Eschew Obfuscation

Day 11, Saturday Aug 5th, Stockholm Sweden

Posted by Max Dunn Sat, 05 Aug 2006 10:13:00 GMT

(Suzanne) It was around 4:20a when the room started to get bright. I left the curtains open last night to let the natural light come into our stateroom. By 4:45a, the sun was peering in. I’m outside now, wrapped in my blanket. It’s not quite 5a. I came out to our balcony to watch the sun rise and to see what was around us. We were told that we will be navigating through the Northern Stockholm Archipelago from 4:30a until arrival at 9a and it’s supposed to be spectacular

Our ship is maneuvering its way real slow and as I look beyond our balcony, I can see our huge wake slowly reaching the shores of the numerous islands sitting out there which are all heavily wooded and in all different shapes and sizes. It kind of reminds me of the Puget Sound in Washington. Dotted along the edges of some of the islands sit nicely built homes in all different colors. Some big, some small, I can’t tell if they are normal residences or summer homes. Jetting out are docks with boats moored on each end.

Well, I eventually got tired and went back to catch some more zzzzz’s. We were just about there when I woke up. Our ship pulled a 360 before docking so for the next few days we have a view of downtown Stockholm from our balcony. We gave the kids the choice of going into town (which is about a 20 minute walk along the waterfront) either 1 or 2 days. Today we were just going to walk into the Old Town area and scope it out. Maxie decided to go into town with us which made Claire kind of sad (I think because she knew that he would get all of the attention). In the end, she decided to stay on the ship with her friends in the Fun Factory. She said that if Maxie went with us and if she stayed, it’s what they each want to do and they would both be happy. I’m sure glad she can think things out because we ended up walking at least 5 miles and she would have been miserable.

The guard at the pier told some people that it would take at least 30 minutes to get to Old Town. We were (well, at least I was) determined to get there in at least 20 so we started pacing ourselves as we walked along the waterfront towards town. It was a good walk, and as fast as Maxie can be, he was even slowing down. But we made it in 20…whew! Old Town was another typical European city with it’s colored buildings and narrow cobblestone streets usually winding its way towards a square. It was filled with a lot of touristy shops and restaurants with hoards of people coming in and out.

We crossed another canal over to more shops and what I would consider their financial district, with modern buildings mixed with older ones. We hit a big plaza area in the financial district along the waterfront. It had a stage in the middle and there was a concert going on with booths along the side that had people selling food, etc. There was a violinist playing on stage with a backup pianist. She was really good. She played fast, modern stuff. I don’t even know what you would call it…maybe country meets alternative rock? What was nice about it was that it was a local thing (and not a tourist thing).

We walked back into Old Town and passed the Royal Palace before shopping for crystal and Maxie’s souvenirs. Kudos to Max for putting up with all of the shopping – he was a real trooper today. We managed to walk back to the ship (Maxie was determined to get a taxi) and relax before dinner.

Dinner was good tonight. And it was the only time that we saw Claire. I had a rack of veal (with no sauce). It was huge. And it went well with the Foley Pinot Noir that Max ordered. I really liked the chilled garlic soup, except that I wished that it was more garlicky! Creme Brulee was my dessert of choice tonight. MMMMM!

Despite the fact that something’s been waking me up in the morning above us (someone’s dragging something across the deck around 6:30a every morning), one advantage is that we get live music in the afternoon and evenings. It’s nice to sit out on our balcony, overlooking a beautiful city, hearing musicians play (even though we can’t see them). It’s like having a private concert! We got jazz tonight….