Please forgive my rather erratic posts over the last few weeks. It seems there's either no posting for several days, or else its a post with a million pictures. This is a post with a million pictures.
Anyway, these are all pictures from our trip to Stockholm. What a beautiful city it is; we enjoyed every minute there. The weather was absolutely glorious the weekend we were there. The sun shone the entire time, with not even a cloud in the sky. It reminded me a lot of fall in Colorado, actually, though it was bit cooler. Nevertheless, we were able to shed some of our coats and hats as we explored the city.
Our favorite thing we did on the trip was visit the Vasa Museum, right downtown along the water's edge. Probably one of the best museums our family has ever visited, the museum is a huge building built around a warship from the 1600's that sank, get this, 500 meters into its maiden voyage. It then rested in its watery grave for over three hundred years until in the 1950's it was discovered buried in the sea, brought to the surface and restored. The restoration process itself is mind boggling, and has been called "the world's largest jigsaw puzzle", with 98% of the re-built ship being original. Furthermore, the museum was put together in such an interesting way, with many levels to be able to see the ship from all angles and many displays and videos made to illustrate ship life in the 1600's. We were there so long I began to fear ever getting to eat lunch, and then I began to fear ever being able to drag my husband out at all. I do believe we came closer to exploring every inch of that museum than any we've visited before. Anyway, definitely worth the visit should you ever have the chance in your lifetime. I'm grateful we got the chance. And, I'm grateful we walked straight to a hot dog stand afterward.
I know there must be plenty of American foods that don't sound good to other people, such as, perhaps, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Or dipping cookies and graham crackers in milk, till they're soggy. That probably sounds gross to people who haven't grown up eating it. So, in that note, I must admit that when I read the option at the hot dog stand for a hot dog with two scoops of mashed potatoes on top, I was a bit taken aback. I wasn't quite hungry enough to go with the hot dog with mashed potatoes. Now I kind of regret it. Maybe I am missing out on something amazing. Maybe when I get home and feel homesick for Scandinavia, I will cook up some mashed potatoes and scoop them on a hot dog, just to see.
We were able to ride on a ferry along the water through downtown Stockholm, got pictures of tourists taking pictures of Clemmie, came across some swans- fantastic- ate some great food, but, regrettably, were not at any restaurants that served Swedish pancakes. Jude was so sad about this. When he heard there were no pancakes at the restaurants, his eyes squinted up and he blinked away tears and said, "But why? Why are there no pancakes? Can't they get pancakes?" He was crushed. Well, add that to the list of foods I will make at home when I'm feeling homesick for the Nordic countries.
The weekend was fantastic, and felt like something out of a dream, with the amazing weather, some great sight seeing, and Clemmie having the absolute best morning of her life at the Junibacken, Stockholm's children's museum which I will write about in an upcoming post. The only part of the trip that wasn't perfect was the coming home, when our train to Copenhagen got delayed by over two hours, causing us to miss subsequent trains to our home. It was late in the night and kids were either extremely hyper or sound asleep, and getting us all home by two in the morning was one of the most exhausting things I've done in my life. I was never so glad as to get in bed as I did when I crawled in when we finally got home. I could have cried. Sometimes, though, just as many memories are made from less than ideal circumstances as from perfect ones. And I know I'll never forget how good my bed felt at two in the morning after our long journey home from Sweden.
