Taxinge Castle

Taxinge is a white eighteenth-century manor on the south shore of Lake Malaren, once owned by Axel von Fersen the elder, and its architecture is not why most Swedes know it. The cafe in the castle lays out a kakbord, a cake table, of around sixty different cakes, buns and biscuits baked on the premises, and people drive out from Stockholm for it - the buffet is the business and the castle is the setting. There is also a garden centre, craft shops in the outbuildings, a park down to the lake and a jetty where the summer steamer calls. It is unabashedly a day-trip destination rather than a historic house.

What you actually see

• A cake buffet of about sixty kinds - baked on the premises.
• A white manor on Malaren - eighteenth century, plain.
• Craft shops and a garden centre - in the outbuildings.
• A park and jetty - with a summer steamer calling.

When to go

Year round; the boat runs in summer only. Two hours.

Honest expectations

It is a cafe with a castle attached, not a museum - the interiors are not really shown. Weekends are very busy and queues form. The buffet is a fixed price whatever you eat. Public transport is awkward.

Nearby

Mariefred and Gripsholm are west; Sodertalje is north-east.