Welcome to Stockholm

I arrived in Stockholm early this morning after an easy 7.5 hour flight from Washington DC. Flying to Europe from the East Coast totally rocks! I had been in DC to visit some of my friends there (more about that in a later post.)

How's this for a warm welcome? It was the display screen on my TV when I checked in. (I didn't take it personally that they didn't get the right flag.)



So to ward of the jet lag...in spite of not having slept in a very long time... I hit the town as soon as I got checked in to my hotel.



There's something so utterly gratifying about figuring out the public transportation system when you first arrive somewhere. Once that is done, I feel so free! Transportation pass in hand I headed into the old part of town. Lovely.



It helped that it was a warm, sunny spring day, but Stockholm totally lives up to its reputation as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. I spent most of my time just wandering the streets of the old city.



I did find it pretty entertaining how many people asked me for directions. It must have happened six different times. Even Swedish people, in Swedish. LOL.







I went to see the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. This experience left me with two impressions:

1) No country other than England should try to do a formal, showy changing of the guard. The Brits do it perfectly. Flawlessly. The whole show is so infused with pomp and grace that you actually buy into the importance of it all. The Swedish guard, poor boys, I'm afraid that they just look like they got done with a high school basketball game and tossed on a polyester uniform and very shiny metal hat. They were professional and precise. But they just can't compete with England. Sorry guys.



2) The second observation is that the muppets, namely the Swedish Chef, have done a grave disservice to this country. While the head guard was apparently inspecting the rest of the troops there was some shouting that they did as a part of the procedure. The head guard would shout something and then the others would shout something back. But the fact that they all sounded exactly like the Swedish Chef made me look around to see if they were going to start tossing vegetables. Really, it made me want to burst out laughing. Not the effect they were going for, do doubt. I did avoid an international incident and refrained from a good ol' guffaw. But let me tell you, I was cracking up inside.



I'm going to try to go to bed now. I'm really tired, but if past experience is any indication I'll probably sleep for 3 hours and then be wide awake. It doesn't help that the sun is up so long. It is still totally light outside now at nearly 10 pm, and when I was here last year at this time I remember many a jetlagged waking at 3 a.m. to a bright sunny day. {Fingers crossed that I can get some sleep so I'm not too bleary eyed for my meetings tomorrow!}