Wrapping Up Our Time in Stockholm

 It's been a busy two days as we wrap up our time in Stockholm and get ready to embark on the Marina tomorrow morning.

Yesterday, after sleeping a bit late, we did the tourist thing (we are tourists after-all!) and took a cruise through the archipelago to Vaxholm and back.  It was somewhat cool and windy but quite picturesque.

 Of course, we had a coffee and a cinnamon roll along the way.  Cinnamon rolls are definitely a thing here in Stockholm.

In the evening, we walked along the pedestrian street and found a nice restaurant for dinner.  For the second time in 2 months I broke from my no meat diet and indulged in Swedish meatballs.

At least they were deer and elk rather than cow and pig.  How's that for rationalization?  As you might be able to see in the picture, Linda was smart and had a fish dish.  Me?  I paid the price in the morning for my indulgence.  Enough said about that!

Today, we headed up to Uppsala by train.  The roughly 40 minute train ride was easy after getting some assistance navigating the ticket machine from an employee at the station.  On board, we were the only people wearing masks - more on that subject later.

Uppsala is a terrific day trip from Stockholm - we highly recommend it.  On arrival, we made our way up to the Uppsala Castle hoping to tour it.

Note the cannons pointing down to the Cathedral.  Apparently, the royalty used those cannons to ensure that the clergy stayed in line!  We learned the the Castle now houses an art museum.  The woman at reception said that there was nothing to see inside the rest of it.  And, most of the museum was closed as they are installing new exhibits.  What we saw was interesting and, at least, it was free.

We then walked down to the botanical gardens.  Of course, Linda was well prepared as always with her Desert Botanical Gardens Docent jacket.

Finally, it was time for lunch.  But, on the way, we stumbled upon the Uppsala University Library which houses a collection of really old books, most notably the Silver Bible completed in the 4th century.

We found a nice seafood restaurant incongruously named Hambergs Fisk.  The food was great and we particularity enjoyed talking to the lovely young waitress.  Talking about the lack of people wearing masks, she was frustrated about that and about the Swedes who were refusing to get vaccinated.  Apparently there are many who refuse but they are not as vocal, aka obnoxious, about it.

Then it was time to visit the Uppsala Cathedral said to be the largest and tallest in Scandinavia.  It was interesting inside and the thing I found most fascinating was a small sign recognizing and apologizing for the past poor treatment of Jews.  It was as if the cathedral was confessing to us!

Lastly, before returning to Stockholm, we stopped by the main building of the university.  The campus is large and lovely.  It's a big university but apparently not yet in session as we saw few students walking around. 

Now for some observations from our time here in Stockholm.  Perhaps I have said it already, but as you walk around the city, you see very few people wearing masks.  Employees in the hotel - yes.  Employees of restaurants - a few.  People in the street - almost none.  At first I thought that it was inconsistent that they have barred Americans from the country but taking few precautions themselves.  On the other hand, you can get such an overwhelming feeling of normalcy as you walk around that I can understand the rationale behind keeping Americans and their delta variant out.  Other observations - there seem to be far fewer smokers than you see in other European cities; there seem to be very few homeless people which is a very nice contrast to what we see in California; there are maybe more motorized scooters than in Long Beach and just as many left anywhere; and, at the risk of being un-PC, there are an awful lot of cute blonde women here!

So that's it for now.  Tomorrow at 9:30am we board Marina for what should be a wonderful, interesting 26 days.  Who knows what turns our road will take as cruise around the Baltic and the Atlantic?  We'll let you know!

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry