We return to Stockholm, an old favorite. The shuttle bus took us to the north end of Gamla Stan, the old city. We had nothing planned, but had been thinking about taking the HopOn HopOff Boat ride. But as you can see the day was grey, cloudy and rainy. We actually brought our ponchos into play later in the day. It never rained hard, just enough to be annoying. So we stayed on land.
We just walked about Gamla Stan. We were early, shops weren't open in most cases, and the streets were pretty empty, compared to how it would be in the afternoon.
Orange Juice Bar
Poster in a shop window that needed repeating.
We're at the southern end of Gamla Stan and there's our ship. We could have walked from here to the ship, slightly over one mile. Instead we went back through the old town.
Stockholm is where the Nobel Prizes are awarded (except Peace) and here's the museum. The actual ceremony and dinner is done at the city hall a couple of miles away. When we first visited Stockholm with Globus in 2009(?) we toured the rooms and saw the elaborate china and silver they use for the ceremony.
I was unwilling to pay the entrance to the Nobel Museum just to see if they have a "gag" display of the Physics Nobel awarded to Drs. Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler.
At the Royal Palace they had an interesting combination of ceremonial guards and camo wearing guards. Neither type of guard looked anything but serious.
As we were taking this picture, a local cobbler made sure we knew the story. In the large statue, Sweden (knight) is slaying Norway (dragon). The smaller statue to the right is Stockholm (little girl) being saved.
The sail away from Stockholm is spectacular, with a long chain of islands. This is an amusement park near the city center.
Gamla Stan in the distance
We were invited to a wine tasting that afternoon, and learned about pairing wines with foods while enjoying the sail away.
Beautiful places to live, but accessible only by boat. That's OK in the summer, but a boat trip to the local Piggly Wiggly in February must be miserable.
Klaipeda, our first time in Lithuania. We were greeted with local performers.
Very much a port city with river/canal forming a main artery.
The performing arts center. The parking lot to the right was filled by artisan tents selling jewelry, mostly amber related. We did do some shopping here.
Mural
Restaurant on the river
Family outing
Our home away from home at the end of the river
We had to cross a side channel of the river, but the swing bridge was open for 15 minutes each hour. We waited.
Here's the simple mechanism to swing the bridge -- two guys spin a crank and it wheels the bridge around. Do they just do this 5-minute job twice an hour, or are there other things they do? And what's their job title?
Matching towers
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