Monday, July 6, 2015
We awoke to a new weather day! Gone was the heat and bright
sunshine. It was low gray clouds and rain all day. The high temperature was
only about 65F. The bad news was that we had booked a 1pm Segway tour. The good
news was that once we were out and wet it didn’t really matter and it was too
cold to be out and wet anyway. So, it could have been a nicer weather day but
it wasn’t.
We slept in to after 6am again. Breakfast on Monday is
earlier but we still weren’t down there until after 8am. It was not crowded
today. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are still in town, so they were either earlier
or later today.
We took the T over 1 stop to try to get back to where we
started yesterday, which was not where we wanted to be. Of course, since that
was where we wanted to be, it wasn’t where we wound up. Eventually we found our
walking tour starting point. I had a 2 hour Gamla Stan walking tour that I had
photocopied out of a guide book. It was clearly dated information but it was helpful.
We took time out in the middle to visit the Nobel Museum here. We had visited
the Nobel Peace sites in Oslo, so there was some symmetry. But, mostly it was
to get out of the rain for an hour or so. Nobel was from Sweden/Norway before
they split into 2 countries. I don’t know what it was called when they were one
country. But, he wrote in his will that the Peace Prize was to be presented in
Oslo, so it is. But, he left the others in Sweden, I believe. The building we
visited is where the Literature Prize is announced. The dinner for the winner
is held at the Stockholm City Hall which we did not get to. I am certain that
even though it is a landmark building that we never got a photo of it because
of the rain. We shared a sandwich and a hot chocolate and a water in the Nobel
Bistro. It was good, the sandwich, I mean. The hot chocolate was weak! Norway
wins at hot chocolate too! We checked out some shops this morning and I found a
patch. It has Prince Eric on it. He is on manhole covers and trash cans! Talk
about posterity. Around 12:30pm we arrived outside the Segway office. We sat on
their window sill and waited. About quarter of a guy arrived and invited us in.
Soon, Ida (I don’t know how she spelled it but she said E-duh.) our guide came
and asked us if we’d like to cancel at no penalty. No, we are already here and
wet. She wasn’t sure if any others would show up and told us to go ahead and
suit up in their rain gear. We were both already wearing waterproof sandals and
waterproof pants. Clay had gone with a waterproof jacket with a hood and was
soaked from the chin to the waist. I am not sure but I think it may have been a
camera problem. I had no jacket but had been using an umbrella and I was mostly
dry and pretty comfortable. The problem was no umbrellas on Segways! I borrowed
a rainproof jacket and I wore my southwester hat I had bought in Nova Scotia.
It had a big brim all around so it helped keep the rain off my face and neck.
It went under my helmet. My glasses still got wet when we were moving. I had to
wipe them off every time we stopped. We headed out off Gamla Stan and headed
for the heights of Sodermalm. It was a good tour. It would have been even
better if the views had been clearer! It was nice because we could use the bike
paths and we went up and down lots of little lanes and alleys and through a
bunch of parks. Since there were only 4 of us (another couple from Hong Kong
joined us) and we had skipped the ice cream break, we had extra time and got a
bonus whirlwind tour through Gamla Stan. With all the cobblestones, we were
glad our entire tour had not been in Old Town! It was a 2 hour tour. It was
$63pp. It was very reasonably priced as Segway tours go in our experience. Ida
asked me if we were going to go have a hot chocolate somewhere after the tour
and maybe a cake. I told her that sounded good and asked for a nearby
recommendation thinking we’d stay in Gamla Stan through dinnertime. She didn’t
have one. I told her about my disappointing hot chocolate this morning. She
asked where we were staying and asked me to show her on my map. She was pleased
when she saw it and said we should go back to Central Station near our hotel
and to Vete-Katten on Kungsgatan a few blocks away. She said that would be her
best choice for Princess Cake (or Princes’ Cake) and hot chocolate. That sold
us and back to the T we walked. We went to Vete-Katten right where she marked
it on the map (though the building was under a scaffolding). Sadly, they were
out of Princess Cake (but we saw a display in the window and it was a rounded
green cake so we weren’t sure we missed anything). We each had another pastry
and both were very good. The hot chocolate looked promising served in a giant
bowl-like cup made with steamed milk, but alas it was as pale and watery as the
first even though both were topped with whipped cream. Now, we are worried about finding a slice of
Princess Cake to try!
We are ready for dinner, but haven’t pinned down a location
or even a food to look for. Luckily it has stopped raining and I’ve even seen some
blue skies. We are heading out and going to search locally, I think. We are
back and it is nearly a late bedtime again. We went to China Wang, a few blocks
away. It was almost across the street from where we ate the pastries earlier.
It was OK. It was good and filling. Afterwards we walked over to find the
Swedish state alcohol store, Systembolaget. It turned
out it was almost next door to the Pizza Hut where we ate last night, but we
didn’t know what it was called or what to look for then. Clay got some beers
and I got a couple small boxes of white wine. It is a short cruise that starts
tomorrow on Oceania’s Marina. Then we stopped at 7-Eleven for Clay to get an
ice cream bar and some peanut M&M’s. Lastly, we did something I had been
making noise about ever since we bought our 3-day Access passes. We did a
round-trip ride on Tram 7. It is about 20 minutes each way. We nearly had the
tram to ourselves outbound. Coming back about 30 people boarded that were
clearly leaving the amusement park at Tivoli. It was a nice ride outbound! We
had to walk further than we thought. The Sergels Torg stop was closed due to
construction so we had to walk all the way to Kungstradtgarden. This is the T
station we have been riding to. I had told Clay as much time and walking as
we’ve been doing to find our way out and away once we are above ground, we
might just as well walk where we want to go!
This is the last post from land! Tomorrow we’ll be posting
from a ship again. The end is in sight! We only have about 2 more weeks before
we’re back home.
