It’s just a few minutes after midnight in Stockholm and I’ve just crawled into bed at our hotel! Our plane left Honolulu on time Sunday morning at 7:00 am, so Jieun Newland and I decided to pick up Bill Potter at 5:30 am, meaning that I set my alarm for 4:30 am and we would leave the condo at 5:15 am. Alas, I must have been excited about going on the trip because I’ve been awake since 2:20 am! I retrieved the mail from downstairs, deposited a check, and did other last-minute tasks before the five-hour trip to San Francisco which was aggravated by the constant crying and loud screaming of a young child sitting in front of me. And all the mother did was say, “Shhhhh!” and give it her phone to play with! AAAAUUURRGGGHHH!

There was a one hour layover at SFO before a 10-hour flight to London Heathrow, then another 8 hour layover which we fortunately were able to spend in the Lufthansa lounge. I had brought a sandwich to eat for breakfast for the flight out of HNL plus we had already eaten three meals in flight and another in the Lufthansa lounge, so I wasn’t hungry when we got yet another meal on SAS Airlines (the flight crew pronounced it Sahss, as one word—this is news to me, as I’ve always pronounced it as three separate letters!)

The flight from London Heathrow to Stockholm was two hours then it took another half hour taxi ride (in a brand new Tesla!) to the hotel before I finally was able to get settled and eat the smoked salmon. We figured it had taken 26 hours in flight including the two layovers, and when you add in the time I woke up at 2:20 am and the time I finally got settled in my hotel, that’s a very loooooong day without any sleep!

At about 10 minutes to midnight, I realized I had not logged into Duolingo to continue my streak of 1820 days! So I couldn’t go to bed until I finished several lessons.

After breakfast we consulted with the hotel on going to the Stockholm Cathedral and were advised to buy a 24-hour all day pass which would be valid on the Metro, buses and even ferry boats. That was the best advice we received for day — what a deal! We took a senior discount on the all-day pass which cost us about $11 each. Traveling by Metro was fast and dependable, and the stations and cars were exceptionally clean. I remarked to Bill that it was fantastic that there was no graffiti anywhere!

The first church we found was Riddarholmen Church, built in connection with a Franciscan monastery founded in 1270 and completed at the beginning of the 14th century. It’s primarily known as the church where the Swedish kings are buried. Since this is not a parish church, there are no services such as christenings and weddings. We did see a pipe organ in the rear gallery, but I don’t know if it is still playable since there was also an electronic instrument downstairs.

We next visited Stockholm’s medieval Cathedral (Storkyrkan) which dates from 1279, and has a Marcussen organ from 1960, in addition to two continuo organs, both of which were on wheels! There is a statue of St. George and the dragon as well as very ornate pews for the royal family. I even found a copy of the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) which may be used for the English service which is regularly held here.

The third church we visited was the German Church, also called St. Gertrude’s Church, in which we heard an organist practicing for a concert tomorrow night on the Düben organ, impressive for its gold case.

The last church we visited I’ll write about in a separate post. Meanwhile enjoy these photos of our ferry boat ride and an amusement park with lots of people having fun screaming on the roller coaster!

Finally, tonight was the welcome dinner where we met the rest of the travelers in our group. As usual, the food was fabulous and we’re looking forward to exploring Scandinavia together.