Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road. – Dag Hammarskjold

We only had three days in Stockholm and I thoroughly enjoyed the city. As usual we had a walking tour to see the major sites – the Old Town, the Royal Palace, the shopping district, and the city centre. The Swedes enjoy fikkar, a coffee break with pastries, at different times during the day. We sampled a traditional cardamon roll in homage, which I liked very much. The city is beautiful with 18th century buildings no taller than 7 stories, a busy and active harbor, and lots of open squares- many with fresh fruit and vegetable vendors, benches, statues and fountains. One guide suggested that the height of the buildings allowed more light down to the street during the long dark winters.

Stockholm has over 20,000 islands, some owned by individuals for their summer homes. We took a ferry to two of the bigger ones. The first to the Vasa museum, which shows a ship built in the 1600’s that sank 10 minutes into its maiden voyage. It wasn’t until the late 1950’s that they began the process to recover it. It took forty years for them to raise it from the bottom and reconstruct it before moving it into the museum. It was a beautiful ship even though it was not well designed. Unusual given the Scandinavian flair for design, but the Dutch built it so what can you say. As we left Stockholm on our ferry to Helsinki we got to see many more of the islands as the sea was dotted with them, big and small.

The second island was the home of our guide, Jessica, who invited us to lunch. She served traditional Swedish dishes. The first course was herring – 3 kinds!, along with a side of snapps, a boiled potato, flatbread-smeared with butter and beer. The second course was meatballs with gravy and lingonberries, potatoes again and sliced cucumbers in vinegar. Before we could take a drink of snapps we had to sing and our renditions got rowdier with each sip. Ice cream with an alcohol punch was dessert. Good thing we weren’t driving. Everything was delicious. Jessica owns a tour company called To Sweden. She and her husband, Anders, have a beautiful home with lots of art and they are wonderful hosts. We got drenched on the way home as the mist that had plaqued us most of the day decided to turn into a deluge.

We also had a food tour here. We went to several food halls which were amazing. In one, Saluhall, purveyors of charcuterie and meat, fish and seafood, chocolate and candies, bakeries, and fresh fruits and veggies were houses in an old beautiful 1800’s building along side restaurants and wine bars. In the restaurants, what ever you ordered was fresh from the shop next door. We sampled cheeses with flatbread and cloudberry jam; moose pastrami, reindeer heart, and bear jerky – well I didn’t 🙂 with beer – I did; meatballs with gravy and lingonberries – I had a beetroot tartar; a plate with a tomato based seafood soup, a taste of salmon, herring, shrimp toast and a savory cheesecake, with crisp white wine; licorice; and we were supposed to have a fikkar to end the tour but it started to rain and hail, so we peeled off in a taxi back to the hotel. The licorice tasting was very interesting. Licorice is big in Scandinavia – all kinds except red. We had plain black licorice, a smoked licorice-why?, a salty licorice with a sweet inside, a really salty licorice, a salted caramel chocolate licorice, and a white chocolate passion fruit covered licorice. The salty ones were thickly coated with salt, just a. little too overwhelming but not too bad once you rubbed most of the salt off. I don’t think I’ll be adding licorice to my diet any time soon.

The 4th of July was the last night with our six friends who joined us in Copenhagen, so Ashley and Peter organized a a good bye, Independence Day celebration at a karaoke room in our hotel. As they promised we were all awarded a prize – a Nobel prize and we each received our own Nobel gold coin. Ashley performed her comedy routine which was wonderful and we all sang off key (or was that just me?) to a number of songs Peter had selected. The best job by far was Donna’s rendition of Dancing Queen, if you ignored one of the back up dancers -me. Though Barry belted out a few country songs to the crowd’s enjoyment.

I spent the next morning on the subway, visiting street art at multiple stops dispersed throughout the city. I bought one ticket for about $4 and spent several hours on the red, blue and green lines. Not only was the art fun and varied, I got to experience life as a local as they carried on their daily activities. Each stop had its own vibe and diversity. Makes me wish we had better mass transit in Nashville, it was so affordable and easy to get around.

Like many of the monarchies in Scandinavia, Sweden has changed their rules of succession and it’s no longer the oldest son but the oldest child that becomes the ruler. So Sweden will soon have a queen – Victoria and then another, her daughter Princess Estelle, once the current monarch, King Carl XVI Gustav, dies. He only 77 though so hopeful not too soon. Also, the royal family no longer has to marry another royal to strengthen ties with other countries. King Carl met his wife at the Olympics, she was assigned to be his hostess while there and loved followed. A sweet story. The Royal Palace has over 600 rooms.

Norway – Addendum

Norway has eliminated a lot of plastic in their society, I think tourists with their bottled water might produce the most amount of waste. So they import plastic from other Scandinavian countries to make plastic bags for the shops to use. You are charged for a bag when you get one to pay for the processing. How cool it that?

And if you read my last post before I edited it, I’m 28% Germanic, 21% Swedish and Danish, 28% English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish, and 11% Norwegian. My memory failed me so it was good to look it up and be reminded.

I also want to recognize people along the way who have provided small acts of kindness. As we prepared to leave the ferry to Oslo, I started a conversation. with a woman visiting from Sweden. As the crowd surged to disembark, I was sweep into the hall that required stairs to get to the exit, missing the line for the escalator. The woman I was talking to was so kind to grab my suitcase and carry it down the stairs while I dealt with my back pack- both of which are pretty heavy. It was much appreciated.

Before our compatriots left us, Chris gifted me with a Tide stick and a small pair of scissors, which I know will come in very handy. And Donna gave me some packets of powder, which when added to water will provide electrolytes, which I am sure we will need in Greece, as temperatures are predicted to be 105, maybe 107. Thank you both.