We knew the pilot was being picked up at 3am and thought nothing of it. I did not have a very good night and felt distinctly less than 100% so just lemon, honey and hot water to start the day. Probably a mistake, as I think a caffeine shot might have been helpful. As it was, a squirt of Vick’s ‘First Defence’ to ward off any advancing lurgi had to do.
Once again, an easy walk off to the Ho-Ho bus, but not before we’d returned to the cabin for our passports – a photo copy was not deemed acceptable as we got down to deck 4. As it was, they weren’t required anyway!
This wasn’t our usual Ho-Ho company and for a variety of minor reasons, not quite as effective. This time, 380Kr each for the bus only (they do offer a boat trip for an extra 100Kr). We waited for quite a while and as it was US Independence Day, nice to see a fair few American cars coming from a ferry ship along with what must have been a group of Porsche club members. Whilst leaning over the top of the bus to take a pic, I hadn’t realised that the top rail was covered with black grease, so I ended up covered in it! Ho hum. Sorry Jill, I may have ruined one of your shirts.
The whole tour seemed to be taken at a very leisurely pace. We didn’t know that Stockholm also has a Tivoli fun park – situated next door to the ABBA museum and across the road from the zoo.
By the time we got to a small market in the city, we were ready for a leg stretch, so we hopped off.
We weren’t there long so walked along to the next stop – the casino. Whilst there we noticed several beggars who did not look Swedish, maybe Romanian again? One lady seemed quite aggressive, approaching every table of outside diners, pushing her takeaway cup under their noses and hassling them. Quite a wait, which was odd, as quite often we saw two buses together. No problem in the bright sunshine.
I still wasn’t 100% so at the end of the tour, we returned to the ship – and a coffee. I started to feel much better after that and a short nap, but out on our balcony, it was bright sunshine and almost too warm to sit outside – which wasn’t what we expected on this cruise. We expected an average of 16/17 degrees so to maintain that, it has to be pretty cool from now on. Once again, the internet connection kept dropping out altogether.
Paula watched the Wimbledon tennis whilst I regained my strength. During the sailaway, we told our neighbours who are also on our dinner table, that we’d eat lightly in the buffet – which we did. We took our (smallish) plates outside on deck 15 as the sailaway continued.
As I mentioned earlier, we hadn’t fully explored the ship and although I’d seen the sports court, I hadn’t realised that was also the way out to the putting green, what could be an artificial bowling green and also a croquet area. Very pleasant.
We went to a new cruise entertainment initiative in the Princess Theatre at 8:30pm, which was a show featuring the orchestra plus several of the other permanent musical acts, which meant an added violin, keyboard, guitar and drums, plus a singer and also the production singers and dancers. Very enjoyable too. In the atrium we also caught a speciality acrobatic pair.
We headed for the cabin a bit earlier than normal and at 9:30 pm, we were still on the sailaway from Sweden! Dozens of small islands. With the long hours of daylight, it does make for a very pleasant experience.
We enjoyed Stockholm and once again, would be happy to return.
Clocks on 1 hour again tonight and tomorrow we are in Helsinki, Finland. Yet again, no tour booked and an expectation of yet another Ho-Ho bus.
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