EuroTour 2010, Day 29, Stockholm to the Baltic Sea

This is our last morning in Stockholm, which means that in just a few hours we will be on board a relatively massive cruise ship.  But first, our last breakfast on land for ten days.

I know that there has been a policy as of late to not bore you with breakfast, but I do love these pancakes.  In the States there is an institution which I believe is called the House International of the Pancake, and they serve a similar pancake with some name that makes it sound international-ish.  Just like the Swedish Meatball is just a Meatball here, in this country the Swedish Pancake is just a Pancake.  Adjectives in action.

We are all packed for the cruise, and Barbie's new little buddy gets tucked away in her shoulder bag.

Stockholm Hotel Lobby Candid.  July, 2010.

In the lobby, Barbie check s out of the hotel while I stand by the bags while this couple was snoozing away.   I suspect these lobby snoozers have bodies still in one of the USA's time zones. 

We hopped into a taxi and our driver, who was from Eritrea, got us straight to the correct pier.  I must say, he might be the first person I have met from Eritrea.  Thanks to basic cable I know that Eritrea has a fascinating and ancient history that archeologists are just uncovering.  One thing that surprises you about Stockholm is that it has quite an international population.  They have emigres from all around the world.  The idea that this is a homogenous land of tall, blond, Nordic peoples is completely false.

We arrived at the cruise terminal immediately after one of the official transfer buses, which explains the line.  The line moved quickly, and someday if you are lucky you can ask Barbie or myself how Barbie influenced the Crystal employees to change their way of doing things to make the line move even faster.  She is that good.

Our first full view of the Crystal Symphony.  That, my friends and Wasters, is going to be home for ten days.

We are greeted onboard by a string quartet in the Crystal Plaza.  Yes, that plaza is on a boat.  Amazing what they can do these days with a boat.

Meal number one aboard the Crystal Symphony.  You are used to seeing a variety of restaurants.  Now, for ten days, you will see what kind of variety the chef's aboard this ship can offer.

Jeff's pureed soup of garden vegetables.

Jeff's fusilli primavera.

Barbie's cobb salad.

Barbie's apple sorbet.

My dad's sugar free chocolate mousse.

My mom's dessert, a fruit plate.  Looks like my breakfasts, no?

Barbie presents our room.  A fun thing about cruise ship cabins is the super efficient use of space.

One of the annoying things about cruising is the life boat exercise that you must go through before leaving port.  It is required by law, based on the idea that if you make everyone put on the life preserver and walk to their assigned lifeboat, they will know exactly what to do in the case of an emergency.  It must be nice to live in a world where a calm walkthrough is genuine preparation for disaster.

Fun with a crowd shot.

Spot the bride.

There!

Proof!  You see, during this exercise I spotted my cousin Cyndi's in-laws, who by coincidence are on the same cruise as us.  She rushed over to say hello and I got trapped behind the crowd.  But I got a fun picture out of it.

Walking around the top deck, getting acquainted.  I doubt I will see this area this peaceful very often.

Hanging out on the Lido Deck.  My feet have been to the Crystal Symphony.

More looking around, taking it in.

Stockholm is a popular cruise port, you can see.  There is actually a third ship off to the left.

If you do not like wildlife, skip forward.  Though, to be honest, this is more like scavengerlife.  Still, scavengers or not, these birds are graceful.

Seagull.

The same shot, cropped.  What did I tell you?  A crop is as good as a zoom.

Another seagull.

The same shot, cropped.  

Another seagull, who came quite close.

Close enough that this one's crop is truly a close-up.

Okay, we are done with the birds.  I could not help it.  I took maybe thirty seagull pics, and you only had to see three.  I am the model of restraint.

The sky as we pull away from port.

Dinnertime.

Jeff's crab bisque.

Barbie's prosciutto with apple and watercress salad.

Barbie's broiled fresh Mediterranean sea bream fillet.

Jeff's grilled balck angus sirloin steak.

For dessert, Barbie's Variation of Strawberry; strawberry almond cake, strawberry panna cotta, and strawberry sorbet.

Jeff's Peanut Butter Decadence; peanut butter praline, peanut butter sauce, chocolate fudge cookie with peanut ganache, and peanut butter frozen yogurt.

Yes, the desserts receive full descriptions while the other menu items do not.

This peanut butter praline was, in a word, ridicutastic.  I share this close-up with Monique in mind, as she and I share a bond over the fact that our favorite ice cream is Baskin Robbin's peanut butter 'n' chocolate.

They had this map up on the ship, with thin dark lines and arrows charting our course.  It was hard to see them and I added red arrows for your convenience.  For those who have not memorized that Baltic Sea: Stockholm to Tallinn, Estonia to St. Petersburg, Russia to Helsinki, Finland to Warnemunde, Germany to Copenhagen, Denmark.  (I have discovered that, among other nifty built-in features, Mac OS's picture previewer allows you to draw arrows on pics with great precision.  I shall be using this.)

After some time getting settled in the cabin, we went topside to perhaps check out the view.  

Rain.  Tomorrow is a full day at sea with no stop at a port.  Let us hope there is no rain.

Barbie chillin' in the Symphony's night club, Luxe.

Ping Pong.  More fun than a night club.  (Though the DJ was kicking.)  For the record, I tossed the ball at Barbie five times and took five pictures, hoping to get a shot of the ball coming off of her paddle.  This is the first attempt.  The next four were completely useless.  It may be raining, but the Neptune of photography had my back.

Barbie loves these glass sinks, which have the best drains ever.  Seriously, one push and they hold water, a second push and it drains through.  Once again the cruise ship cabin proves itself as the most efficient use of space with the coolest fixtures possible.

Yes, the last pic of the night is of the bathroom.  This is how it had to be.  You know and I know it.

Until tomorrow...

EuroTour 2010, Day 28, Stockholm

Today is our last day on land, as tomorrow get get on board a cruise ship and live in a floating hotel for ten days.  How to celebrate our last day on land?  Irony demands that we take a boat ride to visit a museum featuring an old boat.

The view from breakfast, not a view of breakfast.  I hope that you appreciate the difference.

We climbed aboard the "Hop On - Hop Off" tour boat, which is really a bus on water.  As touristy as that sounds, there a few better ways to get around Stockholm, and no matter what I enjoy being on the water.  It takes me back to my childhood Sundays on my grandfather's boat.

Any city looks better when seen from the sea.

Here we are disembarking the tour boat to visit the Vasa Museum.  You see, the Vasa is a warship that was built in 1628, built to join the fight in the Thirty Year's War.  You might recall that the Thrity Year's War (1618-1648) was centered in and around modern day Germany, which at the time was the loosely held together Holy Roman Empire.  Pitting Protestants against Catholics, every monarch in the region seemed to jump in and see if he could not increase his slice of the European pie under the guise of defending his faith.  Sweden greatly increased its power during this war, but the Vasa did not help very much.  Built just a little top-heavy with insufficient ballast, 120 meters into her maiden voyage a light wind turned the Vasa on her side, allowing water to flow into the gun decks and sinking the ship.

In 1956, amateur archeologist Anders Franzen found evidence of a large wooden object in the harbor.  Soon enough, it was proven that this was the Vasa and, once realizing the extent to which this 300 year old shipwreck was intact, they set about a five-year process of bringing it to the surface in the best condition possible.  On April 24, 1961, the Vasa rose from the depths after 333 years at the bottom of the bay.

Lunch break at the Vasa museum.  I finally get meatballs in Sweden.  

Back to the Vasa, I will share a series of pictures.  It is quite beautiful to behold this ship.  You literally get to travel back to 1628 and see exactly what a warship looked like.

Today, as she likes to say, my mother celebrates the 41st anniversary of her 29th birthday.  And she gets to have her picture taken next to a ship that has celebrated the anniversary of its 29th birthday 353 times.  In honor of her birthday, my mother gets to have her picture taken next to something that definitely makes her look very young.

You should try to guess how many pictures I took of the Vasa.  I have a count.  Every now and then I remember back fifteen years or so when I shot photographs on 35mm film.  Madness.  I would not have had enough film with me to take half as many pictures.

The bow of the ship was designed to also be the latrine.  Take a close look and see how the sailors were able to relieve themselves without any waste to clean up on board.

As was tradition in that time, the Vasa is simply covered with carvings and decorations.  Most salute the power and greatness of King Gustavus Adolphus.

Had she been sea worthy, that crow's nest would have afforded one of the more beautiful views of the time.  By the way, apparently the Vasa's sister ship, the Apple, was built at the same time and was identical in every way, except the Apple was 1.5 meters wider.  The Apple was able to sail and fight in the war.   This massive ship only needed to be a fraction wider to be sea worthy.

In spite of sinking in calm, shallow waters, 30-50 men were not able to escape from the Vasa as she sank.  Their remains are kept here in the Vasa museum, with their once submerged tomb.

Time to leave the Vasa.  

Tivoli Grona Lund, Stockholm's amusement park.  I got video of people screaming on the rides.

This castle is now used as a headquarters for the Swedish Navy.

Our boat is taking us back to the Old Town.  Barbie and I get off early to explore, while my parents head back to the hotel.

In a Stockholm convenience store, we are shown this marvel of engineering.  A plastic grocery basket, with wheels and a fold up handle.  Let us patent this in the USA and sell a jillion to the supermarkets of America.

Walking through Old Town.

This gentleman shouted at me, "No photo!"  I said, "Okay, no photo."  Then I took a photo.  I am fairly certain that he has more to worry about than I do.  If you are going to commit your little crime in public then I do not see the point in complaining when the public takes notice.

Do you see what that man is doing?  He is taking a picture of his dinner!  I got a picture of someone taking a food picture.  The circle is complete.

Much to our displeasure, the hotel restaurant would not take us for my mother's birthday dinner.  After Barbie let a few hotel representatives know that the ridiculous restaurant manager was saving several dozen empty tables for reservations that were over a half hour later for a smorgasbord buffet, as in we could be in and out of the buffet well before the next guests arrived, we decided to go for a walk and find somewhere else to eat dinner.

We ended up at NK for my mother to buy some make-up.  NK is short for Nordiska Kompaniet, literally Nordic Company.  This huge, luxurious department store and landmark receives 12 million visitors per year. And there happens to be a cafe in the inner courtyard.  A brief look at the menu and we decide to let our reservation at TGI Friday's go.  (Barbie still had the beeper, but we will return it on our way back.)

Barbie's shrimp salad.

Father's focaccia sandwich.

Mother got some sort of salad thingy.

Croque monsieur for me.

Walking back from dinner, we wander through Kungstradgarden again, this time seeing a free concert.  It was quite amusing to hear the band ramble on in Swedish and then kick into an English version of Jailhouse Rock.

Sweden's King Charles XIII.  I recall seeing the name written in Swedish as Karolus, but cannot find that now.

The least inspiring rock and roll band ever, or the least inspiring rock and roll band ever?

The top of NK, with its rotating NK emblem with a clock on the reverse side.

We had dinner under THAT.

When you come across a Ford GT, and your brother is a lifer in Ford's engineering division, you take a picture of that GT.  According to the internets, only 4, 038 were made from 2004-06, making this one rare vehicle.

Sunset from the hotel room window.  I was literally typing up the Waste and thought, "I need a last shot after the car."  I looked out the window and the sky offered beautiful pink clouds for you.

But then the last picture of the day become Tack, the teeny stuffed tiger Barbie bought in Stockholm yesterday.

Good night.