This is it. Last day of travel. Went to bed at 9pm last night and woke up at 6am. A good 9 hours and already adjusted to US time zones.
Had a great breakfast of arroz con huevos and platanos maduros. Hung out all morning with mom and the girls in the air conditioned luxury of her apartment. Way too hot and humid! At about 1pm Rick and Jackie came by and we all went to eat Indian food at a place near my mom’s. Then it was off to the airport and the final leg of our adventure.
In the next or so, I will be updating this blog with more and better pictures as well as better descriptions and names of places we visited. So come back again for more. And thank you all for following our adventure!
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Posted in Travel | Tagged napa, new york | Leave a Comment »
BIG travel day today. We wake up cruising through the Stockholm Archipelago and dock at about 9:30 local time. By 10:30 we are at the Arlanda express, a 200+mph train from downtown Stockholm to the airport. By 11:00 am we are at the airport drinking frapuccinos at Stockholm’s only Starbucks. Our flight leaves at 2:10 pm.
What to say about the flights? Made it safely to Iceland and then to new York with no delays. Ready to eat arroz con gandules and pollo guisado! And then go to sleep! LOL!
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Posted in Travel | Tagged baltic sea, new york, Reykjavik, stockholm | Leave a Comment »
Today is our day in Riga. Boat docks at 10 am and we are off and at ‘em.
Riga has a beautiful old town parts of which date back several hundred years. We are only in Riga for about six hours, so we focus our exploration on the old town. Pretty old churches, narrow cobblestone streets interesting buildings and big plazas all add to the charm of Riga.
We cruise around street vendors selling tons of amber and other products. Eventually we get hungry and discover medieval restaurant. They serve only food that was available in the medieval times. The restaurant proper was originally a cellar for a building above but has been used for many things over the years. The first legitimate reference to the location was over 800 years ago which makes this the oldest restaurant I have even eaten in. Zenia and I have French onion soup and Maia has venison soup. The food and the accompanying bread is delicious.
After lunch more strolling around and then we head back to the boat. We will have dinner on the boat tonight.
The heat of the day has just beat me to death today. To say I am exhausted is to be kind to exhausted people the world over. Tonight I take it easy, get to bed early and hopefully recuperate and store some energy for the LONG trip tomorrow. We get into Stockholm at 10am and leave at 2pm. We arrive in NY at 7pm after flying for 11 hours.
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Posted in Travel | Tagged baltic sea, riga, latvia | 1 Comment »
We wake up this morning and start packing and cleaning up the apartment. Its our last day in Stockholm as tonight we take our cruise to Latvia. After breakfast we head out to do some shopping in Sodermalm and also Gamla Stan. Of course I manage to twist both my ankles and fall and skin my knee on the street. So graceful!
For lunch I have quite an interesting Swedish fast food item. Imagine a tortilla wrapped into a cone shape filled with a hot dog, mashed potatoes, shrimp salad, lettuce, onions, mustard and ketchup. Yeah. Exactly.
The rest of the afternoon is taken up with cruising around Gamla Stan, Stockholm old town. Just revisiting and going onto shops.
At 5pm we board our cruise ship and situate ourselves in our cabins. It’s a very nice ship. This is my first cruise. No pool but several bars, restaurants, video game room, etc. The cabin is cute clean and comfortable. The kids take off and explore the ship while mike and I hang out at the casino and watch the show. It’s disco era night. You have to love disco songs sung with a Latvian accent!
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Posted in Travel | Tagged baltic sea, stockholm | Leave a Comment »
Wow. Late morning. Slept from midnight until 10:30 this morning. After breakfast we head over to the Sjbloms apt to plan out the next few days. As tonight is our last night in the apartment we decide to take a 2 day cruise to Riga the capital of Latvia across the Baltic Sea. We will get back Friday morning an then just head to the airport for our flight home.
After confirming our plans we head out for pizza and then me and the kids take off for Groderlund the local amusement park. Mine and Susan have some errands and will meet up with us later.
The park is typical amusement park with some different and interesting rides. There are a couple of “drop zone” types, several coasters, and the other usual stuff. Lots of fun!
Dinner is at a Spanish Tapas restaurant where we eat paella and tapas. Afterwards, the girls go home and mike and I go to the Ice bar. Very cool! Everything made of ice and drinks served in glasses of ice.
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Posted in Travel | Tagged amusement park, stockholm, Sweden | Leave a Comment »
