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Josh and Jenny’s European Adventure 2009 – Day 10 Stockholm, Sweden

Today Jenny and I were going to go on the boat tour that we had arranged yesterday.  As I said before the boat tour is supposed to be a 2.5-3 hour guided tour of Sweden’s archipelago.  The boat was leaving at 130PM so this gave us time to do some other things on our last full day here in Stockholm.  We first had breakfast and got ready for the day as usual.
After breakfast we headed out of the hotel for the day.  Our first stop was a street near our hotel with a row of souvenir shops.  There were a few things that we each wanted to bring back home to New York.  I ended up getting a t-shirt and a country patch of Sweden to go on my backpack.  From the shops we walked down the street to a nearby pharmacy.  I needed a shaving razor and some bandaids.  Unfortunately the razors weren’t sold individually and so I ended up having to buy a pack of 10!  I wasn’t sure what the heck I was going to do with 10 razors but since I really needed to shave and had forgotten my razor at home, this was a small price to pay for a clean face.
From the pharmacy, Jenny and I continued walking towards where the boat would leave from which was down by the water where we were yesterday.  We then came across the Medieval Museum of Sweden.  I was interested in checking after my visit to cousin Leonard’s where he showed me and taught me lots about medieval Europe.  It also didn’t hurt that the museum was free.  This was a much smaller version of the museum since the other one was being fully renovated until next year.  This museum was the temporary home until about 2010.  When we walked in there weren’t that many exhibits.  Jenny and I did manage to find an old medieval map from the 1422 that was on loan from the Vatican.  A snapped a few photos of it to show Leonard when I returned home.
The medieval museum was pretty cool, but I bet the bigger version will be significantly better with tons of interesting exhibits.  Too bad I won’t be here to see it.  So, from the museum we continued our slow journey towards the pier.  Since we still had plenty of time, Jenny and I picked up some food to take with us on the boat.  Neither of us were hungry at the moment, but we knew come an hour or so into the boat journey we both would be hungry and in need of some food.
Jenny and I ended up at the pier with a lot of time to spare.  So to pass the time, after figuring our exactly where our boat left from, we sat on the steps in cove of the pier and relaxed.  The sun was shining and a lot of locals as well as tourists were just hanging out and soaking up a little bit of sun.  Today was unseasonably warm for Stockholm in April (15 degrees Celsius) so we again had gotten luck with the weather, which had been the trend for most of our trip so far.
115PM rolled around so Jenny and I decided to head to the boat.  When we got there a large majority of the patrons had already entered the boat, but lucky for us there were two seats open on one of the sides of the boat for us to look out on.  Basically both sides of the boat had long benches so all the people had a good view of the islands.
We left at around 130PM and would not return until approximately 4PM.  I snapped many photos and the boat ride was pleasant and we got to see several of the islands (from afar of course) of the Swedish Archipelago.  At one point the sun was tucked behind one of the few clouds in the sky.  This made the ride a little cold, but lucky for us we brought jackets just in case it got a little cooler.  Other than that jackets were not needed in Stockholm today.
Also on the ride back to Stockholm (the boat looped around one of the islands after about an hour and a half), Jenny and I had a quiet contest.  Jenny claimed I was talking too much so we decided to have a quiet contest.  This contest lasted from 3 or 315PM until about 415PM when we were off the boat and figuring out where to go next.  It was intense to say the least and formidably ended in a draw.
From the boat ride Jenny and I walked back to the hotel.  There wasn’t a whole lot we still wanted to see in Stockholm, and so we decided to head back to relax until we wanted to maybe head out and get some food.
830ish rolled around and we were getting hungry.  We left the hotel in search of some food but unfortunately most of the restaurants close by 9 and we did not arrive in time.  I find it strange that in the center of the capital city the restaurants close so early (especially on a Saturday night), but this just appears to be the culture in Sweden.  I guess it was shocking to Jenny and I since Jenny has been in Barcelona the past few months where people go out to dinner as late as 1130PM and the restaurants are still packed and serving plenty of food.
We finally settled on this kebab shop not too far from the hotel.  It was good, clean food and was enjoyed by both of us.  After dinner we headed back to the hotel for the remainder of the night.  We first grabbed a quick drink at the hotel bar (to help us get to bed a little earlier than usual), and we reflected on our time in Stockholm and Scandinavia in general.  Tomorrow we were leaving Stockholm.  I am off to Switzerland to visit Linda and Sarah and Jenny is heading back to Barcelona.



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