July 27th. At about 7:40 AM we arrived in Stockholm from Copenhagen. For many of us, this was our first overnight in the sleeping compartment of a train. During the night, the train was disassembled and put on a ferry--to be reassembled on the other side. Fred and Judy Triggs stayed up to "supervise." Our bags traveled by taxi to our hotel while we walked the seven or eight blocks. We're staying at Queen's Hotel on Drottninggatan which is a pedestrian street and leads directly to Gamla Stan. This hotel is only part of the building and we had a code to let us into the building. The elevator is practically an antique but it has a lovely lobby/breakfast room with antiques, flowers, and a grand piano.
We ate breakfast and Jane gave us an overview of our stay in Stockholm before taking us on an orientation tour down Drottninggatan, through Sergels Torg, past Sweden House (the TI), through Kungstrådgården, over to Gamla Stan and past the Royal Palace. After our walk we returned to the TI , bought a Stockholm card, changed money and then had lunch at a restaurant that the Hinman's had found near the market. Dave and I split a sandwich and a salad. We returned to the hotel for naps and showers. Later we joined Jane and returned to Gamla Stan to Kristina's for dinner. We both had gravalax for an appetizer, roast beef for a main course and split cloudberry a la mode for desert. We strolled around Gamla Stan and then back up Drottninggatan to our hotel.
July 28th. At 9:00 A.M. our group met and took bus 47 (14 SEK) to the Vasa Museum. We had a private tour with Nicola as our guide and then saw the movie about how the ship was raised from the bottom of the harbor and restored. We then rode another bus to the city hall and a boat trip. We missed the boat. Back to Skansen on the bus--at least part way. All the buses we wanted to board were full so we ended up walking the rest of the way. We had lunch first and then took a guided tour from a guide that must have learned English from Julia Child--it was still better than my Swedish. I had hoped to buy some crafts but nothing appealed to us--or would travel well. We watched a "Lawrence Welk" type TV show being filmed. Finally, we were so tired we returned to the hotel on bus 47 which stopped at Sergels Torg instead of continuing to the stop we had boarded on that morning. We walked the rest of the way to our hotel stopping for dinner at our previous days' lunch spot.
July 29th. We met Jane in front of the hotel and traveled by T-Bana and bus to Carl Millesgården to see his statuary and art collection. We returned to the city hall for a tour led by Helena and saw where the Nobel prizes were awarded. The Scandinavian city halls are much more elaborate than those in the USA. After that tour we board a boat for a ride through the canals. We had delicious salmon by the dock then walked to an apotek where Dave got some nose drops for his stuffy ear. (Since drugs are not sold over the counter in an apotek, a person takes a number and waits for a pharmacist to interview you. After explaining your problem, they will help you with a prescription if you don't still need a doctors's care.) Dave's pharmacist explained all the directions since the written ones were in Swedish.
After picking up some souvenirs and postcards we returned to the hotel where we once again sent our luggage by taxi and took bus 53 to the Viking Line. Along the way, we saw a girl with a pet rat on her shoulder. Jane went in and picked up our reservations while Dave photographed our ship the Mariella. Our accommodations were on Deck 6 (the top deck for cabins) and dinner was at the first seating on the Scandinavian buffet with window seats so we could enjoy the cruise through the archipelago. We were warned to pace ourselves as the meal was all you could eat and all the beer and wine you could drink. I skipped the main course because the fish course was so delicious. After dinner we wandered the ship.
July 30th. We enjoyed a Viking breakfast at 7:00 AM and were able to get a table by a window overlooking the bow of the ship. At 9:00 AM we docked in Helsinki. Our morning bus tour included a drive through the embassy district, a stop at the church in the rock (Temppeliaukio) complete with a jazz singer (Amazing Grace, Swing Low Sweet Chariot etc.), a stop at the Sibelius Memorial (600 gigantic cigarette buts), a look at some ice breakers and a ride through downtown.
During the afternoon we were free to look in the design shops, walk through the market place (sampled berries and a fried fish lunch), looked through the Russian Orthodox Cathedral (Upensky), the Lutheran Cathedral and Senate Square and had cappuccino and a pastry at Kappeli's where Sibelius used to eat. We returned to the Mariella and napped in preparation for another feast at the Viking buffet. That evening we took in the first show at the ship's nightclub.July 31st. At dawn we were back in Sweden and transferred to a bus with Mats as our driver. It was a double decker bus and I chose seats at the front on top. Our first stop was Drottningholm castle, the home of the King and Queen of Sweden. After an informative tour, we were free to wander the grounds. The castle included a formal French garden and an English or informal park.
Then we bussed to Sigtuna, an attractive old town with lots of shops. After a wonderful picnic of meats, fish and cheese as well as veggies and fruit--oh, I almost forgot the cloudberry liqueur--we returned to Stockholm and boarded our train, an X2000 to Oslo. An X2000 is equivalent to the French TGV. The Swedish country side with the many farms with red farmhouses and cute towns was enthralling to me. We arrived in Oslo about 45 minutes late due to switching problems in Norway. We walked about three or four blocks to our hotel, the Rainbow Spectrum and collapsed.