We woke up at 6am, rather Elias woke us up. After getting some breakfast and last minute packing, we all climbed into the car and headed for the train station. We had some not so great coffee at the station, then got on the 8:55am train to Stockholm. I gave Elias 1/4 of a Dramamine, me an 1/2 and we sacked out missing most of the gorgeous countryside. It was a wonderfully quiet, smooth train ride, and it really makes me sad that the US has not invested in the infrastructure for fast, clean, safe trains like these.

We arrived at Stockholm Grand Central Station at around 11:30 – a little later than expected (the engineer was even apologetic)… Got up to the street level and found a taxi. Our hotel is the Grand Hotel near the water. It’s wonderful, very fancy, and with all the amenities (well minus internet).  They even come to turn down your bed and change your towels at night.

We started our day by taking a water taxi to the Island that has the Wasa ship musem. What an amazing site to see this HUGE ship that had sunk in the harbor (immediately after taking off, the sails unfurled in the strong wind and the ship listed and sank. ) We watched the movie, which was fascinating, and Even Elias the grumpy sat still for most of it. After the movie we hooked back up with my mom, my dad was off buying post cards. That’s when I heard a familiar voice say “We have to come half way around the world to see each other.” I turned to find Mark Bayma standing there with a woman named Susan – they are on their way for a Baltic cruise and he happened to notice my mother. I believe my comment was “Oh my fucking God” – my dad’s reaction when he returned was not much less. We arranged to meet for dinner, and headed our separate ways for the afternoon.

The next stop was the Skansen area – a huge park with many old buildings that have been transported there. We took a teleferique up the hill, then walked around in the heat.  We went up to the tallest part of the tallest building there, saw an incredible 360 view of the city. We also visited a replica of an old (1700s village)

Elias was crabby, we all were hot, and my parents had left about 45 minutes before, so we finally headed back to the hotel. Rather than taking the water taxi home, Ruben, Elias and I walked in the shade of trees in the middle of the main street.

We rested in the hotel, then had an incredible dinner at a small out of the way place recommended in Frommers called Bakfickan. The services is amazingly slow but the food is good.

My parents ditched out early, then after some requisite picture taking, I took Elias back to the hotel. There was a guy turning down the sheets, who also brought in a mattress for Elias to sleep on. He also gave Elias a small bear… Elias immediately put the bear to sleep and we watched a little bit of a DVD.

Ruben, in the mean while, went with Marc and Susan to the Ice Bar. Fascinating pictures.