Second Day in Stockholm - August 5

We had a good night's sleep last night. We averted the dreaded second night jet lag problem by taking Tylenol PM. It works for sleep and for easing the aching walking muscles. Our breakfast was the hotel's buffet with more Swedish pancakes.

We walked over to the harbor and wandered around the area that we missed the day before. We dropped into the Grand Hotel to see where it served its renown smorgasbord. We decided that we would not be hungry enough at noon to have a $120 meal.

Next, we caught a 10:00 two-hour boat tour around Stockholm. We went through two locks and under 21 bridges. I didn’t realize that the city was built on so many islands. The narration told us a lot about past and current history of Stockholm. The weather was clear and warm which made the ride very pleasant.


Scene Along the Shore

After the boat tour, we walked to the old town, Gamla Stan, and ate at Grillska Huset , a cafeteria that is run by Stockholms Stadsmission, a charitable organization for the poor. I had a shrimp sandwich with a chocolate torte while Ann had a vegetarian sandwich with an apple torte.

Next, we walked over to The National Museum of Fine Arts. It has a good collection of Swedish art including a local artist, Carl Larsson. He focused on painting everyday scenes.

When we got back to the hotel, we had a 5:00 meeting with our Rick Steves tour group. Lisa, our guide, gave us a preview of the trip along with all of the policies and procedures of the tour. We had a few snacks and soft drinks and introduced ourselves.

After the meeting, our group took an orientation walk from our neighborhood over to Gamla Stan. Our group dinner was at Mårten Trotzig. We walked in the door and down two flights of stairs to the celler. Our pre-ordered dinner was ground veal patties, fresh peas and pureed potatoes. For desert, we had ice cream with strawberries and oatmeal wafers. It was a nice meal with pleasant company. We sat with Becky and Emile from Palmdale.

While walking back to the hotel, we realized that it was way after 9:00, the latest that we had been out on the trip. We collapsed into bed a little after 10:00.