Finally in Stockholm!

After the conference was over at 5, Tommy and I grabbed a taxi to head into central Stockholm. The highlight of the ride was driving past the summer palace of the Swedish Royal Family, where they can apparently be seen strolling along the lake (surrounded by several police officers of course!)

Our cab driver dropped us off on the edge of Gamla Stan (Old Town), and island at the heart of Stockholm. When I say the edge, I really mean THE EDGE because our hotel was a boat that was docked permanently and turned into a hotel. I had not been able to reach them by phone before we left the conference center, although it showed online that they had rooms available. Plus, as I searched online, there were several boat hotels in Stockholm so it seemed like the thing to do. When we got there however, the gentleman at the reception desk informed us that they did not in fact have any rooms available. Luckily he was quite kind and helpful and called around to a few hotels that were reputable and in a similar price range (~$150/night). The second one he tried was the Lord Byron, who didn’t have any available rooms but transferred him over to their sister hotel, the Victory, where there were rooms available. We were fortunate to get this hotel right in the heart of Gamla Stan, plus it was just a 5 minute walk from the boat hotel. When we walked into the hotel, there was a ton of old boating and sailing memorabilia and I was pretty quick to figure out that this “sister” hotel was the fancy, jewelry-adorned, much more expensive sister. Oh boy. At this point, we didn’t have many options and bit the bullet.

Ever since lunch, I was feeling a bit queasy and it eventually became clear that I was coming down with whatever Tommy had during most of the conference that made him achy, tired and unable to eat. My stomach felt pretty awful and I couldn’t think about eating, which I can’t remember ever happening before. Regardless, we put down our things and ventured out into Gamla Stan, zig-zagging through the many picturesque cobblestone streets and passing cute little restaurants (the smell of which made my stomach feel even worse).

We climbed the ramp toward the Palace?? and even got Tommy a picture with the Guard, who had an almost imperceptible cobblestone circle around him, but made it very clear when Tommy stepped too close to the line.

After a walk over the bridge to get a view of the palace and beautiful Gamla Stan, we headed back towards our hotel. Since I wasn’t up for eating, Tommy grabbed a pizza and we headed back to our room to “watch” the World Cup matches. I went to sleep almost immediately.