Day 1 & 2: Traveling & Stockholm
We left for our European adventure at the ungodly hour of 4:15am (from our house) on Saturday the 21st. Blech. At least it was getting light out so it wasn't as hard as getting up that early in the dead of winter, but still. Blech. The plane ride from Duluth to Detroit was uneventful.
We had a 7 hour layover in Detroit which sucked but we kept ourselves fairly occupied by reading, snoozing, eating, walking, etc. We left Detroit around 4pm on a lovely Airbus 330. I like that plane because the coach seats are 2 - 4 - 2 so Steve & I were the only ones on our side. Much nicer than having to climb over someone. We also had personal entertainment systems which made my day! I watched a couple of movies on the flight Blades of Glory and Disturbia both were good "plane fare." Steve played with his interactive GPS locator world map the whole time. I'm not kidding - about 7 hours of playing with the map. Ah well.
We landed in Amsterdam at about 5:50am. Another lovely time. We got off the plane and immediately had NO CLUE where to go to get our connection to Stockholm. And we only had til 6am. There are no diretions as to what liine to proceed to, what gate your plane is at, etc. Eventually (about 15 minutes) we found a massive passport/immigration/security line that we were supposed to be in. It was now about 6:15am; the monitors said our plane was "boarding" and we had a huge crowd of people to join in line. We checked with the "short line" (if you have a quick connection...personally I think 45 minutes is a 'quick' connection) but were rudely informed that we had "plenty" of time to get through the line. Whatever. So we waited and waited....got through the passport control/security line by about 6:45 only to find out our gate was the very last one in a large terminal. The monitors now said "door closing" for our flight.
So we started running. Let me tell you how fun it is for me to run (to begin with) but especially so in bad shoes (for running) and carring a little extra "luggage" up front...not fun at all. Steve said "I'll run ahead and have them hold the plane and he took off while I "jogged" behind. Well, we got there, we made it (barely) we were the last people on the flight and we were lovely & sweaty. OH and we weren't sitting together (hmph). Steve somehow convinced the guy (aisle seat) next to him to move back about 30 rows to switch places with his wife. I was impressed with his persuasion. :) The rest of the 2 hour flight was uneventful and we landed in Stockholm.
Of course, my bag did not. This is about 90% common for me. I'm pretty used to it. I've learned to travel with my essential-essentials in my carry-on (change of undies, contact solution/case/glasses) and to deal with the rest as it comes [note: my bag arrived later that evening.]
Bertil & Maud met us at the airport. Bertil is Steve's 2nd Cousin once Removed....so I think Steve's Great-Grandma and Bertil's Grandfather were siblings or cousins or something. I get confused and have to recheck the family tree. Bertil & Maud have been coming to the US (primarily MN) every year since 1992 (well, they skipped one year but came twice another year). They also attended our wedding last fall. They are very very generous and nice and were excellent hosts.
We drove about 40 miles to their house in Segeltorp which is a suburb of Stockholm.
We slept for about 20 minutes and then it was time to go!
Steve, Bertil & I took a boat from downtown Stockholm (such a beautiful city) to the World Heritage Site of "Birka" which is an ancient Viking village/island.
I really wanted to do this (it was on my personal "must see" list) - however I didn't know we'd be doing it the first day when I had no sleep and was jet lagged. It was almost like torture.
The boat ride was 1 1/2 hours long....Steve & I were falling asleep on it! It was beautiful, the scenery, the HUGE lake, the history was all very interesting but we were so....damn...tired....
Birka is a beautiful island...we walked around with an English tour guide and learned about the island, the Vikings that lived there, etc. The village no longer exists as over the years people moved to the island, farmed it, etc. The island has also risen a great deal since the Viking's time so there is much MORE island than there was.
There are lots of burial mounds all over the place (some have been excavated and rebuilt, others have not been excavated) and there is a small "village" showing how their houses were built, what kind of handicrafts & foods they made/ate, etc. It was very interesting but again I was so tired I was sort of miserable. There was also a small museum but it was mostly in Swedish so it was hard to read about things. 
The boat took us back to Stockholm around 6:15 and we met up with Maud at the boat dock at 7:45. then we walked around a bit (in a jet lagged haze) and went for dinner.
I had the world's most gross hamburger and water while Steve had some nasty looking herring thing and a beer (lucky). We got back to Bertil & Maud's house around 10;30pm and I immediately went to bed. Steve stayed up a bit longer - how I have no idea.... and we slept for a good 12 hours...which was not nearly enough.
We had a 7 hour layover in Detroit which sucked but we kept ourselves fairly occupied by reading, snoozing, eating, walking, etc. We left Detroit around 4pm on a lovely Airbus 330. I like that plane because the coach seats are 2 - 4 - 2 so Steve & I were the only ones on our side. Much nicer than having to climb over someone. We also had personal entertainment systems which made my day! I watched a couple of movies on the flight Blades of Glory and Disturbia both were good "plane fare." Steve played with his interactive GPS locator world map the whole time. I'm not kidding - about 7 hours of playing with the map. Ah well.
We landed in Amsterdam at about 5:50am. Another lovely time. We got off the plane and immediately had NO CLUE where to go to get our connection to Stockholm. And we only had til 6am. There are no diretions as to what liine to proceed to, what gate your plane is at, etc. Eventually (about 15 minutes) we found a massive passport/immigration/security line that we were supposed to be in. It was now about 6:15am; the monitors said our plane was "boarding" and we had a huge crowd of people to join in line. We checked with the "short line" (if you have a quick connection...personally I think 45 minutes is a 'quick' connection) but were rudely informed that we had "plenty" of time to get through the line. Whatever. So we waited and waited....got through the passport control/security line by about 6:45 only to find out our gate was the very last one in a large terminal. The monitors now said "door closing" for our flight.
So we started running. Let me tell you how fun it is for me to run (to begin with) but especially so in bad shoes (for running) and carring a little extra "luggage" up front...not fun at all. Steve said "I'll run ahead and have them hold the plane and he took off while I "jogged" behind. Well, we got there, we made it (barely) we were the last people on the flight and we were lovely & sweaty. OH and we weren't sitting together (hmph). Steve somehow convinced the guy (aisle seat) next to him to move back about 30 rows to switch places with his wife. I was impressed with his persuasion. :) The rest of the 2 hour flight was uneventful and we landed in Stockholm.
Of course, my bag did not. This is about 90% common for me. I'm pretty used to it. I've learned to travel with my essential-essentials in my carry-on (change of undies, contact solution/case/glasses) and to deal with the rest as it comes [note: my bag arrived later that evening.]
Bertil & Maud met us at the airport. Bertil is Steve's 2nd Cousin once Removed....so I think Steve's Great-Grandma and Bertil's Grandfather were siblings or cousins or something. I get confused and have to recheck the family tree. Bertil & Maud have been coming to the US (primarily MN) every year since 1992 (well, they skipped one year but came twice another year). They also attended our wedding last fall. They are very very generous and nice and were excellent hosts.
We drove about 40 miles to their house in Segeltorp which is a suburb of Stockholm.
We slept for about 20 minutes and then it was time to go!
Steve, Bertil & I took a boat from downtown Stockholm (such a beautiful city) to the World Heritage Site of "Birka" which is an ancient Viking village/island.
I really wanted to do this (it was on my personal "must see" list) - however I didn't know we'd be doing it the first day when I had no sleep and was jet lagged. It was almost like torture.
The boat ride was 1 1/2 hours long....Steve & I were falling asleep on it! It was beautiful, the scenery, the HUGE lake, the history was all very interesting but we were so....damn...tired....
Birka is a beautiful island...we walked around with an English tour guide and learned about the island, the Vikings that lived there, etc. The village no longer exists as over the years people moved to the island, farmed it, etc. The island has also risen a great deal since the Viking's time so there is much MORE island than there was.
There are lots of burial mounds all over the place (some have been excavated and rebuilt, others have not been excavated) and there is a small "village" showing how their houses were built, what kind of handicrafts & foods they made/ate, etc. It was very interesting but again I was so tired I was sort of miserable. There was also a small museum but it was mostly in Swedish so it was hard to read about things. 
The boat took us back to Stockholm around 6:15 and we met up with Maud at the boat dock at 7:45. then we walked around a bit (in a jet lagged haze) and went for dinner.
I had the world's most gross hamburger and water while Steve had some nasty looking herring thing and a beer (lucky). We got back to Bertil & Maud's house around 10;30pm and I immediately went to bed. Steve stayed up a bit longer - how I have no idea.... and we slept for a good 12 hours...which was not nearly enough.
Comments
I remember arriving in Japan with severe jet-lag only to be taken to Kabuki (sp?) Theatre. I wanted nothing more than to sleep but felt bad about falling asleep until I noticed that half the people there had all dozed off - many over their meals! Ah well...
Glad you were able to make all your connections and get your luggage (i hate when that happens!)