Kalmar Castle was our morning destination. It was a gorgeous sunny, cool day for the backdrop of our adventure. Our tour was led by a local guide in historic dress. The interior of the castle is partially as it was or as it has been restored to be similar to what it was. My favorite room was the kings receiving room where the walls are made of wood inlayed panels with various scenes and symbols. Much of this had to be restored at some point because grain was stored there in the 18th century.

We got back on the bus to travel to Copenhagen. The tour guide put together a picnic lunch, which we ate at a nice rest area along the way. After we finished lunch, we played a name game to further our progress in getting to know everyone in our tour group. There is a guy in the group who thinks he’s pretty funny (he also laughs loudly) and I can tell te guide is getting a little tired of him already.

The upper floor of the castle had exhibit space and there was a really cool exhibit on a contemporary Swedish photojournalist. Most of the captions were in Swedish, though. 😕

There was another quick pitstop before we left Sweden and then we finally reached Copenhagen. Our hotel is in one of the most picturesque sections of the city! Very cool.

Our guide is originally from Copenhagen and clearly loves to talk about the city. She gave us an introduction as we strolled to around the area and headed to a restaurant for a group dinner. A man dressed as Hans Christian Andersen met us there and he told us about ‘himself’ and recite the story of The Little Mermaid. His talk ended with us all toasting a with a small glass of Snaps (or Schnapps) .

Dick and I had another really interesting conversation with Nina during dinner. We all had ice cream on the way back to the hotel and then we chatted with our bus driver as we walked. He’s Norwegian, but lives in Sweden.

We were on the move by bus today after a fascinating tour of the Stockholm City Hall. This is where the Nobel Prizes are awarded. We saw the hall where the dinner is held and the Gold Hall where the dancing happens afterwards. The entire interior is very impressive.

The bus took us through the southern part of Sweden. There wasn’t much to see from the highway, but there was some pretty agricultural land. We did a lunch stop in a small town with a historic canal and typical Swedish wooden houses. This was the location of today’s curious siting. 🙂 We also had a brief rest stop for fica.

We arrived in Kalmar in the evening, checked into a quaint hotel and then did a orientation walk around the small city. It’s on the Baltic Sea and the old part of the city is very charming. It has an unusual Baroque church on the central square – it was closed so we couldn’t see the inside.

We chatted with our tour guide, Nina, at the end of this walk and found out we are mutual fans of the TV series “Borgen”. That segued into a discussion about Danish politics and then how the Nordic countries handled the pandemic. Very interesting conversation! We ended up having dinner with her and another couple from the tour. We went to a very cool underground restaurant. The ambiance was amazing and the food was delicious!

Today’s curious siting x2:

Being able to start the day with a Scandinavian breakfast was worth getting up early. Our bodies haven’t quite calibrated yet. A nice walk outside before the rain came in helped adjust our circadian rhythm. We had a lovely fika (coffee break) at a cafe – the best latte I’ve had in ages and a kanelbulle (cinnamon roll extraordinaire).

With my tote bag shopping mission accomplished, we headed to the Royal Palace to see the changing of the guard. It was quite a show! I’ll have to upload our videos somewhere for access soon.

The rain started as we were eating a late lunch and it lasted the rest of the day. We met our tour group at 4:00 and got acquainted. I guess it’s not surprising that everyone but us is retired (or maybe just doesn’t work?). Our tour guide took us around the area of our hotel and then we took a bus to a restaurant off the beaten path where we had an authentic Swedish meal. It consisted of pickled herring, cheese, Swedish meatballs, potatoes and lingonberries. It was delicious!

We had a really nice chat with a couple from Rhode Island (close to our age, retired early). The walk back was really wet, but atmospheric with cobbled roads and nice views of the city. We took the metro for the last leg of the trip to the hotel. The tour guide – Nina- is awesome and she will be with us for the entire trip. A local guide will do the tour tomorrow.

Today’s curious siting: a teeming koi pond and creepy sculpture in a little tucked-in park.

It’s a beautiful day in Stockholm, Sweden! We had a hassle free trip and I even slept a bit here and there. The two-hour layover in Iceland at 1:30am EDT kinda disrupted the sleep schedule.

We made the mistake of eating “Mexican” food at the airport forgetting how substandard it is in Europe! We will try hard to seek out good local food from here on. 🙂

We opted to take the train to city center then walk to our hotel. It was a long walk, but it gave us a sense of the city. It feels so good to be back in Europe again! We’ve missed it so much!

During our walk to the hotel, I remembered that Dick and I are not always in harmony when we travel. We don’t quite have the same strategies or preferences and that can cause friction. The stress of traveling now just adds another layer. We always realign and I can’t think of a trip where the friction points outweighed the shared enthusiasm of what were experiencing. So whatever jet-lagged short tempered incidents flared up today have been resolved!

After a quick wash up and change, we headed out to do a little shopping. I planned to buy a new Fjallraven tote bag for this trip and then use it for a work bag. But guess what? The stores close at 5pm on Saturday. Apparently the Swedes like to enjoy their Saturday evenings rather than toil away at retail. 😏

We opted to walk along the water in the old city and caught what will likely be the last of the sun for this part of our trip.

Our belated anniversary dinner was at a restaurant with floating pavilions. I had marinated mussels — Moules! — and they were delicious! Dick went for the iconic Swedish Meatballs.

The jet lag set in after dinner and we both zonked out around 9pm.

Curious siting of the day: many weddings! We were often in city centers on Saturday’s and would see a bridal couple exiting city hall where their civil ceremony took place. But we saw as many as ten bridal parties around Stockholm city hall this evening!

Like a lot of people, we had hoped to travel in 2020. And by the looks of an international airport terminal, many of us are ready to finally make it happen. I don’t think I need to explain the different stress level that traveling rises to in 2022. We have escaped COVID so far and are very concerned that it could upend our best laid plans.

We are about to embark on a 14 day tour of Scandinavia ala Rick Steves. After a hop over through Reykjavik, we’ll land at our first destination — Stockholm. We are so excited!

It’s been a crazy week as I began an unusual transition to a new job (more on that later). I basically had four days of onboarding and initiation then one day of a professional conference. After almost three weeks of vacation, I’ll jump into the new gig. Anyway, this all involved lots of in-person meetings, meals and large groups of people at the conference. Quite nerve wracking to be vigilant about masking and air quality! We have to test negative on Sunday before we start the tour. I’ve already had a nightmare that I tested positive 😱

I’m so happy to be resurrecting this blog and sharing our travels again! Enjoy!

C