In the very nice SkyTeam lounge, awaiting out flight to NY-JFK.
Here’s a photo Emerson enjoying the good life. 
Next update will be from NY. Wish us luck!
London to home…
Jul 19th, 2011 by Paul
Stockholm to London…
Jul 19th, 2011 by Paul
We again awoke early, packed up our bags (this always seems to take me more time than it should), and spent a couple more hours walking around Stockholm. Since it was Monday morning, more of the stores were open… this gave us a chance to enjoy some of the Scandinavian design on offer. We also bought some more candy to bring back to the States.
I debated whether or not to take the express train to the airport or just grab a taxi from the hotel. But, in the end, we opted for the taxi at 470 Kr (about $75), as I traded a little less hassle for a little more money. We arrived at the airport, checked in, and proceeded through security. Much to Libby’s chagrin, Emerson slept on the way to the airport and during the check-in process. This meant she was awake for the 2:15 flight to London. It went fairly well (with minimal noise/fuss from the Emersonian), though Libby was a ball of stress the entire flight.
Having arrived at Heathrow, we sped through immigration (one of the officers took us immediately to the front of the queue thanks to Emerson being in tow). But, we waited for what seemed like an eternity for our luggage and stroller (which had to be checked at the counter in Sweden). After getting our luggage, I popped into the “Simply M&S” to procure dinner. Frankly, knowing that we were going to be staying at an airport hotel, I feared that we might be forced to eat a “Redneck Thanksgiving” of potato chips, beer nuts, canned cheese, and soda pop from a vending machine. But, good old Marks and Sparks really came though with a variety of fresh fruit that I purchased (bananas, grapes, and berries), as well as surprisingly high-quality and affordable sandwiches, entrée, and dessert offerings. So, we ate like kings at our Radisson Edwardian Heathrow hotel room.
Speaking of the hotel room, I used points for this stay, but the hotel didn’t have any award nights available for three persons. As such, I booked the room for two, added a request for a crib, and figured that I’d either use my charm (or more likely Radisson status) to get us into a suitable room or that (worst case) Emerson would just need to sleep with us. Of course, I avoided mentioning this possible technical snag to Libby, as it would have (needlessly) worried her. I was proven right… we got an upgrade to a “deluxe king room” without need of an explanation on my part.
How’s that for a travel hack?
Tomorrow, we enter the shadow of the valley of death (a.k.a. flying transatlantic with a toddler during the daytime hours). But, I fear no evil as I have my iPad in hand. Libby, however, is less confident.
Stockholm, Sweden – Day 2
Jul 17th, 2011 by Paul
We awoke by 6am this morning, had breakfast and coffee, and got an early start on seeing more of the city. We began by walking to the Stockholm’s historic core, Gamala Stan, where we began the self-guided walk provided by Rick Steves: “Welcome to Stockholm’s Old Town.” This took us past the Royal Palace, obelisk, Iron Boy (the smallest public statue in Stockholm), Stortorget (the oldest square and heart of medieval Stockholm), the Cathedral, the German Lutheran Church (1st in the world… ironically outside of Germany), through numerous narrow, cobblestone streets, and eventually to the Slussen locks (which separate the Baltic Sea from Lake Malaren).
View of Stockholm
Next, we took a boat across the harbor to Djurgarden (another island / national park). Here, we visited Skansen, which is Europe’s first open-air folk museum. The grounds are fairly enormous and contain (among other things) over 150 buildings of all manners that have been moved there from all around Sweden. Personally, I didn’t find Skansen quite as charming as Tivoli (not sure why), but we enjoyed it nonetheless. Some scenes were quite bucolic, and it’s a very kid-friendly place to visit—including for toddlers, as Emerson seemed to have a great time.
Emerson @ Skansen
After Skansen, we roamed around Djurgarden a while longer and eventually walked back to our hotel by late afternoon, which was about a couple of miles away. This provided an opportunity to enjoy more of the city and absorb the environment.
Dinner tonight was take-away, which seems easier with the little one. Since Emerson’s nap was abbreviated, she fell asleep earlier than usual tonight. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing…
Tomorrow’s our last day in Stockholm. We’ll have the morning to sightsee. Then we’ll be off to the airport for our flight to London-Heathrow, where we’ll be flying back to the USA from (TPA, connecting in JFK) on Tuesday.
Cruise Day #8 – Stockholm, Sweden
Jul 16th, 2011 by Paul
We docked in Stockholm by our appointed arrival time of 7am. As we weren’t in a rush to depart the ship, we finished packing up our stuff (our primary luggage was placed out in the hall the evening before) and fed Emerson a breakfast in the Windjammer. The taxi queue was very long (and slow moving) at first. A representative from Royal Caribbean later told me that they’d requested ‘lots of taxis.’ Apparently, this meant ‘30’ to the Swedish taxi dispatchers when Royal Caribbean meant ‘500’ or so. In any case, the line was still long by the time we departed (around 9am), but it was pretty fast moving as more taxis had arrived.
After a short taxi ride, we arrived at Radisson Blu Waterfront. Initial impressions: nice hotel, seemingly new construction, good location, excellent view, room was ready early, great Gold Member “welcome gift” (perhaps the best strawberries I’ve ever eaten), but poor management of queues at the front desk (which on balance is a fairly small nit). I’d likely stay here again.
After dropping off our stuff, we set out to explore Stockholm. Since we had an early morning and because a lot of shops are closed on Sundays, we opted to focus on the more modern part of Stockholm. We walked to Kungstradgarden (“King’s Garden Square”) and began Rick Steves’s suggested self-guided walking tour of modern Stockholm. This stroll took us through the park, into a Volvo showroom (much more expensive than home despite being Swedish), via the NK department store (rather high-end), through the Gallerian Mall (where we had a coffee and muffin – our nod to the traditional fika and witnessed an unusual ‘fish pedicure’ at the spa in the center of the mall), by Sergels Torg (home to 1960s functionalist architecture—which seems horribly dated to me but is embraced as ‘retro’ cool by the young, hip Swedes).
Stockholm's Kungstradgarden (King's Garden Square)
Sergels Torg, overlooking Plattan (The Platter)
After completing our walk (around 2pm), we grabbed a quick lunch (high prices, though cheaper than Norway) and headed back to the hotel for Emerson’s nap. Following her nap, we relaxed for a little while and then headed back out to explore more of modern Stockholm. We visited the food hall (grocery) at the Ahlens department store to buy some supplies (prices much better relative to convenience stores on the street), which included some of the best candy (especially licorice) that I’ve ever eaten. For dinner, we went to Macho—a Tex-Mex place—kind of like a Swedish version of Chipotle or Moe’s. The tacos that we ordered were actually pretty good and the guacamole (making Emerson very happy) was borderline excellent… all for about $15. Along with the Tex-Mex, we also ate the fruit plate provided by the hotel. Besides the guacamole (and a couple of chips), Emerson ate the majority of the strawberries and about half of a pear, which made for an unconventional but relatively healthy meal.
So far, Stockholm is a hit! Libby already claims to “love it,” telling me that “if Sarah Palin or that other crazy lady—the one from Minnesota—were to become President, this is where we’d move to in Europe…” rather than joining Alec Baldwin in France, as I’d planned. What can I say? I can’t really disagree…
Today’s box score: +1 country (Sweden)
Cruise Day #7 – Helsinki, Finland
Jul 15th, 2011 by Paul
Today was both a momentous and anti-climactic day. Momentous: because Finland marks country #50 (and the halfway point to the 100 country goal). Anti-climactic: because the weather prevented us from actually seeing / doing much in Helsinki.
Such is life…
We awoke to cloudy, windy, cool, and mildly wet weather. By the time we left the ship (shortly after docking at 9am) and arrived in town via the ship’s shuttle bus (6 euro/pp – kids free), the mist had turned into more of a steady, light rain. Unfortunately, we were ill prepared for wet weather, discovering that umbrellas don’t work especially well when also trying to navigate with a toddler, stroller, and associated accoutrements. We walked around for about an hour and a half, but we never really made progress to major sights as the dodging the rain and attempting to keep Emerson dry was a major focus. The weather and its side-effects also made photography highly problematic. I managed a few half-hearted attempts at picture taking, but I only have around a half dozen rather uninteresting photos to show for our trouble.
By 11:40, we gave up and returned via the shuttle to the ship.
Happy in Helsinki (Despite the Rain)
On balance, this worked out alright. It gave me an opportunity to take photos of the ship itself and to pack without having to rush around this evening. Libby and Emerson also spent time up in the toddler playroom, having a good time. And, while the limited exposure to Helsinki is a bit of a bummer, it’s not a big deal as we’ll likely return to this region to visit Estonia and Mariehamm (if not Lithuania too)—so Finland can easily be added back into the mix. In fact, had our time in port been longer today, I’d considered taking the ferry to Tallin to knock off another country, which would have shortchanged Finland much like we did last summer with Corfu in favor of Albania.
Tonight, we had our last meal in the MDR. While our waiter and assistant waiter were lackluster at best, our head waiter (Dorota from Poland) made all of the difference with respect to our experience. For those of you familiar with little kids, you’ll appreciate how rare it is to be able to sit through five consecutive “nice” (quiet environment, white tablecloth service), “long” (~1.5+ hour) meals without inappropriate sounds, bad behavior, crankiness, boredom, and/or general dissatisfaction with the food/service/environment on the part of a toddler. Happy kid(s) = happy parent(s). Enough said. Oh, and Emerson enjoyed a raspberry panna cotta tonight.
Tomorrow morning we’ll depart Vision of the Seas in Stockholm for a final couple of days before heading back to London for our homeward bound Delta flights on Tuesday.
I’ll try to publish my “official” cruise review prior to leaving Stockholm.
Today’s box score: +1 country (Finland)