After a late afternoon flight from Stansted on the previous evening, we spent our first full day in Sweden with Birgit’s cousin Pixie and her family.

They live on the edge of Rimbo, a little village about 50km north of Stockholm, and have an extensive holding of land. It was once a farm, with all the associated outbuildings. The village is quiet close to the Stockholm Arlanda airport where we arrived, and has the usual collection of services and shops that you would expect in any large town. It is connected to Stockholm by an excellent public transport bus, which we took the next day.

Everything on Pixie’s farm has been renovated and tastefully modernised with the most amazing array of the finest engineered fittings. The renovations have been completed by Pixie and her husband and are outstanding, retaining the old features from the buildings that are centuries old, but incorporating the luxuries of modern life.