Asköviken och Tidö slott

These photos are from Asköviken - a bird sanctuary with watch huts and walkways - and Tidö slott (slott means castle).

We unfortunately didn't see many birds at Asköviken, but we were also accompanied by a restless younger cousin (kusin), so not much of a chance to stay long. This guy above is known as a rödben - red legs :D

 We went walking through a farmers paddocks and across the lake you could see Tidö slott.
I think it's wonderful that fields in Sweden are open to the public for exploring. The only rule is that you should keep away from the house (hus), and of course not stay for extended periods or be disrespectful of thier land. It opens up beautiful (vackert) lands to be seen, and probably contributed in the past to the Swedes' love of nature.

 Above is the inner courtyard of Tidö slott. It was closed that day, so no inside shots.

The grounds were dotted with large, very old trees (träd). They made the area look quite beautiful.

 This particular tree was about 3m in diameter! Huge! You can see my arms didn't even reach the edges! The second picture has a child in the shot, and I reckon you could fit about 20 of him into that trunk, hehe.

 I thought the new shoots were quite spectacular on the trees, on that farmer's land.

 Inner courtyard of Tidö slott

 This water well was a bit creepy

 These dragon/fish (drake/fisk) were rain gutters!

 We stopped for lunch in the cafe on Tidö slott grounds. I was just sitting chatting with the family, and noticed these huge snails (sniglar) in the garden. I've never seen such large snails before so I had to investigate. The slime he left on my hand was quite hard to get rid of!

This is the cafe - quite cute. The outside area is very popular in spring and summer. Not surprising; everyone wants some sun after the long, deep winters of the north.

This is in the Västerås area...it takes a short drive to get to both. Buses do travel to Tidö slott, but not often, and only in the warm seasons.