Norrtull Hotel Stockholm

In 6 short hours we'll be sitting in a plane to London on the first leg of our journey. Everything is packed - including most of my dive gear. At 50kg it came in a bit heavier than we'd have liked, but not much we can do about that. Think we need to invest in some lighter packs :)

All that's left now is the wait...

I arrived in Stockholm pretty much on time and was pleasantly pleased to see Ric******* the platform waiting. I am glad that I did not have to search the entire train station to see where he might be! Ric***********e look at me and asked me if I was tired and needed help with my bag. He said my eyes looked like two giant tomatoes! Ha ha ...

Stockholm oli lumine, venelasterohke, aga nagu alati ka meeldiv. Uus aasta saabus koguni 2x, sest rootslaste auks sai tund hiljem võtta. Rootslaste-eestl aste suhe laeval 1000:600, vaade kaptenisillalt oli parim laeval (i wonder why!), söögid olid üsna head, shampus voolas ojadena, diskopall kõikus ja dj mängis enam-vähem mittetantsitavaid lugusid.

Pincement au coeur : dans une minute je m'envole pour la Suède, pour retrouver ma soeur et mon neveu ! Pas moyen de rester à Paris, j'ai la bougeotte ! Arrivée à Stockholm, un des plus beau survol que je connaisse, les lacs se mêlent aux habitations isolées et aux massifs de conifères. La dernière fois que je suis venue, c'était en août 2006, il faisait 25 degrés, les lacs étaient bleu lagon et les champs de céréales scintillaient ...

The ferry from Helsinki was basically a floating nightclub-casino, that just happened to spend the night going from A to B. We just had walk-on tickets and as such ended up sleeping on the floor with the other bums. It wasn't so bad, we were safe from the drunken hordes (except on an unspeakable bathroom visit during the night) and woke up to the sight of the Swedish coastline - beautiful, with lots of little islands everywhere all with lovely ...

... and our guide even commented about it several times. The town hall is where the Nobel Prize banquet is held every year, and it was neat to be able to walk in the steps of greatness. I was also impressed with the architecture. The stairs into where the banquet is held were created so that women with high heels could walk up with no problem... now that's a place built for me! All in all, the tour was nice, and the hall was interesting to walk through...but ...

I've been pretty lazy about writing (and taking pictures) lately, so I thought I'd do a little catching up. 2 weekends ago, we got our 1st snow in Stockholm - probably 4-5 inches. The Stockholmers were right - it really does make the city even more beautiful and it is significantly brighter - day & night. It snowed a little more & stayed cold for another 4-6 days (I even wore my parka), but now it is back to 0-3C, so the snow is all melting and the sidewalks are either icy or ...

... mit DJ, der auflegt. Und großartige Eis"manufakturen". Alle, vom Busfahrer zum Senioren, sprechen fließend Englisch. Jedes Auto hält für jeden Passanten. Junge Frauen mit Babybauch schieben Kinderwägen, in Scharen (es gibt ein echtes "Kindunterstützungssystem"!!!). Und vielleicht liegt es ja an diesem auch in Schweden ausgesprochen warmen Sommer, aber es scheint so, als lächeln alle Leute in diesem Land, zumindest aber in seiner Hauptstadt. Ein wirklich freundlicher ...