LHR, then ARN

It’s Wednesday morning now, though barely past midnight back home in Pasadena.  We’re repacking before we check out of our hotel and catch a train north.  Since last I wrote, some travel happened!

The overnight flight to Heathrow was fine.  We ate well, dinner

and breakfast.  

I slept a little, though I was drenched in sweat doing so.  My cold lingers, but I wasn’t hacking all night.

Going back through security at Heathrow felt like something of a mess, but we made it to the United Lounge

with hours to relax and - critically - grab showers!  Ah.  So welcome.

And then it was a shorter flight to Stockholm, crammed in

but served a surprisingly tasty little cold meal.  

Getting through everything at Arlanda was quick, and we were checked in and headed down to the restaurant bar for a light bite and drink before you know it.

And then?  The bliss of a real bed for a night!

Onward today!

Recap: or, last posting on Sweden - until the next visit (maybe!)

Ruminations before I head to the pool. I opened some sauternes last night to make an asparagus risotto, and I want to use them up, so tonight I'll bake a couple of cakes with raisins soaked in the sauternes, I think.



Day one: yes, we were exhausted. But we slept well once we checked in to the hotel and otherwise occupied ourselves well as good tourists all morning and as fellow gay swimmers dining out that night. Looking back, the lunch at the National Museum was a terrific meal in a lovely, fairly quiet setting. Dinner with the Dolphins, meanwhile, was both a delicious meal and a very enjoyable one for the good company.

In the end, though, we were in Stockholm, and it's a darn gorgeous city. The shot above is from that first night on the way back to the hotel.



Day two we did some souvenir hunting after sleeping in late. Nine hours of sleep the night before, and we were all set to go. Getting a swim in was a good thing, especially in a 50m pool, but a leisurely dinner outside with Mats and Lars was a great capper. The photo above shows me in the narrowest "street" in Stockholm - it's narrower up top - on Gamla Stan, just after shopping at Duka.



Day three was another museum, the Vasamuseet, and some real heat in the city. Also, a lovely meal at an old restaurant on Gamla Stan (all recapped earlier). The Vasamuseet is the most visited in the city, from what I understand, but I think it absolutely worth it. We timed it right: the crowds were moderate, and it took us into a cool interior at the height of the sunny afternoon! The photo is a museum shot.



Day four, and it was up to Conrad's cousins by way of the hottest little railcar in history. I lie. It was only 31 degrees inside it. Ugh. I am so not a hot weather person. Snivel snivel whine whine. We made it there safe and well in time to enjoy the afternoon and evening. And we had the good company of Kersti and Ivar as well. Pictured above is Conrad in the decorated doorway of the guest house.



In honour of day five and a road trip to Hudiksvall, a pronunciation test for you readers in the shape of the photo above!



Day six was the trip to the Zoo, but it is also noteworthy for Conrad dressing in bright colours for a change. Sweden beat Paraguay, much to our delight, but given that none of the villagers dressed in home team colours, it was encouraging that Olov did so!



Our last day with the cousins took us to Dalarna on another sunny drive, but we finished with pancakes. In the photo I am holding up a dancing goat, symbol of Hälsingland and a common sight on the side of houses. We want one for home, but never found a good one, darn it!

Day eight was back to Stockholm and for the most part a moratorium on photos. We do stop sometimes, you know. Still, good food is good food, and so....



My meal of plaice with beets. Very good, and a frankly huge portion!

That's Sweden, then. You have the highs and the highs and the not quite as highs. On to New Orleans on Friday, though for Conference. Relax, there will be more food photos in the future!

stockholm: food

A few shots before I go to bed. The first was my dinner of pike-perch that I had at Den Glyldene Freden tonight.



Conrad's appetizer of pickled herring at the same restaurant.

Smoked turkey sandwich with Swedish mustard and the cold chocolate drink at the Chokladkoppen yesterday.



We obviously have more photos: come on, it's us, after all! Conrad is abed, however, and I must join him if we must be up very early to pack. Merde! I may not have Internet access for some days. How on earth will I survive?

stockholm: tourist attractions

We are doing our part for the Swedish economy.

Gads, I'm tired. Day 2 was harder than day one. To bed last night around 1 (and the same thing tonight). Awake around five. Back to deep deep sleep for a few hours again. Ugh. We have a train at 8:00 tomorrow morning. I should be glad that there are no connections on it en route to Bollnäs, and that the train station is across the street.

So, a photo of us being total tourists on day one, about to embark on the 50-minute water tour around the Djurgården. Lovely day to be on the water. We need friends here with a sailboat.



Speaking of boats, we visited the Vasamuseet today. The Vasa was a seventeenth century warship that sank in Stockholm harbour some, oh, five minutes after launch. It was salvaged in the mid-twentieth century and turned into quite an impressive museum. Better than the Nationalmuseum, I must admit.

What was sooooo not better was the bus ride there and back. Oh yes, people laught to think we're vacationing way up north in Scandinavia, but it's warm and sunny out, and the bus was a little greenhouse on wheels, filled to bursting with all the ripe aromas of Swedish humanity in summer!

We've done a bunch of walking today, taking in the National Library (no big deal, or not from what we saw) where we stopped for a truly awful couple of cups of coffee across the street. Don't be fooled by the photo - we took three sips and decided to leave.



Great shirt, though. Which reminds me: yes, we have H&M in Chicago, but the clothes there never fit. I bought two pairs of shorts and a shirt at a store today, though. We also took in a couple of food halls and choked at the ultra high prices in the NK department store.



Conrad outside the Vasamuseet.

A terrific day all around, though. I'll post a few food photos and get to bed. Points for correctly pronouncing the words in the last photo!

stockholm: people

Meet Lars. Well, meet Lars and what looks like a big jug of hooch but is a generations old jug filled with one of his recipes for punch. And not the fruity party kind either.

One terrific thing about the Internet is that you get to connect with people. So, there are friends of mine far away, whom I have met but do not see often: Greer and Jeph have recently commented on this blog. And there are those whom I've not met but now hear from regularly and happily: Steven, for example. And then there are those you make contact with and do meet. So it is with the Stockholm Dolphins swimmers.

Conrad and I like to eat, as you may be aware. A lot. And good food (but that's another blog entry). So when we travel, we try to get some swimming in. In advance of this trip we contacted the Dolphins. Could we swim with them while in Stockholm, and please forgive our lack of Swedish.

Mats responded.



Mats is sort of the coach/coordinator for the small Stockholm team. All told, there are fewer than 20 members, no women, one straight man. Lars and Mats have been married ten years, by the way.

Anyway, yes, we were welcome to swim. Did we also want to come for dinner with the team on Saturday night. We told Mats we'd be glad to, if we weren't meeting up with Conrad's cousin Kersti who was in town for a seminar. Kersti, however, was busy, and we'll see her later in the week anyway. Off to Gamla Stan it was last night, then, meeting some unknown gay men for dinner at a place called Mandus.



Not a very big group, but a pleasant one - utterly - and a good meal. Lars and Mats are next tome, then on the other side it's Cristen (I hope I have that right), Timo, and Kevin. Kevin was a swimmer visiting from Belgium; I was delighted to learn that though he lives there, he's reallyl from Victoria. We talked Canadian a bunch.



Also there was Fredrik. He got missed in the previous shot.

After dinner, we went to a bar called Torget, had a drink with them, then made it home by midnight. And let me tell you, we slept well last night: 9 hours!

Mats and Lars also invited us to come dine with them tonight at their home in the lovely suburb of Alvik. Why are Swedish suburbs so nice and non-suburban? It seemed like a handsome neighbourhood. We rode out there after swimming and enjoyed a dinner of chicken and broccoli pie, a spice cake and ice cream for dessert, and plenty of wine. Very good company, and we'd be glad to meet up again. Their three Airedales are magnificent, spirited dogs as well.



We stayed about 4 hours or so and had a terrific evening of food, drink, and conversation. Much nicer than finding any old restaurant in town, really. Any of the Dolphins we met are utterly welcome to come visit us in Chicago; we rather hope they might!

stockholm: buildings

It's surprisingly suultry here tonight. 11:37, the sky is a deep indigo, and I'm thinking of lying totally unclothes atop the bed because of the warmth. Ah well, it has been a beautiful day. And the dark chocolate flavoured with black currant kicks butt!

Lots to say and show in these entries, but I'm not sure how long Conrad will put up with me being up tonight doing them. Let me toss a few photos out there at least, though.

So, from yesterday, a photo as we crossed a bridge to go over to Gamla Stan. We've walked on and off that island - the Old Town - a few times now.



A shot from about 11:15 or so last night in Stortorget, also on Gamla Stan. We have seen other parts of the city, I promise. We made our way back there early this afternoon, both to shop on Gamla Stan, and to have a drink at Chokladkoppen. That turned into a small lunch and was yummy, indeed.

We took a boat tour around a bit of the harbour. Lovely trip, past some parks and good neighbourhoods, seeing a lot from the water, which is a good perspective. Stockholm has a working port, 14 islands, I can't remember how many bridges, and loads of pleasure craft. A shot from the water of some cityscape:



Finally, just to show how good the weather is, a shot from the aquatic complex where we swam with the Stockholm Dolphins today. Incidentally, Conrad and I each bought a team suit from them, so now we can parade in a vivid blue with yellow printing across the ass!

:-P

We swam inside, in fact. A massive complex with several pools. The outside shot here shows the throngs around the outdoor 50m pool. We took the quiet, indoor 50m pool and managed a good workout!



And just for Jeph and Steven (well, for anyone, but given their gardening activities...): a lot is in bloom here. The lilacs are at their prime, in fact. Their scent is on the air, and it's delightful. It's a very green city! A shot of Conrad with the lilacs by the Nationalmuseum (no, that's not a typo):