Travel with Angela Lansbury: Colourful Sweden, Colourful Farm Hotels and the Colourful Trail of Pippi Longstocking, the Children's Book Heroine

Sweden has a yellow and blue flag. But it is a northern country and not one which I naturally associate with colour. However, the big surprise is the wonderful coloured buildings, firstly the jolly colours, and secondly that they are from an earlier era.

1 Colour is visible in Visby, walled medieval capital of Gotland (the only city on the island) called the city of roses and ruins, and a UNESCO world heritage site in Sweden. Many houses and buildings have orange tiled rooftops.

Visby

Gotland is an island in the Baltic Sea approximately 90 km off the eastern coast of Sweden. It has been inhabited for a long time, probably dating back to the Stone Age. Today there are more than 40,000 ancient sites to be found on Gotland, and the main town, Visby, with its medieval walls, has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Photo: Jerker Andersson/imagebank.sweden.se

In Visby you can visit sites which appear in the children's book and film about Pippi Longstocking.

What is her story all about? An orphaned girl who has a house and enough money, gold, to buy toys for all the children of the town, until two thieves try to steal her money. The journey or chase goes all through the cobblestoned alleyways of the fairytale medieval town, past the stone walls with their towers, past the sea and boats, the ruins and the roses, and colourful buildings, including her rustic refuge and happy home.

These pictures show a yellow walled building with blue shutters, which reminds me of the Swedish flag. Inside the decorations are a pretty pink.