August10,2024 Stockholm,Sweeden
I opened the curtains a bit after 9:00 am as we sailed into Stockholm…
The Archipelago is as stunning as we remembered it…
This was my favorite home …imagine living on the water in this home…I’d feel like a princess.
We rarely go on ship sponsored excursions…and lord knows why I thought this one would be a good idea. Maybe because it was only 4 hours long? Or because it featured a visit to the Vassa Museum? Or because it included a boat ride? Certainly not because it included lunch.
Leaving the ship involved some chaos with a large side of annoyance. Sparing you the details…our group left the pier in two busses …at least 30 minutes late. We were 31 people on our bus, and had a local guide who pointed out buildings and sights of interest on our way to the Vassa museum.
I took some photos from the bus…
Once at the museum, our guide spent about 10-12 minutes telling us what we would see inside …she also designated a meeting spot and asked us to meet at 1:15…one hour hence. Then she took us inside the museum, herding us to three separate points of interest relaying information about the ship, ship wreck, and efforts to recover it. When she finally cut us free to explore…we had less than 25 minutes…to make our way to the theater to watch the (very well done) movie explaining (with great visuals) what the guide had attempted to do…grrrr…..The movie ended at 1:10… leaving us no time to visit any of the exhibits. We arrived at the meeting point at 1:13 pm…and you guessed it…waited and waited and waited until 1:30 for 4 passengers who were part of a family group of at least 12 …who unapologetically strolled up…double grrrrr…
When I inquired about the excursion, I’d been told that the walk from the museum to the restaurant was an “easy 10 minutes”… so imagine our surprise and consternation when our guide announced (once everyone was finally present) “Since we are now late for the lunch, we will now ‘power walk’ to the restaurant” and sets off at a good clip…what the actual heck? When I finally catch up with her and tell her that there were several folks among our group of 31 who were having trouble keeping up, she replied that we had to hurry because we left the ship late and then we had to wait for the rude stragglers. Whatever.
When we arrived at the restaurant…the other Crystal bus group was seated and waiting for us…no one from that group had been served. We found a table and waited …and waited…
…yes, we rushed and “power walked” like maniacs …to wait and wait…
…We arrived at 1:45pm and everyone was served meatballs and mashed potatoes at 2:08 pm… a classic case of “hurry up and wait”…
At 2:18 the servers were clearing the tables…I am not kidding…I was so taken aback…that I made note of the times …triple grrrrrrrr…
When dessert was served and I went to take a photo…Timmy placed his spoon beside it…to show the scale….what ever…as we were finishing up, the guide asked us to meet her at 2:30. Guess what? We all stood around waiting for the same family group who kept us waiting at the museum …for at least another 10 minutes
Then another mad dash to meet our boat …a loooong mad dash…which was ridiculous …because the guide (and the other sprinters with her) were only going to have to wait for the slower folks anyway.
The boat yard was pretty…but no time to enjoy it…just a few quick photos.
We clambered onto the boat …and both guides took turns talking over the passengers who ignored them and carried on their own conversations. Unsurprisingly these were the folks from the large family group that twice kept us waiting. At this point I’m all out of grrrrrr’s…
Moai statues…sculpted for a movie set…then donated to the city of Stockholm. (We did not learn this from either guide…Timmy looked it up)
Back on the ship, I needed to walk off my annoyance… annoyance at myself for booking a ship’s shore excursion …learn the freaking lesson…
I walked on deck seven for a loooong time…
Viktor on the Crystal piano
Soft shell crabs
The headliner in the Galaxy Theater…Dale Burridge…he’s a “leading man of musical theater” …as Timmy said “he spent more time talking (about himself) than singing”.
Neal Fullerton absolutely saved the day. …And hopefully I will remember the lesson from this day.
Thanks for following along🩵
