At the Lejondahl castle weekend before Christmas there was a small advert for other ‘castle getaways’, and one was a yoga weekend in March at Skytteholm castle spa. The camp started the day after my birthday, and seemed like a nice way to start the springtime and a new year. I didn’t know anything about the teacher but was ready to come with a beginner’s mind, and besides hotel breakfast and spa never misses!
The teacher, Jennifer Key, was quite nice and I liked her approach – there was a range of experience in the room and I think she did a nice job of being inclusive. She teaches a Saturday class not too far away, so I might sign up for the winter term.
The original Skytteholm manor house; the hotel & conference center is more modern and glass and to the right of this. 
Lots of bronze sculpture, including this mermaid riding a dolphin. 
Lejondahl predictably has lions guarding the gate; skyteholm (shooting island) has wild boars 
Perseus and pegasus flying together through the sky in this sculpture on a tower
Staying at a castle sounds like it might be pretentious or stuffy, but like most things in Sweden it is pretty democratic. While it can be a bit spendy in the high season, the vibe is more cozy and relaxing than anything else. The food was quite nice and the highlight was the class Nordic breakfast with thin waffles This place had a sauna pavillion by the lake and a couple of outdoor hot tubs. The hotel provided robes for the walk out to the pavillion.
Skytteholm is pretty close as the crow flies, but on an island in Lake Mälaren so from our place one either has to take transit up to central Stockholm and then turn south again to go via bridge and tunnel, or bike to the ferry and then bike 10km across the island ==> 2.5 vs 1.5 hours respectively, so even with bike bags full of yoga stuff you can guess what I chose. Very lucky that the weather was clear and sunny; windy but warmer than it had been, so I got a bit sweaty biking and then had to put on another layer for the windy ferry trip. As I write this on Easter weekend it is SNOWING giant wet flakes and sticking and piling up, so I’m pretty grateful to have the great biking weather while it was available.
After a successful bike ride and nice castle restaurant experience, I was looking for a repeat to share with Graham. By chance I found out that countryside café Eldtomta now serves afternoon tea in the indoor season, and the last weekend in March was the last one before September. I booked the early sitting so we’d make it back in time for science and yoga, and was rather impressed with their offering. It was a bit of an oversight to book 11:30 right after the time change so 10:30 made for a bit of an early lunch, but it was tasty, the shabby-chic decor is a delight, and the service was very cute: some keen local high schoolers delighted to describe all the homemade jams and tea flavours. The food definitely had a Swedish accent and fit with the existing house specialities: smoked salmon with horseradish cream on dark dense rye, a crostini with mascarpone, pear, and balsamic drizzle, and a little open face shrimp salad sandwich. Mum might have passed on the scones; they were not light or layered of puffed… but they did make a good vehicle for the homemade lemon curd and jam etc. The sweets included a salted caramel brownie, a lemon tart with torched Italian meringue, panne cotta with strawberry gelée and a little brown butter praline. It came with endless pots of tea and champagne; we passed on the champagne in favour of local apple cider. It was a bit too sweet but really nice flavour from the mingling of 8 kinds of heritage apples. It’s not Abkhazi or White Heather, but still quite nice and worth repeating.
