In the heart of Scandinavia, Sweden is Europe’s fifth largest country. Vast and remote in the harsh north, with idyllic lakes and spectacular islands in the south. Our journey begins in Kiruna, a hundred and twenty kilometres north of the Arctic Circle where it is winter for two hundred and ten days a year. Several centuries ago, huge mineral deposits were discovered in this region but it was only from 1899, following the completion of the railroad, that mining became profitable and thousands of workers streamed into the area. Seventeen kilometres east of Kiruna in a Sami settlement in JukkasjärvI, each year the most unique hotel in the world is totally re-built, the Ice Hotel, a unique project that began in 1989. Crystal clear blocks of ice are cut out of the frozen River Torne and then carved into various rooms and inventive works of art. Every year the giant ‘igloo’ is given a different look, only for it all to melt away in May. Protected by the island of Öland is one of the best preserved Renaissance castles in Europe, Kalmar Slott, that sits regally on its own island and is accessible via a bridge from the mainland. We travel at length on the Göta Channel, the Kattegatt, that connects the north with the Baltic Sea: from Gothenburg to Stockholm on a canal that ingeniously links Sweden’s largest lakes, and is a hundred and ninety kilometres long. Finally, located on the idyllic Lovön Island, is the royal castle of Drottningholm Slott, main residence of the Swedish royal family and the ‘Versailles Of The North’. Adventure and amazing nature as well as fortresses, castles and towns. It is not surprising that those who visit Sweden are seduced by the lure of the High North.