Lori's Travels

At last, our cruise is beginning. On this, our first day of the cruise, the weather was sunny and warm again. We ate a late Hilton breakfast at 10 a.m. since we knew we wouldn’t be eating again until sometime well after our 1 p.m. boarding time. Then we arranged a 12:30 checkout and large taxi arrival at the hotel front desk.

We arrived at the cruise terminal just before 1:00 p.m. to check in, after a comfortable 15-minute taxi ride to the terminal. The lines to drop off our luggage, go though a security screening, and check in weren’t long, and we were onboard a little after 1:30. We were questioned about our 4 bottles of alcohol during the security check, but were allowed to bring them all aboard. We found our two adjacent staterooms on deck 8 and settled in, figuring out how we were going to store our clothes and suitcases, etc. so that we could still walk in the small cabins.

Then we explored the ship, unpacked more, met our stateroom attendant, Verrol, and went to eat a late lunch at 3 p.m. We ate our buffet lunch in the pleasant outside rear deck, and then returned to our staterooms to prepare for the safety drill. A little after 4:00, we participated in the safety drill by assembling at our designated muster station down on deck 6. Then at 6 p.m., our ship left the pier and we sailed out into the Swedish archipelago.

As we sailed out into this beautiful island-studded sea, we all assembled on my stateroom’s balcony to open the champagne and wine bottles and toast the start of the cruise. We stayed out on the balcony to view the islands pass by in the setting sun as we drank our wine. It was warm, sunny, and very picturesque. Sunset was not until nearly 10 p.m.

Our dinner seating time for the whole cruise is at 8:30 p.m. So after a while on the balcony, we got ready for dinner in the Reflections dining room. My dinner included escargot, fish of the day which was barramundi, and a blueberry pear crumble, all of which were delicious.

Caroline and Emma are in the stateroom with me. Caroline is sleeping on the foldout bunk over the bed that Emma and I are sharing.

Saturday was our day to see the city. We first fortified ourselves at the Hilton’s breakfast buffet at 9:00. Then, before the sightseeing began, Gary and I went on a special mission to buy some champagne and wine at the nearest liquor store. It opened at 10:00 and was a half mile up the hill from the Hilton. We intend to bring the maximum number of bottles aboard the ship, 2 per stateroom, for our bon voyage celebration tomorrow as we set sail. We were successful in our alcohol acquisition, so then we returned to the hotel to get the kids and see the town.

We walked to Gamla Stan to get aboard the hop-on hop-off boat taking us to the Vasa Museum. There we saw the awesome 17th century Swedish warship that sank 20 minutes into its maiden voyage in 1628 because it was too top-heavy. It was raised from the harbor in the 1960s, carefully restored and preserved, and is now displayed in this museum.

After touring that museum, we walked to nearby Skansen, an open air museum displaying homes and other buildings from all over Sweden, showing how the Swedes used to live and work. We went into a farm laborer’s home and heard a little about what life was like for them, which was probably similar as our some of our ancestors’ lives. There’s also a small zoo of Nordic animals there, which we walked through. We got lunch just outside the Skansen entrance at a small burger/hot dog/fish & chip stand.

The final sightseeing event of the day was another boat ride. To get to the dock where it started, we took another short ride on the hop-on hop-off boat, then walked across a small island to the downtown pier. We used our pass to get our “Under the Bridges of Stockholm” tickets, then in the 20 minutes before the boat was due to leave, we enjoyed some delicious Italian soft ice cream nearby. The boat ride started at 4:00 and took us on a 2.5-hour cruise around the islands that Stockholm is located on, with an audio recording and headphones interpreting the sights around us. It was a very relaxing and pleasant way to end the day. After the end of the ride, we walked back across Gamla Stan to our hotel.

After some time in the hotel’s executive lounge, we walked to a Thai restaurant up the hill, near the liquor store we had visited in the morning, and had a good dinner there.

Note: Unfortunately, this blog site doesn’t enable me to upload any photos from my camera, so you won’t see any pictures for the duration. My apologies.

Friday was our day to explore the Old City of Stockholm more. At 10:00, we ate a hearty breakfast from the Hilton’s buffet. Several of us enjoyed some pickled herring and European-style (liquid) yogurt, plus cucumbers and tomatoes, which are prevalent in all Swedish breakfast buffets. Plus there were lots of varieties of breads and fruit, waffles and omelets to choose from. It was an impressive buffet.

Then we walked over the bridge, in the sunshine and warmth of late morning, to Gamla Stan. We retraced some of our path from last evening, but added in sights from Rick Steves’ walking tour as described in his guide book. With our Stockholm Pass cards, we got easy admission into Stockholm’s Lutheran cathedral, which is very old and has an amazing ebony and silver alter, as well as other sculptures and burial crypts. We also stopped outside the Royal Palace to see the changing of the guard. Then we went inside to visit the Royal Apartments, the Royal Chapel, and the Royal Treasury where the crown jewels are kept.

We decided next that we needed to take part in the Swedish tradition of “fika” or coffee break. We stopped at a coffee shop in one of the Gamla Stan squares that had several tables under umbrellas in the square. We sampled their cinnamon plus cardamom buns called “kanalbullar” with a beverage of our choice, while people watching on the square.

We returned to the Hilton about 3 p.m. so Emma could finish her final class assignment and the rest of us could rest. While the kids had been able to sleep well through the previous night, Gary and I had each experienced a couple hours of wakefulness in the wee morning hours.

One of the interesting things about Stockholm at this time of year is that the sun rises about 3:30 a.m. and sets at 10 p.m. Thankfully, the rooms have thick curtains to block out the very early sunshine.

Due to new incompatibility between my previously-used blog site and my iPad, I’ll need to post to this plain Blogspot site for this trip. My apologies for the change.

Today was the day of our drive home. It was a sunny and warm day in Kennewick. After our free Super 8 hotel breakfast, we packed up and headed out.

First, we stopped for some sightseeing and birding at Sacajawea State Park at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers in Kennewick. After spotting some white pelicans and other good birds, we went inside the visitor center and toured through the Sacajawea, Lewis and Clark exhibits there. Then we drove around a while in Paso and Kennewick to get a feel for the cities.

Sometime around noon we started the drive home. It was a busy Sunday coming over Snoqualmie Pass on I-90, with lots of cars and construction clogging up the road and making it stop-and-go driving. But our audio book made it bearable. After a long afternoon of driving, we were happy to see Issaquah again about 6 p.m. But it was a great trip showing us amazing western sights and providing many good memories.