The Not So Grand Hotel, Stockholm

The complaint department is open.

It was a ginormous room:

And it was clean and neat before out suitcases exploded all over the room.  Sorry about that, but we have some friends who can trash a hotel room in 5 minutes - hello Pam and John! - so this didn't look too bad to us.  Just drying our raincoats.

There was a huge bathroom, but it was so dimly lit you could not use the make-up mirror - heck, you could barely see the make-up mirror!  I had to seriously enhance this photo just so you could tell it's a bathroom, not a crypt.

Shaving was a challenge.  And getting in and out of the tub-shower was strictly by braille.  The shower had a half-wall of glass.  Unfortunately it didn't cover the half of the shower where the water landed.  Hence the drain in the floor.  And the towels covering it.  It was like a Slip-and-Slide - remember those?

A great hairdryer (love that 220!) but no plug in the bathroom.  Really.  And no mirror anywhere else in the room.  Oops.  Blow drying using your reflection in the glass covering a framed print is a challenge I do not want to repeat.  Putting on make-up by braille is something my companions don't want to see again.  

It's a fantastic location, the staff are lovely, but this was a seriously clueless and difficult hotel room. And at their prices?  I'd stay somewhere other than the Grand.  Or as we call it, the Not So Grand.  

Delvi Sexum and Stockholm

That's the traditional Estonian toast, and it means pretty much what you think.  "Health. Sex."  For such a reserved people that's a pretty direct toast.

Weddings start with a shot of vodka.  So do funerals.  And yet there's that reserve thing.  Külli says when she became a tour guide they told her "You'll have to ask about once an hour if anyone needs a bathroom."  And she said "I will not!  If they have a problem, they will tell me!"  And "I would never bother anyone with my small talk.  Do you know, if an Estonian gets on a bus and there is only one person on the bus, in the front left seat, where the Estonian will sit?"  Yes.  "In the last seat on the right."  Saw that one coming.

If you ask an Estonian "Did you have a good weekend?"  they will say "Yes."  But if you ask "How was your weekend?"  they will say "Regular.'  We could use some Estonians in Washington.  

Did you know Estonia is the home of Skype?

Sweden

Stockholm, the Venice of the north.  There seem to be Venices everywhere. There's probably a Venice of Nebraska, even.  But Stockholm is stunning.

I thought it was a bit odd when the pilot came on board 5 hours before we were to dock.  But seeing the maze of islands:

and remembering what happened to the Costa Concordia when they got close to shore, I'm glad he did.

Lots of water, lots of spires.

An unusual food cart:

Summer in Stockholm.  Everyone was out - kayaking:

rock climbing:

Sun bathing and swimming:

Even the birds were sunning themselves.