29-AUG—Stockholm

Stockholm, Sweden.  (Well, some of it!)

Well, it had to come to an end.  Alas, they evicted us from our room, and threw us off the boat.  Sigh.  But before they did, Theresa got up early and sat on the balcony and enjoyed the view.  She was very happy watching the little islands and tiny villages pass by in the early morning light.  Then the fog set in, and visibility went to zero.

Quaint villages.

Misty isles.

Part of the old town.

We packed up the rest of the room, and hiked up to the buffet breakfast for one last hurrah.  We then waited in one of the lounges and visited with some new friends until it was time to get off the ship for good.  We headed out, grabbed our bags, and then sought a taxi.  Theresa had done her due diligence, and when the cabbies wanted more than it should have been (by her research), we eschewed them and called Uber!!  It took him a little bit to get there, but we paid a third to half as much as the cab drivers wanted!!

Exploring the cobblestone streets.

After dropping our bags at the hotel, we set out to explore the old city by foot, and watch the changing of the guards in front of the King’s Palace and Residence.  We knew there would be a lot of pageantry since they were busy blocking off streets, and people were queuing up over an hour early.  So, we continued our walk and came back to take our place among the throngs. 

And alleys!

I'd be lyin' if I said I didn't want to play ball!  :-)

The Swedish Parliament building.

Roomba does lawns!!

So very authentic...

...except???

And here we go!

All assembled in the square.

Here comes the cavalry!! 
(There was a full band on horseback.  See video if possible.)

"I don't want to work!  I just want to bang on these drums all day!"

Look at all those horse's _____....and their camera phones!

OK, that's a strange way to dismount!!

Our lunch was all downhill!

After the show (or some of it), we sought out lunch.  We finally selected a nice looking place, with a reasonable fixed price menu.  We headed in, and were promptly pointed to the basement.  As we looked down the stairs, I said to Theresa, “Why do we keep being sent to the dungeons?”  Well, little did we know at that moment, that this actually was a prison 700 years ago.  They had several little cubby holes with a small table and a bench or two chairs, which seemed like a great place for a romantic little date night.  Except 700 years ago, those quaint little nooks were probably a lot less cute.  Lunch was actually very nice, and tasty.  We had Swedish meatballs and pasta.  It occurred to us sitting there, the last meal we had in Sweden was a day trip from Finland, and we had Swedish meatballs in Ikea.  (We can’t count breakfast on the ship as a “Swedish meal”, since we were not off the boat.  And since we can’t count our Suez Canal cruise as a visit to Egypt…a rule’s a rule!)

We did dare!!

Theresa and the old buildings.

After lunch, we headed over to the Nobel Museum.  It was a pretty place with a decent amount of info on Alfred Nobel, how and why he set up the foundation, and how the Laureates are nominated, chosen, and honored.  By the way, the going rate right now is about nine million Swedish Kroners, or about one million US Dollars.  Nobel invented many things, but it took off with dynamite, and ended with smokeless gun powder.  He amassed an enormous fortune, but he never married and had no children.  He wanted to encourage the development of sciences and also loved literature and hoped for peace.

After a long day tromping around, we stopped for a quick ice cream and headed back to the hotel for the night.