Wednesday, June 17, 2015
We are off Marina. The sail into Stockholm was amazing. It
was dotted with little islands, most of which had summer homes on them. We were
glad that we got up early and almost wished we had gotten up even earlier so we
wouldn’t have been wasting scenic sail time in the bathroom. I was up around
1:20 to 1:30am and it was the most amazing scene outside. It looked like the
entire horizon was aglow in a red fiery light. Of course, I could not see the
entire horizon so I don’t know how far around the horizon it went. I tried to
take some photos through the balcony door.
We had an awful time trying to enjoy a final breakfast in
Terrace. They were short staffed and overrun with people who perhaps had never
eaten there before because of their behavior.
We were both nearly brought to tears. Not a good start. We were off in
the first group called, Brown 1. Unfortunately, the Alla Tours people were late
and they also did not check us in or load our luggage or us until every last
passenger had left Marina. So, there did not seem to be any advantage to
getting off ASAP as requested. I suppose on a different day with everyone on
time things might have played out differently. So, Alla Tours loaded one bus
with people going to the Scandic Hotel and all the others in another bus. That
meant that we started late and had to spend the last hour of our 5-hour tour in
going to all the hotels. They could have just dropped us at the Scandic as it
was probably the same distance as what we walked from the Nordic C Hotel. Both
we by the Central Station and that was why we booked the Freys Hotel because we
had originally thought the Central Station/Scandic were a drop off point. I
don’t imagine that the Scandic bus got an hour lopped off their tour. Our guide
was so loopy, that we were actually glad to only have a 4 hour tour. She and
the bus driver quarreled almost every minute of the drive and he was
off-roading over curbs and sidewalks. We nearly had several wrecks. It was a
relief when we could see our hotel a block away and asked to just get our
luggage and walk to it rather than let him drive us around several blocks to
get there as he had done for the first 2 stops. I know the first 4 hotels were
all within walking distance of the Central Station and so was the Scandic. I
think somehow the local operator misunderstood what was needed. Anyway, we
survived and arrived and that’s that.
So, they drove us around a couple of the islands that make
up Stockholm. We had to come in from an island or peninsula out where we had
docked. We drove past the American Embassy and the American Ambassador’s
residence. The first place we visited was the Vasa Museum. It was included in
our tour and was probably the biggest part of it, other than hotel transfers. It
was pretty incredible. There are recovered ship wrecks off NC but nothing in
this state of preservation. Evidently because the waters of the Gulf of Finland
are almost completely fresh water. Who knew? I guess wood is preserved under
fresh water but eaten away under salt water. After over 300 years, when they
found the Vasa they pretty much hauled her up more or less intact, pumped her
out and floated her to the drydock where she still sits. They built the museum
around her. We drove around more of the city and next had a photo stop at
Fjallgatan view point. Last was a walking tour in Old Town or Gamla Stan. That
was interesting. We’d like to spend more time there when we get back to
Stockholm in July, but we’ll need to figure out how to get back and forth from
Freys. After that we just drove around in circles in heavy traffic for what
seemed like an hour while she pointed things out and then she had him drive it
all over again and actually started dropping people off.
Our room wasn’t ready when we arrived after 1pm. We dropped
off our luggage, used their computer to check in to our SAS flights tomorrow
and print our boarding passes. We walked down the street and went into the meat
and fish restaurant the girl at the desk recommended. It was crazy expensive
for big heavy meals. We just wanted a quick bite. It was late for lunch and we
were tired. She suggested Wayne’s Coffee across the lane. It was perfect though
still pricey. According to our guide, we must try the famous rye bread and
cinnamon buns. We got both. Clay had a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich on dark
rye. It had spicy mustard and he really liked it. I had a salami and cream
cheese sandwich on ciabatta bread. They were both served warm and mine came
with a side salad which we shared. We each had a 33cl Coke Zero at over $3 a
piece! The sandwiches were reasonable priced at about $6-8 but the drinks were
over the top. We shared a cinnamon bun for dessert. It was less than the price
of a tiny Coke! Clay saw someone with an ice cream cone and he wanted to check
out the 7-Eleven down the street. We walked up hill about 3 blocks and found an
outdoor produce and flower market. It was right beside a kind of food court
mall. Clay got his gelato there. We walked back down by the 7-Eleven and even
though they had beer, we didn’t buy anything. We also did not pick a place for
dinner. We still need to walk over to Arlanda Express to get the lay of the
land before we have to take that train to the airport in the morning. We got
back to Freys after 3pm as requested and they had a room ready for us. It is
the smallest $237 hotel room we have ever had! It does include breakfast
though! We have 3 nights booked here in July when we get back and every night
of those 3 is more than tonight’s room costs. We need to come back to the same
place in order to store our large suitcases here since it is inconvenient to
fly, train, ferry, bus, cab, repeat, etc. with all our luggage. We are leaving
all our somewhat dressy clothes and shoes behind and will hope not to need
them!
We went out to find the Arlanda Express train parked less
than 2 blocks away from our hotel front door by turning right as we walked out
and crossing the street. We could see it from here. A train leaves about every
15 to 20 minutes and it is a 20-minute ride. So, it should take us less than an
hour to get to the airport. Being an international flight, we are supposed to
arrive 2 hours in advance. So, we will have breakfast after they open at 6:30am
and be checked out and on our way by 8am. We checked into their luggage storage
our 2 big suitcases tonight before dinner. We walked around in a different
direction tonight and found Jensens Bofhus for dinner. Fortunately, it was only
one block away because it started raining while we were in there and we had not
brought raincoats or umbrellas out with us. It was basically a steakhouse. I
had a flank steak with fries and béarnaise. Clay had Danish ribs and fries. My
steak was great to start but about half way through it, it ceased being well
done and was medium rare. I cut and cut until I had cut the whole steak and all
the rest was rare. I just started eating fries. Eventually, a different
waitress came by and Clay asked her to take my steak and have it finished
cooking. I told her no, don’t, I won’t eat it. I wouldn’t. I don’t ever send
anything back to a kitchen and if I do, I don’t eat what comes back. She
offered us all you can eat make your own soft-serve ice cream sundaes instead.
They were a $6 value per person, so we said yes. It made her happy and it made
us happier as well. Clay had a big one and I had a small one because I didn’t
see the big cups. Clay put stale peanuts in his though so we’re even. They
charged 15 SEK for tap water unless you ordered wine. I didn’t. I just ordered
tap water. It came with 3 little lemon pieces squeezed in it, which really
chapped my butt. But, they did not charge me for the water! That made me feel
better too. Everyone has told us that Norway is very expensive. For some
reason, we didn’t think that in Oslo. Clay may have been having one of his
money conversion lapses there that day and we were just wrong. Copenhagen was
stupidly expensive. Stockholm is runner up to Copenhagen right now.
That is it for now. Tomorrow we are back to Oslo. We have a
tour the next day, so I guess other than the flight, it might be mostly a day
of rest.
