18 | June | 2022 | The Cannon Family's travel blog

Today would be our last full day of vacay. Tomorrow we have the LOOOOONNNGGG travel home starting with advertised chaos at Arlanda airport (news reports of 4 hour security queues!) and ending with the drive back from Buffalo. So we wanted to make the most of the day. I happened to time my “middle of the night” bathroom break well and caught the sunrise before heading back to bed for a few more hours.

We used up the rest of the bread, eggs, and cheese as well as most of the bacon for this morning’s breakfast sandwiches. Then we did something we NEVER do: we bought tickets for the tourist bus – the one you hop on and off of. In addition, we decided to close the afternoon with a boat trip through the royal canal around one of the islands.

The weather was still on our side and we wandered to the first stop to pick up the bus. We were stereotypical tourists: sitting on the upper deck with our headphones in listening to factoids about Greta Garbo growing up in the neighborhood we were staying in. We stayed on the bus for a few stops then hopped off for our first stop: the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a warship that was built in the 1620s and sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 after traveling only 1300 meters. It sat in the bottom of Stockholm harbor for more than 300 years until it was salvaged in the 1960s. It was amazingingly well preserved and the the museum that was built to show case both the boat and the restoration and preservation effort is truly impressive. Besides the massive ship itself, there are exhibits about how they pieced together the sails, how they cleaned and restored the carvings, what they learned from the bones and corpses found on board, etc. Absolutely fascinating all around. It reminded me of the Steamship Arabia museum in Kansas City but only on a MUCH larger scale.

We hopped back on the bus to travel to other parts of the city, opting to skip the ABBA museum for other pursuits. We visited another neighborhood which looked much less touristy and found a wonderful steakhouse for lunch. We each had pork and chorizo kebabs with roasted potatoes, a salad bar (Swedes *love* their potato salad) and a lovely glass of red wine. We wandered a little more then headed for the main shopping district to do some people watching. For a Friday afternoon, it was mobbed with people so there was plenty to see! A little more walking then it was back on the bus to head to the old town again and grab a drink before our canal cruise.

We found a cafe that had the other local Swedish gin distilled right in Söldermalm, Bränneri Dry, and sampled the wares in the form of G&Ts. It was most satisfying. A little more wandering and it was time to head to the dock for our short cruise. It was a very relaxing hour or so. We didn’t see as much as I had hoped but I did see where the Olympic rowing was held in 1912 so that was fun.

After our cruise, it was time for dinner. We had chosen a restaurant in the old town that specialized in Swedish cuisine and strange animals. Frank passed on the moose meatloaf special and instead went for the reindeer medallions. I had the wild boar in lingonberry sauce. Yum! We even splurged on desert: lingonberry mousse for me (I had a theme going) and ice cream with cloudberry sauce for Frank. We nearly died laughing when the minute we sat down outside, the rain started in an imitation of the previous evening. But the shower was short lived and we remained dry.

Thus fed, it was time to go back to the apartment and pack. We also might have had some alcohol that we didn’t want to waste. Ooops. All in all, a delightful day.

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