This is not finished but all the photos are on - finishing later! time to head to Norway!
Today is Wednesday 24 May 2017 and we left home one week ago. When I was checking weather before leaving it looked cool, cloudy and "occasional showers". We have had none of that and have really lucked out.
We are leaving beautiful Stockholm Sweden today and flying to Bergen Norway. This is our view this morning from our Sheraton hotel in the central city. Surrounded by canals, lakes and the Baltic Sea on another side there is a lot of clean, pure and beautiful water. Sweden (and Denmark too) are very environmentally conscious.
Breakfast buffet in hotel - I had to look twice and yes it says "Minnesota Maple.....". Our guide says he brought a large container of maple syrup to his friends here (he lives in Arizona) and the Swedes apparently don't like the "strong taste" of the real stuff. So think Log Cabin syrup:)
We toured Stockholm city hall and it is a beautiful building. It is built of 8 million bricks and this is the ceremonial hall that is all mosaic tile and a lot of gold. I like the USA flag. This is also where each December 10 the Nobel Prizes are awarded.
Just one of the pieces of water in Stockholm. There are a lot of ferries, cruise ships and small tourist cruises but since we walked all over creation we didn't have time to take a ride but chose instead to walk the waterside paths.
Vassa Museum old wooden ship and sunk within 20 minutes of leaving the harbor - Ross says "they should have known - bad design - any fool can see that". Of course he is an electrical engineer so I couldn't really see it and I'm not a fool!
National Coat of Arms - and I'm still trying to figure it out
Vasa wooden war ship built in the 1700s and was underwater for a few hundred years.
And my daily search for sweets was always a success. I can spot an ice cream sign from 100 miles away - well that could be a slight exaggeration but people are amazed!
Nobel Museum - a little sign trip on our own and very interesting!
And the saga is still going on about Bob Dylan from Minnesota not being present to make a speech and accept the prize. I kind of don't understand why he gets a prize but what would I know!
I watched this video of the official announcement of Bob Dylan and I would say she is not happy with him!
One example of the official document of recognition and this one was for literature.
So I head to the WC - bano - toilette - pissoar or whatever you wish to call it and I see this sign warning of possible pickpockets. I do love signs!!!
This guy had this big fancy net and was dropping it into the river and coming up with a whole bunch of silver minnow looking things. There was quite a crowd watching him.
So - 6 of us decided to go out for dinner and wouldn't you know that just as we were checking with the hostess an alarm went off in the old apartment building next door; next up the restaurant warnings were beeping very loudly. So we waited a while, watched the firetrucks and firemen arrive to check things out and it was fine but noone could figure out how and where to turn the alarm off. So we waited a while and walked to another place - no room - walked a bit further to another Bern's Bistro and voila! - outdoor gazebo that was a French bistro and we had excellent food and so much fun.
This was the fun and giggles group and yes, even the guys smiled at the craziness.
Interesting event - the waitress was clearing and took a load of plates and stuff and a silver pot of aioli sauce which fell off the top and got all over Hank's nice jacket so he uses his water glass, carpet cleaning expertise, a little club soda and voila! - clean as a whistle and good for entertainment.
I want this on our deck - how perfect is that for a little social/cocktail hour and we don't even need the brass posts and rope barriers as all are welcome!
And here we are at Toftaholm, Sweden to stay at Toftaholm Herrgard Manor, a historic lakeside Inn..."quaint, cozy and very Swedish".
One the way we stopped at this old church in the middle of nowhere that has "runestones". And since so much of this trip reminded me of Minnesota I recalled the Kensington Runestone in Alexandria, Minnesota, supposedly discovered in 1898 by a Swedish farmer clearing his land near Kensington Minnesota. "Rune" is a type of writing used only by Danes, Norwegians and Gotland Islanders. Do an internet search of this - pretty interesting information about the colonization of America.
Family grave marker - typical here in Sweden.
Stockholm Royal Opera House tour - and an opera was in progress and the lucky people who had placed intermission orders had their numbered places all set including the empty ready to be filled wine glasses.
What a beautiful hall in the Opera House.
And sunset in Stockholm - so beautiful every day that I am amazed and thankful that I get to see all this beauty in my lifetime.
Borders in Scandinavian are no longer "open" since the refugee problems have arisen.
Sofeiro Slot (aka palace) grounds and this was a "tree sculpture" and looking across you can see Denma
The beautiful palace and grounds. It was rhododendrom season and there were flowers all over the place because it's spring in Scandinavia!!!
Interesting that I remembered Vademacum toothpaste launched in Sweden in 1897 and still for sale even on Amazon and has been available outside of Sweden since the 1950s. I remember buying it because it was a bit trendy.
View from the castle - I could wake up and have my coffee easily with this view.
Huge brass key and welcome sign at Toftaholm Manor...end with "welcome to our world"!
The local band who played great old fashioned music on the grounds of the hotel. It was music and dancing I grew up with - amazing!
They recruited some of the guests to dance and it would have been fun except I am somewhat of a klutz even though I love to dance.
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