Stockholm

Gordon and I bought a Viking Baltic cruise three years ago. We were excited to see Northern Europe, land of our ancestors. Unfortunately, COVID hit, and the cruise was postponed. When COVID finally abated a bit Putin attacked Ukraine. St. Petersburg was taken off the list–too dangerous of Americans and other living things. Viking finalized a new tour that included Gdansk, Berlin, and Oslo in place of three days in St. Petersburg. Most people I talked to were disappointed but I’d never seen Gdansk, Berlin or Oslo so I was fine with the change. On the morning of May 19 our Uber driver picked us up at 5:45. We tried to say ‘goodbye’ to Gracie, but she wasn’t having it. She knows what suitcase means and she refused to let us touch her. What’s the difference between Grace and a vulture? A vulture waits until you’re dead to rip your heart out. I really did feel bad about leaving her. She’d never been alone; she’d always had George before. We thought about putting her in ‘jail’ but figured she’d just be lonely in a cage. Home alone seemed the best option. I just hoped a raccoon named Joe Pechi didn’t invade.

At LAX we were supposed to leave from the American terminal, Building A, but the Uber driver explained that really meant Building B. He showed us on the app that that was true. He was trying to save us steps. Well, we did take off from Building B, but we had to check our luggage in Building A, so we had to shlep anyway. He meant well. When we checked our luggage, we found out that our SAS flight to Stockholm had been cancelled (God know why) and we’d be catching a FinnAir flight that went to Helsinki when we changed in Chicago. Ooookay. That added 5 hours of travel time; an hour of flight time to Helsinki, a 3-hour layover, and a puddle-jumper to Stockholm. What could we do? We got on our American flight and changed at O’Hare which is a zoo. I almost got busted for drugs because I’d forgotten to empty my water bottle. “Do have anything you don’t want me to know about?” asked the suspicious TSA agent. I said ‘no’ and she pulled out my water bottle. I explained that I’d forgotten about the water but that I wanted to keep the bottle. Bless her heart, she offered to empty the bottle and give it back. And, of course, I expressed my sincere thanks. We took the tram to the international terminal and got through customs. The flight was nine hours long, but we had the extra-large seats and the row entirely to ourselves. We were given good, basic food. We got blueberry juice for breakfast. Blueberries grow in Scandanavia, so they’re used in everything. The juice was a little sweet for me, but the color was great. I have no complaints about FinnAir. Everything was new, clean, and as comfortable as a flight can be. We couldn’t go anywhere in Helsinki, not enough time, but the puddle-jumper was on time. It was packed but only took 45 minutes. When we got to Stockholm, Viking hired a Mercedes taxi to take us directly to the ship. That was their way of smoothing feathers due to the botched flights. Not their fault, I suppose, but we didn’t get to see anything of Stockholm that day due to all the delays. We met up with an old high school/band buddy of Gordon’s, Bill, and his wife, Dawn. for dinner that night. I think. I’d been traveling for over 24 hours and was exhausted. I went to bed early but was up at 2:30 a.m. Stockholm time. I discovered an old TV series called Limitless. I really liked it–for a while anyway. It put me back to sleep. So every time I couldn’t sleep I’d turn on Limitless. Worked like a charm. I’d fall asleep in different places so I had to repeat episodes. It took me the entire two weeks to get through the series but I made it. It’s on Paramount+ now. Check it out.

The next day we toured the palace and a theater that was built for the royals in the 1700s. Sweden didn’t have much money back then, so the palace is concrete painted to look like marble. It was a nice enough palace. The gardens looked like a small Versailles, but the theater was particularly interesting to me. The stage was deep and steeply raked. The flats were wooden and painted. They still had a lightning machine, a rain machine, and a thunder machine in the pit. Historic costumes from various productions were on display. I thought it was a great tour. We took a boat from the palace back to the ship. We met Pat and Linda, a couple from San Diego. Pat was a retired percussionist and he told us about playing in the pit for touring shows and for the San Diego Symphony. They were fun. We had a quiet afternoon, and a pleasant dinner with Bill and Dawn. Then we went to a show in the Star Theater. If I remember correctly the talent was two boys and two girls doing a medley of something or other. It was a pleasant day, but I resented missing seeing any of Old Town Stockholm. Everybody told us it was wonderful. We went to bed, and I watched another episode of Limitless. I was starting to get seriously tired.

The next day we went to a small town on a small island called Mariehamn which means Marie’s harbor. Marie was queen of something or other. All the royals were starting to run together in my mind. We got a tour of the island. It reminded me of parts of the Midwest–with water. It was Sunday so all the shops were closed. The historic church we stopped at didn’t want us inside. They were getting ready for the service so you can’t really blame them. I peeked in anyway. Old, old, old. Think it was built in the 1100s. Electricity had been included (a silo sort of thing attached to the exterior) so there were chandeliers instead of candles. I was puzzled by a ship hanging in between the chandeliers but couldn’t ask anybody about it. Then we were taken to the top of a hill to enjoy the views. We got the scrambled history of the place. I think that’s where the spoken language is Swedish, but the island was given to Finland after World War II. God knows why. It was lovely but Viking could have skipped Mariehamn for all I cared but

I think Gordon and I had a hot dog as a late lunch and skipped dinner, but my memory is hazy. I still wasn’t sleeping well and running around a lot is hard on an old lady. At breakfast I explained to Dawn about my sleeping difficulties (she’s a retired nurse) and she gave me magnesium pills. I tried them that night and they worked like a charm. I slept for 6 1/2 straight hours. I only got to watch one episode of Limitless but I was refreshed and looking forward to the next day at sea. No tour!