#anyway. also not ship art just luke and guy hanging out after training :-) having a gucci time

[slydiddledeedee]

some old art - catching up after training

[scandinaviacroatiaengbergs]

Monday and Tuesday: Stockholm to Gothenburg (with a few extra nice words about the Stockholm Central Station!)

Wow!  I am so behind on these posts!  We’ve been having such full days, with the kids going to bed later than usual, that I haven’t had time to write a post in the evening on many days. OK, so after we successfully woke up on the Baltic Princess to disembark by 6:10, we got off the ship with little fanfare and found ourselves in the chilly Stockholm morning.  It was the first time the weather on this trip has been chilly at all (but it warmed up in the daytime, considerably, during our two daytimes there).  The kids and I actually waited inside for our Uber.  We got to our hotel, the Nordic Light, by 7 a.m. and miraculously, they were able to check us in.  We were so glad. Now, this hotel is one of the last things we booked for the trip (actually, we still have two things to book: our rental car in Croatia and a night back in Gothenburg in a week).  Finding lodging in Stockholm was *so hard.*  I mean, I felt totally rejected because I seriously put booking attempts in at about 7 Airbnbs and was declined on all of them. We have an extensive Airbnb track record with a good set of reviews ourselves, so I couldn’t figure out what the deal was! And all of the places were *so* expensive! We had similar trouble in Oslo and Copenhagen, trouble like I’ve never had booking something anywhere we’ve traveled.  Rejection after rejection.  So, for Copenhagen, I selected “instant book” and got something, and in Oslo, one guy finally accepted our request (I am writing this from Oslo now and the place is totally awesome). Anyway, back to the Nordic Light, it is actually a very good thing we booked a hotel rather than an Airbnb because we were able to check in early, which would’ve been very unlikely for an Airbnb.  It was a really cool-looking hotel, just recently updated and kind of on a main drag, right adjacent to the train station, which I will come back to. We got ourselves collected, after the kids watched some show on National Geographic about extreme truck/equipment repairs in Alaska, and we walked first to the Old Town and, en route, we passed a wonderful shopping street, and I noticed two stores I had to return to later (and did): Paper Tiger (which is based in Copenhagen and I’d noticed two years ago in Warsaw)  and Villervalla children’s clothing.  It looked *totally* cute.  When I went back later that day, I got the kids new sun-protecting long-sleeved swim one-pieces.  So cute.  OK, so on our walk to the Old Town, we passed Parliament and then the royal palace, and once we were on the other side of the royal palace, we actually saw two horse-and-carriages go by.  The kids were pretty into that.  Once we were kind of on the outskirts of the Old Town, we stopped to eat and the kids got quiche and a waffle with ice cream—yes, ice cream at breakfast time. This was Eric’s choice and he chose carrot cake ice cream, and Cece and he gobbled it up, and Rowan actually turned it down!  It was crazy!  The boy has been asking for ice cream like multiple times daily, and then we have it for *breakfast* and he’s like, no thanks! So, after going through the Old Town, we went along one of the rivers (Stockholm is comprised of multiple islands so there are rivers –or inlets, whatever—everywhere and bridges everywhere) and visited the Vasa Museum.  It was recommended to us by our friend Ethan, whose brother lived in Stockholm for a long time.  Anyway, the Vasa was a 17th century multi-use transport/war ship (it had a ton of cannons) which, on its maiden voyage, sunk in Stockholm harbor.  We learned that a lot of ships are lying in the muck at the bottom of the harbor, as capsizing was not uncommon.  What is unique about this ship is that, a) it was brand new, so it was kind of state-of-the-art at the time and loaded with provisions that reflected the times, and b) it sunk in just the right kind of mud and in water of just the right kind of brackishness, so it was excellently preserved.  Its sinking had gone down in lore with people searching for it from time to time, and then, in the 1960s, a private citizen decided to organize an effort to locate it (which he did) and then galvanized the interest of the citizenry and government to undertake the huge project of lifting it out of the sea. So, the whole museum is about the ship being brought back up out of the muck and its restoration and then all about it: its history, its crew, its back-story, what life was like in Sweden in the late 1600s, etc.  It was really interesting, but the kids were not as engaged as would’ve been ideal for parental enjoyment ;) Walking home from the Vasa, we took a meandering route, and that took us to a high-end shopping era and to the central market, something we always love to check out in new cities. From there, we went back to the hotel for naptime, which is when I went out and did a spot of shopping.  Afterwards, I took the kids to the Abba Museum and Eric went for a run.  The Abba Museum was so, so, so amazing!!!! I can’t even do it justice with a brief explanation here, so I am going to spare you all my attempt.  I love Abba, and even if you’re not a huge fan, I think it’s really engaging and fun.  Cece was luke-warm about it, calling it “too boring” from time to time, but Rowan and I were into it ;)

After our museum time, we all went out and managed find a restaurant to eat in before I lost my mind from exhaustion, hunger, overall crankiness, and an aching body, haha.  We actually ate at an Italian restaurant (I think we’ve done pretty good work at eating Scandinavian delicacies, well some, so having a comfort/familiar meal was fine, especially for the kids).  My mood really improved after dinner and we actually walked some more. We didn’t tarry too long this time, and got home and the kids went right to bed (after their first actual bath in quite some time; they’ve had irregular showers on other days) and then I managed to get to bed by 11-ish and the next morning when my alarm went off at 8:45, I was like, whoa, wait, where am I?  I hadn’t stirred or anything that whole time; I slept like log.

Tuesday morning we had breakfast at the Nordic Light and I put Cece in some new black-and-white Marimekko pants I’d gotten on sale for her at the outlet.  Let me tell you, a four-year-old in black-and-white pants and mixed berry compote do not get along well together.  Within ten minutes of her getting dressed—and seriously, don’t judge me, because I also *knew* this was likely but was looking on the bright side that, for once, it might not—she had red splotched all down the leg of one pant.  I quickly swooped the child and her pants upstairs and did some quick internet research and let me tell you, if you need to get berry stains out, flush them out with boiling water.  It totally worked! I was amazed!  Anyway, we went back down and finished breakfast and then were on our way to our next adventure: to the Swedish Center for Architecture and Design!  It goes by ArkDes for short and it shared a building with the modern art museum.  What a great few hours we had there. Rowan says he wants to be an architect and general contractor when he grows up and Cece wants to be a cat doctor (veterinarian) and a variety of other things when she grows up.  Both kids were really pretty interested in ArkDes!  Rowan loved looking at all of the models and seeing all of the different architectural styles.  We went over to the modern art side and it was really incredible.  So many really interesting paintings, multi-media works, audio installations, and so much more.  We actually had very little time there, but Rowan was interested the whole time (and Cece was not quite as interested and I think she was really getting tired).  Rowan loved this mixed-media large format painting/sculpture by Yves Klein, and we took a picture of him in front of it. There were some Jackson Pollock painting and Picassos and other folks I recognized, even though I am not the most hip to all the important artists, though I can kind of hang ;) We scooched on back to our hotel to collect our bags (passing by the “pink carpet” that was going to be used that night at the Grand Hotel for the Polar Music Prize, Sweden’s biggest award, funded by the royal family).  Bags in hand, we walked around the corner to the Central Station for our 2:32 p.m train to Gothenburg on SJ.  We’d bought our tickets online that day and we had plenty of time.  So, the train station is so crazy convenient.  I think of big-city train stations like London’s Euston or Victoria – you know, insane, busy, lots of tracks and platforms, etc. So, this was also a pretty big situation, but imagine that if you walked into an airport from the curb and approached the ticket counter and the *track* was where the luggage conveyer belt is behind the ticket agent.  It was like so convenient and unexpectedly nearby! There were taxis that were pulled up literally *at* the platform!  Eric and I were both totally thrown off by it, but it seemed great and very convenient. We had a very smooth and pleasant three-hour ride to Gothenburg.  Cece slept for an hour and I managed to get a grant application submitted, which was due in three days, so it was a big relief to get that off my plate. More about our Volvo adventure in Gothenburg in the next post!