Sweden, in fact, is more than two hours by air from Switzerland. There is no Matterhorn here, the cows don’t wear bells and if you hear yodeling, check your documents. You may have landed two hours south.

Situated in Europe’s northernmost latitudes, Sweden is the third largest country in the European Union in terms of land area. Sweden is the length of California, and it would take you 25 hours to drive from North to South.

With 9 million people, Sweden is also spacious. There’s lots of room for everyone to spread out, and in fact, there are only 52 people per square mile in Sweden.

The country is actually known as the Kingdom of Sweden. There is a king and a Royal Family. Currently, the country is preparing for a Royal wedding that will take place when Sweden’s Princess Victoria marries a man of the people next summer.

The language is, of course, Swedish, although English is widely and happily spoken. If you insist, you might try to learn a few Swedish words. And if you really want to impress someone, say the word for nurse: Sjuksköterska. I’ll give you a moment to untie your tongue before resuming.

For the foreign tongue, however, even saying seven is simply too much of a mouthful. It’s true that most foreigners have no trouble pronouncing the number six, which is “sex.” But the number seven, sju, sounds like little more than exhaling air, impossible for the non-native Swede to pronounce properly. So that I never have to say sju, I make it a point not to accept seven of anything. Seven tomatoes? No, I reply, I’ll take sex instead, which often gets me a curious look.

A city of nearly 2 million in and around the metropolitan area, Stockholm, of course, is the capital of Sweden. The city is situated on Sweden’s east coast, inland, at the juncture of an arm to the Baltic Sea and Lake Malaren.

Because of its location, Stockholm is a major port of call on all Baltic cruise itineraries. The city expects more than 300 cruise ship calls in 2009, making it the fourth largest cruise destination in the Baltic Sea Region. With 39 turnarounds, Stockholm is the Baltic’s second busiest turnaround port.

The currency is the Swedish Krona – 1 krona (SEK) = 100 öre. Though perceived to be expensive, Stockholm is becoming cheaper, dropping from the 23rd most expensive city to live to 31st, according to “Mercers 2008 Cost of Living Survey.”

Copenhagen is 7th; Oslo is 4th. Stockholm is now considerably cheaper for tourists than Oslo or Copenhagen, because of the cost of living index and the exchange rate. Last spring, the Swedish kronor was valued at SEK5.9 to US$1. Today the exchange is around SEK8 to US$1. Suddenly, it’s as if Sweden were having a 25% off everything sale.

Anyway, that’s today’s lesson. Thanks for tuning in!

Today, another challenge: Who are the people in the photo above? There’s a hint in the headline of this post and in the video below.

In a future post, I’m going to tell you how — and where — to fika. Don’t worry. To fika is perfectly acceptable, even preferred.

I’ll also talk about the Swedish language, which I find to be extremely difficult. It’s true that most foreigners have no trouble pronouncing the number six, which is “sex.”

More difficult to say is the number seven, sju. It sounds like little more than exhaling air, but impossible for the non-native Swede to pronounce properly. So that I never have to say sju, I make it a point not to buy seven of anything. Seven tomatoes? No, I’ll take sex instead.

The castle in the earlier post, by the way, is known both as Kronborg Castle and as Elsinore. The town where the castle is situated also is known as Elsinore. But like the castle the town too has another name, Helsingør. See how quickly things can get confusing over here?

The important thing to know is that the castle was the setting for Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Thus, the castle is known also as “Hamlet’s Castle.”

Built in the 1420s and rebuilt more than 150 years later, it is one of the most important Renaissance castles in Northern Europe. On bike rides along the Swedish coast, I look across the strait known as Öresund to Hamlet’s Castle. Seeing it never fails to enchant me.

The strait, by the way, is less than three miles wide and separates Sweden from Denmark. If you’re cruising the Baltic, you’ll likely pass through the strait, which is one of the world’s busiest waterways. Andreas Eriksson, who is the marketing and information manager at the Port of Helsingborg, tells me that roughly 90,000 ships pass Helsingborg each year.

Fortunately for Andreas and his colleague, Monica Bengtsson, who works for the City of Helsingborg to convince cruise ships to visit her fine city, some of those ships do stop. If you’re on board one of those this summer, you can brag that you know the name of the castle across the strait.

Coming in my next post: a few recommendations for those visiting Helsingborg. And then we move on to Sweden’s beautiful capital, Stockholm, the self-proclaimed Capital of Scandinavia.

By now, you know the name of band in the photo, right? If not, watch the video. Now maybe you can tell me this, what are their names? A hint: Their names form the acronym of the band’s name.