Stockholm, Sweden

We have donned stout boots, the warmest gloves and brave smiles as the temperature gauge points to minus 10. But as we enter the bright sunshine amplified by the sheet of snow that covers the city, all our trepidation disappears. It is replaced by a childish delight as we tramp through the snow and - obviously - engage in the odd snowball fight or two.

Stockholm central is made up of 14 islands, which themselves form part of the greater Stockholm archipelago. The best way to view this capital, justly dubbed the Venice of the North, is by boat. Cheered by the prospect of a sauna later and copious amounts of albeit expensive vodka, we decide the whole Scandinavian experience - ice included - is even better.

Taking the commuter ferry from Slussen on the South island of Sodermalm, we sail past the cliff that overlooks the city. This clifftop provides a spectacular view of Stockholm and houses the street of Fjallgatan where many of the city's artists live.

We also see the open sea, with ships bound for Finland and other eastern destinations. However, in this more romantic take on the city we should perhaps skate over the fact that these ships are also called the Booze Cruises, the Vodka ships and the Love Boats - just to dispel the myth of the cool Nordic region and people.

The ferry sails past the Old Town - Gamla Stan - which is dappled with sunshine bouncing off the brightly coloured buildings. Then we turn inland cruising through the ice as we draw into the island of Djurgarden, also known as the King's Hunting Ground.

Comparisons with Titanic are unfortunately rather appropriate as our first port of call is the Vasa Museum. The Vasa - Sweden's answer to the Titanic - set sail on its maiden voyage in 1628 only to sink before leaving the harbour. This was a rich man's ship, built by Gustav II Adolf and luckily for us it saw the light of the day again when it was raised successfully in 1961, preserved perfectly as it sank in relatively freshwater with no woodworm.

Overtaken by tales of the Titanic, the Vasa ship is hardly talked about outside of Stockholm but this makes it all the more captivating and no description does it justice. Suffice it to say that the first glance of the ship as we entered the museum was breathtaking. Having been put off museums by dreary school trips where I was told to be excited by the most mundane artefact, I was pleasantly surprised by the detailed exhibition. Here we learned things that we never knew we wanted to know!

Still on the island of the Djurgarden, we visit Skansen, the Nordic animal park. The experience would not be complete without meeting Rudolph's reindeer brothers and sisters along with a few elk, moose and bears. This does make us feel even more guilty as we plough through reindeer steaks that evening, but having bitten the hand that feeds us we solve the mystery of why we get such dismal Christmas presents.

This park has a selection of model Swedish homes ranging from the brightly painted farm houses found in Skane - the Southern part of Sweden where it is forbidden to accuse anyone of being Danish - to the wooden huts on stilts found to this day in Lappland.

Our water excursion was not over. Leaving the museum and heading north we approached KaknasTornet - the TV tower. Our trip here was not to admire the aerials, rather to scale the tallest building in Scandinavia (by lift) and admire the view of the archipelago. Although a longer boat trip might have been pleasant, the boats which take a stream of summer visitors out to explore the islands at closer quarters were going nowhere today.

To reach the tower we needed to cross over to the next island. A bridge is clearly marked on the map, but several hundred Stockholmers are taking the short cut straight across the ice which collects between many of the islands. Our trepidation returns as we try to ignore our mothers' advice and gingerly test the ice, telling ourselves that all these locals cannot be wrong even if the meatballs we ate earlier left something to be desired.

The tower is deliciously warm after trudging through the snow and, looking out over Stockholm on this crisp winter's day, we could see a spattering of islands lodged between the glacial waters. Trees cover these islands right up to their shore. The only the waters that are still flowing are those that meet the sea.

Our tour of this side of the city barely complete we decide that there would really be nothing wrong with continuing the absolutely Swedish experience with a touch of their most famous liquid. After all, it doesn't freeze in these conditions and certainly warms the tired traveller.

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