Another day, another country....Sweden this time.

Hi from Stockholm!
Just got here so the photo below of 'me in Stockholm' is about as 'hot off the press' as you can get! :-)

Monday 16/6 - Just a day of travelling in the rain

If you're gonna have a rainy day while you're on holidays, its ideal if you can plan it so that you aren't doing much except sitting in a bus. So we did well as it rained off and on most of the day today as we travelled from Denmark across to Sweden.

We left Copenhagen at 8:30am and by 9:00am we were on the ferry which took us across the water to Sweden. In quiet moments I've thought it might be fun to be a Tour Guide as I like to think I'm a fairly organised person, and also a 'people person' however the few tours I have done have made me change my mind. Just to get 25 people, all the luggage and a huge bus onto a ferry...on time....is stress which I probably don't need. And a conversation with any of them about stuff that has gone wrong leaves one in stitches! [laughs loudly]

Our Tour Guide is called Klaars, and he told us today that once he was taking a tour around Russia, and he and the driver were arrested and taken off to the Police Station....the bus with 35 travellers who don't speak Russian were just left on the side of the road. When he finally got back to them after about 3 hours, he said they had gotten through all their stored food and candy bars and were starting to get worried. ROFL For the ferry, he had made it VERY clear that whatever we were doing at the time the ferry was docking, that it was NOT more important than getting onto the bus. He told the story about a previous trip when a lady decided this was a good time to go to the loo and when she got out, she found that she was on her way back to where they had come from! Took a day to get her back again! So....noooo....I don't think I need that kind of stress at all.

Took a photo out of the bus window of the scenery on the way across the peninsula to Stockholm (see above)....and as you can see, very green and quite flat. There are massive forests of pine, silver birch, elms etc however one thing I've noticed is that unlike Germany, there are very few flowers. No wildflowers, no windowboxes etc. We did see some wild deer though.

Not much to say about a day spent on a bus. There is a guy sitting opposite us who is definitely not going to remember much of the trip. He has read a book the whole way so far and has his head down the whole time. Doesn't look out of the window and doesn't listen to the information from the tour director. Makes one wonder...why? [confused look]

Finally arrived in Stockholm right on rush-hour....to the most amazing traffic problems! Apparently there are roadworks happening and a bridge is out of commission (Stockholm is built on 14 islands) however even in the middle of Rome I did not see such traffic jams. In fact, the German word 'Stau' actually describes it better as it was a total tangle and there were times that intersections were entirely blocked! Mind you, some of the problem might have been a 10metre bus trying to turn left in front of the traffic.... [cheeky grin] Still, we ended up getting out of the bus before the hotel, and walking the short way there as it was a lot quicker. The porters had to walk down the street with their trolleys to retrieve our luggage! :-)

Anyway, we are here now, and all settled in. Took a lovely stroll through the old part of town and had a quick tea then looked through all the lovely shops containing beautiful glass and crystal, and other things that I can't afford. [sigh] Oh well....doesn't cost anything to look!

Tomorrow we are on the ferry in an overnight cabin, so while I keep saying that I'm not sure of internet it has been pretty good up till now. But expecting a ferry to provide WIFI internet access might be a bit much...even for Sweden.

So....I'll be back when I can!