Beautiful Stockholm

Stockholm, Sweden -- Day 2

For our second day in Stockholm, we thought we'd get an overview of the city by taking a boat tour around the various islands making up the city (fourteen in all). We headed once again to Gamla Stan for breakfast, and it was clear the tourists were out in force, with a half dozen fancy tour buses lining up outside the royal palace.

The boat tour was indeed a fun way to see the city and learn a little bit along the way. We sailed under a number of the 57 bridges that connect the 14 islands. The headsets provided narration in at least 10 languages, so, unlike our boat ride in Hamburg, we didn't have to guess at what was being said.

I got a refresher course on Swedish history, which I had first learned 30 years ago in Lund. For a time in the 1600's, Sweden controlled most of what is now Norway, Denmark, Finland and parts of Russia. Some consider this the golden age of Sweden, which, as a Protestant country, feared the advance of Catholicism by Poland and other countries in Europe.

New Functionalism

Not a bad "bath" house

The historical accounts were interlaced with a surprisingly large dose of Swedish self-promotion. From the narrative, we learned that Swedes are very egalitarian, environmental, athletic, inventive, technically capable, tolerant, peaceful, politically neutral yet ever prepared to defend themselves. Whoever wrote it must have figured this was their only chance to convince visitors of Sweden's merits, which clearly are many.

After the tour, we made a point of having our little "fika" in the park; (Meg thought ahead and bought some Danishes after breakfast). This is one Swedish tradition Meg and the kids can definitely get behind. Walking through the big city park (Kungsträdgården), we stumbled upon a bunch of "Olympic Day" tents and activities, mostly for the kids, encouraging them to be active and pursue sports. Meg and I had been dying to see some of the opening ceremonies, so we were excited to catch a glimpse of it starting with the "T" countries. We thought we might see the US until we realized that United States starts with an "E" (not "U") in Portuguese (Estados Unidos).

Dex and Kylie playing hockey

For lunch, we sat outside the central Metro station and caught up on email while the kids fed the pigeons. I was finally successful in our quest to buy tickets for the Husjurens Hemliga Liv (The Secret Life of Pets) movie, only by actually walking to the theater and talking to a real person. The English speaking movie, showing at 9:00 p.m., would be our first family movie since leaving California. Dex was stoked, too, when we decided to finally look for a new pair of shoes for him, since he had outgrown his old ones. The pair of McKinley, heavy duty sneakers/light-weight hiking boots, were perfect. For the rest of the day, he was determined to sprint non-stop to break them in.

In Swedish theaters, we found, you actually choose seats when you buy the tickets -- how civilized; takes away the fun of arriving 45 minutes early and trying to save a dozen seats for your friends. What's more, the movie actually started within 10 minutes of the listed time instead of keeping you guessing. Maybe we could try that at home. All and all, it was a great flick and a definite hit with the Hoornaert clan.