Arrival in Stockholm

OUR HOTEL OCCUPIED THE TOP FLOORS OF THIS BUILDING


VIEW FROM HOTEL AT NIGHT


CHRISTMAS MARKET IN THE OLD TOWN


Our short hop to Stockholm has turned out to be quite a long journey. Neither of us was able to sleep very well last night but we managed to stagger out the door at 4 a.m.. I had made egg sandwiches the night before so we could have breakfast after checking in at the airport. Check-in went fine but we could not find a place to get a cup of coffee so we washed down our egg sandwiches with bottles of water. At that point the notice on the board stated we should proceed to the departure lounge. We got to the departure lounge to discover that was where the cafe and restaurant were open. Brad got a latte while I had a cup of tea. Our plane departed about half and hour late -- delayed by a suspicious package (which turned out to be an innocuous item left accidentally by a previous passenger) and by operational difficulties in boarding a wheelchair bound passenger.

We had to change planes in Amsterdam and found ourselves at the back of a huge line to go through passport control and customs. All the while biting our nails, hoping we'd make our connection in time. The metal stud in my shoe set off the alarm so I was treated to quite an invasive frisking at the security gate. Regretfully, we had to race through Amsterdam airport. It's a pretty airport and would have been nice to linger a bit in the shops and cafes. Made it to the plane on time and luckily had a vacant seat in our row of three. On both legs of the flight I had planned to read my guidebooks on Stockholm but barely managed to keep my eyes open.

When we got to Stockholm we and several other passengers discovered that our luggage did not arrive on the plane with us. They took our details and informed us that once they found our luggage it would be forwarded to our hotel.

Caught the Arlanda Express train from the airport to Central Station in Stockholm. Wow, those tickets were expensive! 25 bucks for the two of us. It takes 20 minutes to get to Central Station. Once there we made our way to our hotel. Brad was amazing, he needed to only take one look at a map before we left the station and he found our way to the hotel without a problem. Our hotel is situated above a department store on Hörtorget sqaure. There is a flea market going on in the square. Our room overlooks the square with beautiful views. The room is immaculate, the beds extremely comfy. This is a really great hotel.

We visited the flea market outside hotel where Brad got some roasted almonds (they are for sale everywhere) and picked up a St. Lucia pin. (More on St. Lucia later) We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city center. We are a short walk from Gamla Stan -- the old quarter. There we found a Christmas market, similar to Christmas markets in Germany. There were stalls selling hand crafted items and foods. We each had a bratwurst and glögg. The bratwurst was a bit spicier than those in Germany and glögg was similar to gluhwein but spicier and sweeter. I told Brad it tasted like liquid red hots candy. And the wurst has been repeating on me ever since. There were some students dressed as angels singing carols. And sturdy little ponies giving rides to children. We saw reindeer pelts and smoked reindeer meat for sale. And there was even a full-size stuffed reindeer at another Christmas market closer to our hotel. The city is so beautiful, such interesting architecture and everything is decorated so festively for the holidays.

The sun really sets early here. It began to get dusky around 2:30 p.m. By 3:30 it was downright dark. It is only 5:30 p.m. right now but it feels like 10 p.m. to me. Partly because we got up so early and had such little sleep last night. We've been informed that our luggage will arrive between 8 p.m. and midnight.

Well, I'm gonna go rest up in the room and guess we'll figure out what we will do tomorrow.