Stockholm Continues!
Stockholm Continues!
In Stockholm, we stayed at the Scandic Hasselbacken hotel on Djurgarden, which is a large recreational island in Stockholm. We decided to stay there because on our previous hop-on hop-off trip, we noted a number of things on this island that we had interest in visiting. What we didn’t realize (but probably could have guessed) was that it was an attraction for families and lots of kids. As people who don’t have (and don’t really tolerate) kids, this got pretty old. In addition, the hotel was noisy; the walls were thin. We had a crying baby next to us for the first few days, then the baby was replaced by two violin players who decided to practice until after 10pm (when we decided it was time to call the front desk and ask something to be done about it…).
There were some interesting things about the room. There were no drawers at all, and the closets were more of indentions in the walls with a swing-out door with a coat hook on it. The trash can had three parts for food, trash, and paper. The key was made of wood, and in order to power the room, you had to put your key in a slot inside the room. There was a good breakfast, however. It was nice to be in a hotel surrounded by parks and nature, but when we opened the windows, we weren’t greeted with the sounds of nature, but rather, the sounds of screams from the Tivoli amusement park.
On this day, after waking up and having breakfast, we took the bus to the Central station and then walked to Gamla Stan (the old town). We wandered through and shopped - while there were some neat souvenirs, they were too expensive.. I passed on the $35 T-shirt. Also, there was both a folk music and a heavy metal music festival as we could tell from both types of costumes (folk wear and black Iron Maiden and Metallica T-shirts) and snippets of music.
We did stop at a Science-Fiction Bookstore that had boardgames in the window, and I poked around. They had a good selection of American imported games, and almost everything was in English. I didn’t see the German imports that I had expected. Prices were quite high compared to home - one game that lists for $60 here in the US (and that you can get online for $40) cost almost $100.
There were only 2 or 3 other customers in the game area, and nobody came up to me. When I got home, I had this e-mail waiting for me:
“I noticed you exiting S/F Bokhandeln in Stockholm. I was so surprised =
that I failed to welcome you to Sweden! Besides, as Swedes we NEVER =
announce our presence to strangers unless necessary.”
I was quite amused, and let him know that I would have been thrilled to meet him. And that goes for any of you.. if you see me, come up and say hi!
We wandered more through the town, and decided we wanted to take a 2-hour boat tour around Stockholm. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of boats, but I would go on the cruise with Ken. We had 90 minutes to spend after getting our tickets, so we went to a local mall and had some lunch, then boarded the boat. The tour had a recorded description of what we were seeing, and we did learn quite a bit. We went through 2 locks, which was a first for both of us. It was interesting for a short while, and then we were ready to move on! I did have a nice nap on the boat, though.
We started to walk to head back, and realized we had a ways to go. But, we decided to go ahead and walk it, resting as we needed to. We had dinner at the hotel, where I had a wonderful “warmish salad” with roasted root vegetables and a fantastic pear cider. Oh, and a $85 dinner bill for two entrees and three drinks… food is certainly expensive here!
The next morning, we had a nice breakfast, then took a taxi to the central train station and boarded a train for Boras, which is a small town where our conference is. (The flights to Stockholm were much cheaper than the flights to a closer town, so we decided to travel this way.). And.. I’m writing this on the train, so now you’re all caught up!
If you want to see more pictures, head over to http://www.flickr.com/photos/snicholson/
In Stockholm, we stayed at the Scandic Hasselbacken hotel on Djurgarden, which is a large recreational island in Stockholm. We decided to stay there because on our previous hop-on hop-off trip, we noted a number of things on this island that we had interest in visiting. What we didn’t realize (but probably could have guessed) was that it was an attraction for families and lots of kids. As people who don’t have (and don’t really tolerate) kids, this got pretty old. In addition, the hotel was noisy; the walls were thin. We had a crying baby next to us for the first few days, then the baby was replaced by two violin players who decided to practice until after 10pm (when we decided it was time to call the front desk and ask something to be done about it…).
There were some interesting things about the room. There were no drawers at all, and the closets were more of indentions in the walls with a swing-out door with a coat hook on it. The trash can had three parts for food, trash, and paper. The key was made of wood, and in order to power the room, you had to put your key in a slot inside the room. There was a good breakfast, however. It was nice to be in a hotel surrounded by parks and nature, but when we opened the windows, we weren’t greeted with the sounds of nature, but rather, the sounds of screams from the Tivoli amusement park.
On this day, after waking up and having breakfast, we took the bus to the Central station and then walked to Gamla Stan (the old town). We wandered through and shopped - while there were some neat souvenirs, they were too expensive.. I passed on the $35 T-shirt. Also, there was both a folk music and a heavy metal music festival as we could tell from both types of costumes (folk wear and black Iron Maiden and Metallica T-shirts) and snippets of music.
We did stop at a Science-Fiction Bookstore that had boardgames in the window, and I poked around. They had a good selection of American imported games, and almost everything was in English. I didn’t see the German imports that I had expected. Prices were quite high compared to home - one game that lists for $60 here in the US (and that you can get online for $40) cost almost $100.
There were only 2 or 3 other customers in the game area, and nobody came up to me. When I got home, I had this e-mail waiting for me:
“I noticed you exiting S/F Bokhandeln in Stockholm. I was so surprised =
that I failed to welcome you to Sweden! Besides, as Swedes we NEVER =
announce our presence to strangers unless necessary.”
I was quite amused, and let him know that I would have been thrilled to meet him. And that goes for any of you.. if you see me, come up and say hi!
We wandered more through the town, and decided we wanted to take a 2-hour boat tour around Stockholm. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of boats, but I would go on the cruise with Ken. We had 90 minutes to spend after getting our tickets, so we went to a local mall and had some lunch, then boarded the boat. The tour had a recorded description of what we were seeing, and we did learn quite a bit. We went through 2 locks, which was a first for both of us. It was interesting for a short while, and then we were ready to move on! I did have a nice nap on the boat, though.
We started to walk to head back, and realized we had a ways to go. But, we decided to go ahead and walk it, resting as we needed to. We had dinner at the hotel, where I had a wonderful “warmish salad” with roasted root vegetables and a fantastic pear cider. Oh, and a $85 dinner bill for two entrees and three drinks… food is certainly expensive here!
The next morning, we had a nice breakfast, then took a taxi to the central train station and boarded a train for Boras, which is a small town where our conference is. (The flights to Stockholm were much cheaper than the flights to a closer town, so we decided to travel this way.). And.. I’m writing this on the train, so now you’re all caught up!
If you want to see more pictures, head over to http://www.flickr.com/photos/snicholson/