Dear Readers,
The Habers are off on another jaunt and a long one it will be. We are
starting out in Stockholm and Joyce is along for the ride.
Stockholm is known as the Venice of the North. It consists of 14 islands
and has about 50 bridges. The first thing we did when we arrived on
Wednesday afternoon was take a 2 hour boat trip “under the bridges”; it went
under 15 of the bridges and into 2 locks; it gave you an overview of the
city and some of its history. It was a good introduction.
Over the next two days we hit most of the major sights, including: the VASA
museum (which has an original Viking ship which sank 20 minutes into its
maiden voyage; the mud that it sunk into preserved it; it wasn’t hauled up
until 200 years later), the changing of the guard outside the Royal Palace
(lots of pomp and circumstance including horses and a band), the inside of
the Royal Palace (primarily visited the Royal Apartments and the crown
jewels), the Nobel Museum (no, Mel and Ruth, it’s not yours; it has pictures
and information about every Nobel prize winner), the Great Synagogue (not
mentioned in any of my tour books but a friend of Joyce’s-Pearl-had been
here and mentioned it; I found it on a map; very interesting tour; one of
the other tourists was a cantor from Palm Beach who was originally from
Queens), Millesgarden (Milles was a sculptor; this was his house and it
contains a huge collection of his sculptures all through the grounds and
house; most pieces were quite big; in addition, there was a temporary
exhibit of Rodin pieces; this was in a suburb; we took a train and a bus to
reach it), a food market (which was not nearly as interesting as the one in
Paris; reminded me of Faneuil Hall in Boston or the Reading Market in
Philly), and then the Artic Ice Bar (a bar made out of ice; it’s 22 degrees;
they give you a jacket and gloves to put on; you drink vodka; Joyce loved
it! we thought it was too touristy). Tomorrow morning we’re going to City
Hall.
In terms of food, we had a fabulous meal last night at Wendholms Fisk–a
seafood restaurant which has a Michelin star (well deserved) and makes every
top 10 list in Stockholm. Naturally I had made this reservation far in
advance. (The couple sitting next to us live on Park Avenue and 96th
Street!) On the first night we fell in somewhere and tonight I asked the
concierge for a recommendation and that turned out really nice. Marty and
Joyce have been eating herring everywhere we go; last night Joyce had an
appetizer of 3 different types of herring and tonight she had 5 different
types; (Ken: you would love it).
Swedish is a Germanic language so between my German and my English, lots of
signs are easy to interpret. Understanding the spoken language is another
thing but everyone speaks English.
Bottom line here is Stockholm is a nice city for a couple of days but not
terribly exciting. Tomorrow afternoon we board the ship for our cruise on
the Baltic Sea. Interestingly, we have met at least half a dozen people
(all Americans) who will be on our cruise.
The Haber Report can now transmit photos as well as just text. I actually
have a digital camera with me which I am using for the first time. Not sure
how much people can download (& I neglected to find out how to put all of
the pictures on a site for you all to go there) so am just including 2
pictures (the Viking ship and the horses at the changing of the guard).
Not sure exactly what the computer situation (or my free time!) will be on
the ship. Will write again when I get a chance.
As always, your comments are appreciated.
Much love,
Your Travel Correspondent
Irene
Leave a Reply