mom mom's visit

march 19.

ben and daddy went to pickup mom mom at the airport. rorstrandsgatan was quiet during the early morning hours as we walked to the train.

we took the fast train, known as the arlanda express, to the airport. stockholm to arlanda airport (ARN) takes 20 minutes. ben enjoyed the view at 100 km/h.

we waited patiently and no mom mom.












we waited some more and still no mom mom.

then she came.

here mom mom explains to ben how her bags came out very last on the conveyor belt, while ben began teaching mom mom how to read advertisements in swedish.













it was the buggaboo that caused extra wait for the bags. when you arrive in arlanda they send all of the strollers to the special luggage belt and no one in the airport tells you that there is a special luggage belt, you have to figure it out for yourself by waiting for everyone's bag to come out, then, when the conveyor is completely empty, you think $hit, where is my bag....by then you are pi$$ed and you walk towards the exit looking for some help and see your baggage circling on the särskilda bagagehanteringsanläggningen, aka the special luggage conveyor. same thing happened to use during our arrival. if you bring a stroller, take note.
   

mom mom and leslie sizing up the cafe's on rorstrandsgatan.

a view of ostermalm from nybroplan. a two bedroom apartment here, the poshest neighborhood of stockholm, fetches 1.3 million USD.

here we boarded the m/s Angantyr for the stockholm winter tour. the Angantyr is 101 years old.

reese enjoyed the 2 hour cruise on the baltic sea.

i know this vessel looks like a cruise ship, but the locals call them ferrys. from stockholm you can sail to finland and back in 22-hours. you never get off the ship, you just drink tax free booze, swim in the indoor pool, and get a tan under the fake sun on the paradise deck.

captain ben loves the ocean, two thumbs up.

mom mom and les stopped at the espresso house on the way back to the flat. espresso house is the closet thing to starbucks in sweden.

a view of the harbor at slussen from the djurgarden ferry.

the vasa museum, a must for any visitor to stockholm.

the vasa, a 69 meter-long warship, sank on its maiden voyage in the middle of Stockholm in 1628. it was salvaged 333 years later in 1961. for nearly half a century the ship was slowly, deliberately and painstakingly restored to a state approaching its original glory. 

http://vasamuseet.se/en/

this pump, built by Flygt, helped raise the vasa from its ocean grave. bryan works for Flygt, owned by ITT. Flygt and Godwin are the reasons we are in stockholm. dewatering pumps, who knew they could bring you so far and allow you to experience so much. thanks pumps.

ben loved this.

he had to get a picture next to the canon. legend has it that the vasa had way too many canons causing it to be to heavy and that's why it capsized then sank.

back to junibacken for a journey through the fabulous stories of Astrid Lindgren with mom mom.

leslie had planned a lunch in djurgarden, somewhere in djurgarden. i took a picture of this harbor which was close to the trolley so i would know how to get get us back to where we came from.

ben has now begun eating two lunches. whenever we see a hot dog stand or a mcdonalds, ben asks if we can stop because he is hungry. here he is pictured with a hot dog 15 minutes after he ate lunch at the garden cafe in djurgarden.

mom mom and reesy hanging in our flat right before bedtime.

reese smiled as we waited patiently for les and mom mom to grab coffee to go. i am sure the coffee shop clerk knew they were american since no one in sweden takes coffee to go. i mean, how can you have a fika while you walk?

a gloomy view of gamla stan en route to dagens lunch at herman's market in sodermalm.

tuesday we took mom mom back to the airport. ben laughed as we rode the escalator reminiscing of how we almost lost mom mom when we picked her up at the airport because was too scarred to take the really big escalator down to the train with her luggage.

ben is an escalator riding pro.







it was a short trip for mom mom, only 3.5 days and 3 nights, but we did alot and are hoping she comes back this summer for an extended stay

to recap, during the visit we:
-lunch at national museum
-walking tour of ostermalm
-winter tour boat ride
-drank glogg
-dinner from birkastans
-junibacken
-vasa museum
-quick visit to NK
-window shopping on rorstrandsgatan
-thai take away
-walking tour of gamla stan
-lunch on sodermalm at herman's
-fika
-dinner from birkastans