Land of the 4AM sun.

We awoke for the first time this morning at 4 AM because of the brilliant sun making its way through the crack between curtains in our room. Bob woke up again at 5AM and I slept until 7.   We'll have to work on sun-proofing the room better tonight!

We went down to breakfast, which had many options. I chose the European route. And I had my first Swedish meatball.

Our first destination was the Vasa Museum - here was the plan for getting there. But Stockholm is not in neat grids, so we took a circuitous route at first - but we eventually got there.

And we played with the camera in our elevator on our way!

We passed this imposing statue on our walk.

We reached our destination, the Vasa Museum. First, there was a video detailing the building and 30-minute maiden (and only) voyage. Then there was a 25-minute guided tour. Next came lunch and then another hour checking out the rest of the museum. 

Another view of the ship.

Now we're up 3 levels.

And here's ornate work on the stern of the ship - originally, it was painted but now it's thought that it could ruin the wood.

Bob's standing on the mast thingies trying to keep his balance.

And here he is looking into the scary end of a cannon.

Swedes certainly have gotten a bit taller since 1628!

This is actually a miniature!

Bob with stuffed rat in the gift shop -- no, we didn't buy it!

We then walked along the water to the small garden connected to the museum.

We came upon this open air cafe connected with the Absolut Spirit Museum.

Bob had some French cider.

I  chose an Absolut sin cocktail.

We took a tram part of the way and walked down Master Samuel street and back to our hotel.

And then we did a totally touristy thing - we checked out the local ice bar, where you pay a fee to be extremely cold while enjoying some type vodka cocktail in an ice glass...

It's sort of an igloo.

And here are the ice glasses.

Our next adventure was to walk to Gamla Stan (the old town) in search of dinner. We came upon one of the narrowest streets in the world, according to Bob.

We found a decent place through trip advisor and had a lovely meal.

I had a salmon appetizer.

Bob had smoked reindeer.

We both had roasted reindeer.

My raspberry pie.

Bob's apple cake.  Total comfort food and totally hit the spot. Bob's already asleep - ready for bed but the sun doesn't set until 10:00, half an hour from now.

Stockholm here we come!

Today we took British Air to Stockholm. Because I'm paranoid about missing connections on public transportation, we left way too early for Heathrow. It's embarrassing that we arrived 4 hours before departure. We had breakfast before going through the X-ray machine.

 Customs Swedish style took - um- 1 minute as compared to more than half an hour in the UK...  Then we took the Arlanda Express to Stockholm City and discovered that our hotel was 1/2 block from the Express exit. We spent more time waiting for the "walk" signal than we did actually walking to the hotel. We did have a mini-side trip to the Chilean embassy because the first sign for the hotel was immediately above the entrance to the embassy!

When we got to our room, we had a visitor! We'll probably buy one of these cute bears to add to Bob!s (I'm not kidding) collection.

Our key fob is in the shape of a heart -- perfect!

After settling in, it was time for a drink and some dinner. Luckily, our hotel's restaurant is a gastropub specializing in Belgian beer! Bob is holding my sweet high octane beer along with his stout.

His second choice was Kwak, which comes with a distinctive glass.

And then he had delicious piece of salmon with beets and potatoes.

I had the daily sausage special with pancetta and mashed potatoes. Both dishes were really tasty.

And Bob wondered whether the street or the beer was crooked...

After dinner we took a walk through the area near our hotel.

Stockholm has been called the Venice of the North, and you can see why.

These are the Parliament buildings.

Another canal.

One final picture...bed at 10:30.

In London for 24 hours

We arrived at Heathrow at about 10:30, an hour later than we were due. It took forever to get through customs, and then we had to wait a bit to catch the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station.

Here we are on the train-it took 10 minutes to get to the city. 

From there we took the tube to Euston Square, which was about a block away from our hotel. We were able to check in right away, and Bob decided to take a nap. I tried, but I couldn't fall asleep. So I printed out tomorrow's boarding passes, freshened up, and went to a local coffee shop where I'm now enjoying a latte.

Got back to the hotel and woke Bob so that we could enjoy a beautiful day along the River Thames. Before we left the hotel, however, Bob posed with some sheep/llama? Llama/sheep? Llama/llama?

We decided to take the tube to the touristy area by the river. 

On the way to the train, we saw a poster for the show I just saw on Broadway -- playing in the West End.

Photo op at the Waterloo Bridge - you can see St. Paul's Cathedral in the background.

In the sun it was quite warm, so some kids were enjoying a spray fountain near the bridge.

And when we searched for a place to have our first pint, we found -- London's version of the Highline! I'm pretty sure this natural garden wasn't here last year!

Proof of the type of beer we had at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. We shared a table with two very nice- looking young men who had met in Perth but were both Brits. 

On our way back across the bridge, we saw remnants of a protest by the skateboard community because the city plans to change the skateboarding area.

As we strolled from the Thames to our restaurant in Soho, we passed St. Martin's in the Field church. I tried get picture of the rainbow vestment on the altar -- today there was a pride service - awesome.

And if I hadn't been so tired, we could have gone to a concert this evening.

We arrived at our dinner destination--Refuel at the Soho Hotel. We chose a two course meal with accompanying complimentary wine. I had mussels in a coconut lemon grass broth - yummy.

Bob had a fresh-looking Greek salad.

The mussels were jolly good!

And we both had lamb with mangos and couscous - delightful.

The restaurant used to be a car park,so the decor is all things car-related.  Fun.

And here's the sculpture in the lobby of the Soho Hotel - Bob pets all kitties.

Back at our hotel, Bob enjoyed a bitter-type beer while I had some Rioja. Bed at 9:45.

On our way to Europe

The above picture shows Bob after taking down all the stuff on the soffit - you can see how high our ceilings are! 

Bob has named the "as seen on tv" slider thingies for the Keurig "lazy Bob" -- it's now next to the familiar lazy Susan....

We watched the final episodes of Inspector Lewis and then left for the airport. We got there early because I had a day pass for the US Air Envoy Club - cool. We walked way out of our way only to discover that there were two clubs, one of which was near to our gate. So here we sit with our complimentary wine and snacks waiting for our flight to board.  Life is good!

Three shopping days until London/Stockholm.

I always loved that phrase, created by George McPeak before one of our trips abroad, because it's just SO TRUE! 

Yesterday was a gray, rainy day.  It poured for most of the morning.  Today is still gray, but it's not raining - yet. Here's a video of our normally small creek during yesterday's deluge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXGPn1st91s

Today I'll be shopping, but this time it's for the kitchen re-do.  We're updating the look, so it's not a complete gutting, etc.  And the work will be done while we're on vacation!  Our contractor painted most of the interior of the house last summer.  He's part of what we call the Mennonite Mafia -- devout and totally trustworthy. 

I created my first vocabulary quiz for 12th grade yesterday -- hoping to get those done over the break - one less thing to do when I get back to school.