Stockholm

Robbie Burns certainly had it correct, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry". We arrived at Arlanda, the airport for Stockholm, 30 minutes late. There was a line up at the information center so it took over 20 minutes to get our Stockholm passes, the wait for the bus to the car rental area was lengthy, processing for the car took time, Jude F left a bag on the bus which was returned amazingly fast, it took me a few minutes to figure out how the Volkswagen back up camera worked and then we hit May 1st holiday weekend traffic on our drive to Millesgarden in eastern Stockholm.

The Millesgarden restaurant had closed 30 minutes before our arrival so we had a quick peek at the garden, got back in the car and headed to our Airbnb. Fortunately there was a Burger King on the way so we ate, drove to a small grocery store close to the house to stock up for our stay and arrived at Martin's house at 5:30 pm on the dot.

Martin greeted us, provided a tour and was off for the long weekend. His house provided lots of space for us in lovely surroundings, including teak furniture, Apple TV, 3 bathrooms, workout room and sauna. We wondered why he would let anyone stay at his ordered and immaculate home but enjoyed it for our two night's stay.

Below, we stop for a photo op while seeing the Vasa, a Swedish ship that sank in 1628 and was salvaged in 1961.

Kim and I headed out to find the liquor store and after a couple attempts found the correct turn off, made our purchases and headed back to the house on an easy to use back road instead of the expressway. Later that evening, Kim and Jude F went for a walk and found the restaurant for the next night's final group meal.

During the evenings around the teak dining room table at Martin's house, Jude F honed her skill as a cribbage hustler and once back home in Winnipeg, used the knowledge to defeat her mother resoundingly on several occasions.

Saturday, April 29th, we drove to downtown Stockholm having determined that paying for parking was virtually the same price as taking the train which was not included in the Stockholm pass.

Below is the Stockholm skyline as viewed from our boat tour.

Everyone was fortified with a Starbucks beverage and we headed out to find the on/off bus stop, managed to catch it quickly and rode to the interchange with the on/off boat which had just started to operate for the season.

The combination of the boat and bus provided a good overview of the city and it's history. After viewing the city from the water, we wandered through old town where we visited the Royal Palace, toured the Nobel Museum, did some shopping and had lunch. After that we caught the bus and went to the Vasa Museum. We rode the bus back to our starting point, had more Starbucks and drove back to Martin's after a full day.

Pictured below, the harbour and guard at the Royal Palace; across, the Vasa, Kim, Jude F and Oskar the gnome, views in old town.

That evening we had a lovely dinner at Papa Gabi, an Italian restaurant. The interesting thing about dining in Scandinavia is when the total bill reaches 600, you must remind yourself that the amount is in Krone not dollars and just relax and enjoy the ambiance.

Sunday, April 29th we were on the move at 9 am for the expected 45 minute drive to the airport. Light traffic shortened it by 10 minutes so there was plenty of time to drop Kim and Jude F off for their 11:35 flight to London - Heathrow, gas up and drop off the car, go to the wrong terminal, ride the shuttle around the whole circle, check in and have lunch before our flight. Norwegian Air, although less expensive was late again and this time managed to lose our luggage. (the idiom - you get what you pay for, comes to mind.)

Kim flew from London to JFK and was home to feed the Roosevelt Island cats on Monday. Jude F stopped in London, viewed a play, continued on to Calgary for a visit with her best friend before getting back to Winnipeg for a late Tuesday shift.

Our stay in Finland was fine but ended up only being a stop not a visit. There was a 1 hour time change between the two countries so by the time we met with the airline rep about our luggage, took the long walk to the train, made it into Helsinki and took the subway to the office to get our apartment key and walked to the apartment, it was 5:30 pm.

There was a small grocery store close by where we bought food for dinner and kept the phone handy waiting for a call about our luggage. Got the call at 8:30 that the luggage was in and another call when it was delivered on the street outside the apartment at 10:30 pm.