Had another good hotel breakfast, then set out on our subway station tour. The stockholm metro features art in a lot of the stations.  The coolest ones are fairly deep underground (the escalators are very long and steep) and have stone walls which are unfinished (i.e. not smoothed out) and painted in various interesting way.  We found a guide online which pointed out the more interesting stations, and spent a few hours riding around looking at them.

After we got tired of looking at subway stations, we found a cafe for some food (I had lemon meringue), then walked to T-Centralen and took a train to globen station, where we walked to the Ericsson Globe. The globe is a big, cool looking, indoor arena, which is used for concerts and sports. There is a funicular railway (Skyview) which goes along the outside of it, providing nice views of Stockholm. From the top we were able to see what seemed like most of Stockholm.  The car had maps pointing out what everything was, which was helpful.  We were able to see (and laugh at) the Stockholm ski hill, which was roughly the size of the kids learning area at Whistler.

After Skyview, we went and looked at a few more subway stations which we’d missed previously, then headed back to the hotel to get changed for dinner.  For dinner we went to Kryp In, which was a restaurant in Gamla Stan that I had thought looked good when we were walking around the first day, and which Roman had independently found on trip advisor (it was ranked #1 in Stockholm, and I didn’t realize it was the one we’d seen the first day until we got there).  It did turn out to be quite good.  I had duck with porcini risotto and truffles and a cheesecake in a little jar for dessert.  Roman had the Reindeer which was also pretty good.

After dinner we walked back to Sergel Torg to see it in the dark, and then back to the hotel.

This was basically our last full day of the trip. The next day we wandered around the city a little more and visited a market. Then I got a delicious hot dog in a baguette, and we sat around in a nice park for a little while. In the afternoon we took a taxi to an airport hotel, as our flight home the next morning was fairly early.

Our Stockholm hotel also included breakfast, which was even better than that in Riga.  It included such delights as pancakes, bread, bacon, tomatoes, pineapple, etc..  After breakfast, we went and bought 24 hour bus passes, with a plan to take the bus to the vasa museum, then do a subway tour.  However, the bus never showed up at the stop, so we started walking instead, and decided to watch the pride parade for a little bit.

A little bit turned into two hours, so we revised our plans and decided to go to the museum in the afternoon and do the subway tour the next day instead.  We went for lunch, and then walked to the stop for a local ferry to the museum, which was supposed to provide nice views of the city.  However, continuing the trend of not finding things, we couldn’t find it and after talking to some random people, determined that it might not run anymore. So, we caught a tram instead.

At the vasa museum (which is basically a building built around a salvaged ship called the Vasa, which sank on its maiden voyage in 1628), we took a free guided tour and watched a movie about the ship, and then wandered around to look at it.  It was actually surprisingly cool and interesting.

After the museum (which is on an island), we decided to walk back to the mainland, stopping on the way in a nice park with a view of the waterfront.  We caught a tram to Sergel Torg and walked back up the pedestrian street looking for pastries (we’d seen lots of good ones the other day), but everything was sadly closed.

We went back to the hotel, then went for dinner at a restaurant called Pelikan. I ordered a bacon dish, not really knowing what to expect.  It turned out to basically be a whole bunch of bacon strips in a creamy onion sauce with some potatoes, which was basically the best thing you could have hoped for (although I assume it probably knocked about a year off of my lifespan).  Had blueberry pie with a vanilla sauce for dessert.

Pictures from Stockholm

We woke up on the ferry to a recorded snoring noise and an announcement that breakfast was now available (and that the duty free shop was back open).  So, we got up and went upstairs to the deck to see Sweden.

After awhile, the boat docked, and we eventually managed to get off (there were long lines through the terminal).  After some debate about how to get to the hotel (taxi vs. bus), we wound up walking for awhile because we couldn’t figure out how to pay for the bus (or where to catch it) at the ferry terminal.  We eventually walked past a 7-11 where we bought a strip of bus tickets (which you stick into a machine which stamps up to a certain point, similar to Amsterdam) and then found a bus to the hotel.

Our room wasn’t ready yet, so we left our bags with the front desk and wandered around to find lunch. We went to a pizza and pasta place, where I had a really good (and large) ham and mushroom pizza (although I had ordered ham and pineapple). We went back to the hotel, where our rooms were ready, so we were able to have a shower.

We then went back out and walked along a nice pedestrian street, which led us to Sergel Torg, which is a really nice, big square.

From there we walked to a nice park with a big pond, and some gardens.

After sitting around in the park for a bit, we walked to the Stockholm waterfront and around some government-looking buildings, and then over to Gamla Stan (old town).

We wandered around in old town for awhile, and eventually it started pouring (this was starting to become a theme).  We got a bit wet until we were able to find a coffee shop to hide out in.  We had some tea while waiting for the rain to stop, then went back out and found the narrowest street in Stockholm.

We then walked back to the downtown area, and decided to go to an irish pub for dinner because it was cheap-ish, well rated on tripadvisor, and most importantly, close by.  I had chicken, which wasn’t very memorable.  After dinner we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.

We had our final breakfast at our Riga hotel, then walked across the street to visit a big public market which was housed in what used to be zeppelin hangers (so it looked pretty cool).  I got a tasty pastry to eat, and we looked at all sorts of meats and cheeses and so on.

After the market we went and wandered around some nearby malls, then went back to old town and had lunch in a Latvian cafeteria-style restaurant, where I had pork kabobs and a mediocre salad.  We bought some jewellery from street vendors to take home for gifts, then went back to the hotel to pick up our luggage.

From the hotel, we took a taxi to the ferry terminal (the taxi, like everything else in Riga, was surprisingly cheap, only $6). Once we arrived at the ferry terminal, we got to take a number and wait forever to pick up our tickets, as the automated ticket dispensing machines were broken.  Once we got our tickets, we were able to board our overnight ferry to Stockholm.  Another fun fact: the disposable paper boarding tickets were also the keys to our room, which was kind of neat (they had a magnetic stripe on the back).

We went to the top deck as the ferry was leaving in order to get a last look at Riga, then went for dinner at a pseudo-Italian restaurant on the ship, where I had chicken wrapped in prosciutto. After dinner we went to the duty free store where I bought a giant toblerone bar. The duty free store was packed with people buying 24-packs of beer, so I assume it must have been pretty cheap.

We went for dessert (cake) from a cafe on the ship, then went to bed.  Luckily, the beds on the ship were quite a bit more comfortable than those on the train (and there weren’t customs people waking us up), so I actually got a fairly good sleep. As an added bonus, our room even had a small bathroom/shower, although I can’t remember if we actually tried using the shower.

Had another good breakfast in the hotel, then walked to the train station and caught a train to Jurmula, which is a beach resort fairly close to Riga (30 minutes by train).  Once in Jurmula, we met up with Roman’s childhood friend Liza, who is a lawyer in London but recently had a baby and was spending her maternity leave in Jurmula.

She took us for a walk along the main street of the town, and then down to the beach. Michelle and I waded in the water a bit (another body of water to check off the list). Shortly after we got to the beach, it started pouring rain, so we went to the Havana lounge club, which was covered, and got some drinks (a mojito in my case).

Once the rain stopped, we walked back into town and went for lunch (I had meat dumplings and a caprese salad). After lunch we went for a walk through the town and along a road that ran somewhat parallel to the beach and had lots of fancy houses.  Near the end of the road we stopped for snacks at a cafe, then caught the train back to Riga.

Once we were back we met up with another one of Roman’s childhood friends, and went for dinner at a pizza place in the big mall near our hotel. After dinner, we met up with Roman’s cousin and went for drinks at a restaurant in one of the big squares in old town.