We had to be back on the ship by 3:30 to leave Stockholm, so we needed to get going. Our objective was to visit the royal palace and see the changing of the guards. The weather had improved. The hop-on/hop-off boat ticket we purchased yesterday was still good for today.
A nice boat ride took us to the palace. As we approached the tour entrance we passed this sign.
Stables?
We started with the Treasury which contained crowns and swords but not much else. It certainly was not the Tower of London. Sounds snobby, doesn't it. Sorry.
Back up several flights and we were in the Grand Hall and the Queen's throne.
And nice looking floors and the requisite statues.
We finished our tour just 15 minutes or so before the changing of the guards. Outside we went.
Regular soldiers making sure everything was ok.
The procession began with horses and a band.
Then there was some marching and saluting. There was a large crowd trying to squeeze into a smallish courtyard and we couldn't get in. Heidi and Doug had stacked out their positions before us and had a pretty good place to stand. But, people can get ugly and Heidi got elbowed. Not fun. Doug was upset, so we didn't want to hang around for anymore abuse. You need to take into account that we were in a very multi-cultured mob and many people around the world don't have the same sense of personal space that we Americans do. Later we thought about the Asians. They regularly live in crowded conditions and probably don't think anything of standing close and touching. Still, we didn't like it.
Doug wanted to find the ice bar in downtown. Doug felt comfortable to ask directions from a couple of guards. To get there, we walked through "old town" and across one of many bridges. We had a map but it seemed we kept needing to go one more block. Before we found it, we were getting hungry and running out of time. I asked one young man who was standing outside of a shop for directions, but he turned out to be a tourist and said it sounded good to him but he didn't know where it was.
We found a small cafe and each couple shared a salad and off we went back to our hop-on/hop-off boat. We cut the time close and arrived at the ship 15 minutes late. I think we were the last to board. I heard one guard's walkie talkie announce that "they're Americans". Who could he have been talking about?
Back to our room and a steward delivered chocolate covered strawberries. From you know who. Superior idea.
Stockholm is at the end of a long inlet and it takes the ship several hours to get out to sea. I sat on our veranda with my vodka and Kindle and watched part of Sweden go by. Small picturesque houses along small inlets and lots of docks and boats. I think many of these homes are summer and weekend places. Stockholm is one of the prettiest cities to go in and out of by boat.
Heidi had made reservations for dinner at the main dining room and we had a lovely Father's Day meal near a window. I had a shrimp cocktail and then Alaskan king crab legs. The meat had already been separated from the shell so all you had to do was pull it out with your fork and put it into your mouth. Excellent. Heidi had a pork tenderloin with mushroom gravy and it looked really good. I decided I needed one of those too. That's one of the advantages of cruising - you can have as much as you want.
After eating, we got together in our cabin and ate the strawberries.
A perfect ending to a perfect day. There have not been many years where I was together with Heidi on Father's Day and this one was a really good one and will always be remembered.
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