Scandinavia - Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Another rainy day in Stockholm.  Down to breakfast in this new place at 8:00.  Breakfast set-up is pleasant with much the same fare as the other hotels on the trip - scrambled eggs, hard and soft boiled eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, cereals and assorted breads and pastries plus juice and coffee.  The devil is in the details, though.  Howie will be quick to point out that the cookies are not up to par as the cookies are not nearly as sweet and tasty. Also, there are no fried eggs, and the overall presentation is not as practiced.

Off this morning for a bus tour of the city, followed by a boat tour of the islands (Stockholm consists of 14 separate islands - who knew?) We hiked in the rain to the tour starting point, then stood around for 45 minutes, as the bus was late, allegedly tied up in morning traffic.  However, once on board, the tour proceeded briskly.  It was somewhat hard to hear the prerecorded spiel over the morning radio music the driver was playing until he finally turned it off. 

Off of the one hour bus trip, we were dropped at the boat tour dock.  Luckily, the boat was full and the 16 or so of us coming from the bus were forced to step inside the Grand Hotel for a drying spell, a cup of coffee and a delicious carrot cake topped with scrumptious cream cheese frosting.  The Grand Hotel is truly sumptuous, overly staffed and grand in every respect.  Easily the top hotel in Stockholm's main civic area.

The boat trip proved very educational and informative. Although the narrative on this trip covered some of the same ground as the bus tour, the vantage point from the water allowed a different, and better view.

After the tour, we walked a few blocks to the Moderna Musete, or Modern Museum. We paid our senior citizen fare and then spent two enjoyable hours touring the exhibits, with a break in the middle in the cafe for a glass of wine and beer.  The collection was very good, and we saw some new work by artists we had not before encountered.  Howie was especially taken by some photographs by South African photographer Ernest Cole, from his book Photos of Bondage (sic) published in 1967.  There was also a multiple room/multiple media installation by an artist, Adrian Rojalles (I think this was his name, as my notes are less than complete or legible, that was a real change up for us.

After the museum, we walked back to our hotel for a quick clean-up and then off to dinner.  We ended up less than a block from our hotel at The Back Bar of the Flying Elk - a pub tied to the restaurant we were aiming for, but which was full. A pleasant, though overpriced surprise.  Three kinds of beer and a glass of wine were consumed with the three Umami Burgers and one "pulled chicken" sandwich, all with fries.  We finished with a pair of desserts known as an Eton Mess.  Very tasty and interesting meal.

We then walked for a bit doing some window shopping before landing back at the hotel around 8:45.  Retired to bed or reading as the case might be - a truly touristy and enjoyable day.