2009 - Scandinavia - Day 6 - Karistad and Stockholm, Sweden

We had a free morning today, so mom and I walked next to the water down the street from our hotel for awhile. It was such a pretty walk, I really enjoyed it. Mom and I have been surprised to see that all the houses so far in Scandinavia are pretty big. Maybe we have just been to the rich parts of the country, but the homes are really big and beautiful. I took several pictures of homes during our walk. After we had all loaded on the bus to depart from Karlstad, Laurie Wilcox told us to get off, that is was Jim’s birthday and we were going to sing to him. I was in the front of the bus and was the first to start walking off, just as Jim was starting to get on. He asked me where I thought I was going. He likes to boss people around and leave right on time, so he was NOT happy to see his loaded buses all start unloading. When we were all standing on the sidewalk, all 90 of us, Jim keeps asking Mike and Laurie what is going on, and Mike keeps telling him that we had to use the bathrooms. But Jim wasn’t buying it because we were all just standing there and not going inside the hotel. Then Laurie pulls out a birthday cake hat and puts it on Jim’s head and we all start singing. Then he figures it out and puts on his sulky face. Afterwards, he yelled at us to all get back on the bus. He acts mean and tough, and my heck he likes to talk, he talked for 2 hours on the bus, I was ready to put on my MP3 player, but I was in the front row, and that would be rude. But he really is nice, deep down—sometimes, maybe, if you’re lucky. His wife Carol is really sweet. We then drove to Stockholm, and got here a little after 3 pm. Around 12:30 we stopped for lunch at a diner, and there was a McDonald’s across the way as well. We just ate our sandwiches that we had made at breakfast. Mike also talked to us on the bus more about the Norse myths, and about Alfred Noble, and the Vasa, since we will be seeing those things tomorrow. Once in Stockholm, we checked into our hotel. I sent a couple more emails home, and then we decided to go explore the city. Another couple was just heading out also, so we walked with them. We found a nice park with a gorgeous old church up on a hill. We walked inside and around the grounds for awhile. We found an ice-cream stand and mom bought some ice-cream. As we were leaving the park, there was a wooden staircase that criss-crossed to the top of another hill. I was curious to see what was up on top, so was this older man we were walking with. He said he would race me to the top, and took off running, taking the steps 2 at a time. I had on heeled sandals, and he had a big head start, so he won L But to be honest, I probably would have lost even if I’d had my sneakers on, but it was nice to have that excuse—losing to a 61 year old man. At the top was a playground, and he even started climbing some poles. We then started wandering back towards the hotel. We walked for about 2 hours, I’m afraid we wore mom out. She said no more walking today. So we went back to our room and had snacks for dinner. I checked out the hot tub, which is on the 7th floor and in a glass room over looking the city, really cool! I planned to go back with my swimsuit on and soak for a bit, but I just didn’t feel good about going alone. There were already some people drinking there. So we’ll read for awhile and get to bed early. It’s a busy schedule tomorrow