Thursday-Day 1 in Stockholm

The capitol of Sweden and home to the Royal family.

If I could manage to keep notes on what we're doing as I go, I'd be better off.  I realize that I already am having a problem remembering what we did on Thursday afternoon, and this is only Saturday evening.  If I don't keep this journal updated often, I will get back home and everything will be a total blur!  It's always rather strange to look at Laura's blog (where she has the time difference posted) or talk to her on the phone and realize the time difference between us when I'm home, but it's even stranger to be on this side of the water and look at my computer and see that it's still middle of the afternoon at home when it's bedtime here!

We're having a lovely time of course, and our days have been very full.  Sleep has not been too much of a priority, although we've been tired enough at the end of the day to thoroughly enjoy a good solid nights sleep. I would imagine all the walking we're doing has something to do with that--I wish I had an idea how many miles we've walked in the last 2 days--on Friday we were out and about for 7 hours, and alot of that was on our feet!
 I wake up here about 6 a.m. just like I do at home. and the time difference didn't affect me a whole lot after coming over.  I'm guessing when I get home I'll probably crash for several days!
I'll continue with my journal back to-

Thursday afternoon
After leaving the airport  we came to Obbe & Patty S's here in Stockholm where Patty had breakfast ready for us!  Patty is from Idaho, but has lived here since marrying Obbe almost 27 years ago.   We checked/wrote our mail and by then we were pretty tired & enjoyed a 2 hour nap before we set of to do a bit of sight seeing & shopping.

 The grounds/conv. building

This family owns a greenhouse/nursery business.  Here in Stockholm it is cooler than at home (at least when I left) and it is just barely starting to show some changing of color in the leaves/foliage However the big difference that I notice is that the grass is still very green and the flowers all are blooming pretty much like summer at home.

We had a late lunch at a food court & then walked around the shopping center to see the sights.

well, that is we did after we made a stop to fortify ourselves with a latte!  No problem with taking care of Ruth's & my coffee addiction.....we've discovered they have all sorts of coffee shops on every corner and a few in between!

We learned very quickly that in this city there are three basic modes of transportation....Your feet, your bicycle or the train!  My future photos will give more proof to this!

The open air market, with delicious looking fresh produce.  See the mushrooms in the lower picture?

The other thing we discovered very quickly is that the clouds roll in and the weather changes very quickly  without notice. All of a sudden it's raining.  No one here seems affected by it in the least. We saw children  dressed in darling little rain outfits.  The umbrellas come out, the babies in their buggys get covered up and the people keep right on with their walking.

We finished our trip to the square with a quick trip to the grocery store, wanting to pick up a few things as we were heading out to a cabin that the family owns about 15 miles from here. 

I was quite interested to see pear jam on the shelves of the store!  Although I make pear jam at home, and it's one of our favorites, I don't believe I've ever seen it in the grocery stores that I frequent.

Coming next--Our cabin by the sea, and Fridays excursion into Stockholm by train, old town & Junibacken, a museum about the books by Astrid Lindgren(Pippi Longstocking). 

Hope you all have a good night & wonderful Sunday tomorrow.  We will be gathering here at the home where we're staying and looking forward to meeting some more of the friends here. 

Ruth has been very good at getting names & keeping track of where we've been & what we've done, so maybe I can keep things straight after all *smile*!

Thank you all for your greetings & comments--it's fun to share our journey with you.