie and a Swedish flatbread with goat cheese, walnuts and honey for me.

It was an absolutely beautiful day, which is lucky since it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. Which is funny because I read somewhere that it rains every Midsummer. We aren’t too sad about it though. It will be the perfect opportunity to explore more museums and coffee shops.

Oh and one last funny story. I fell on my bike today. That’s right, not off of it. I fell on it. I’m not quite sure abut the logistics, but I was trying to get Rosie’s attention and slow down by a curb to pull off the road at the same time.

The bike skid, I tried to put my feet down and the bike kept going. In an effort to catch it (and my precious camera), I ended up falling on top of the bike. How’s that for coordination?

Good news is I caught the camera. Bad news is my hand got pinched so hard by the hand break that I have a blood blister. And the Swedes are apparently the nicest because everyone around rushed over to help me up (as opposed to Rosie who’s laughing at me!).

I captured this view right as I was getting up haha!