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.

Riga was the first stop in which the hotel included breakfast.  It was actually pretty good, and included a buffet with a fair bit of selection, in contrast to your typical North American “included” breakfast, which usually consists of some muffins.

After breakfast, we walked through the park along the canal, which was pretty nice. People were riding those rentable paddle boats through the canal, and the park was nice and green.

After walking through the park for awhile, we left and walked to a neighbourhood with nice old buildings, and then to Roman’s old neighbourhood where we saw his old apartment and school. We wandered around the school and his old neighbourhood for a bit in order to properly envision what his childhood was like.

At some point it was lunchtime, so we went to Stockpot. I had the greek stew, which was pretty good. After lunch, we wandered around a bit more, then went back to the hotel.  Michelle and I had dinner at the hotel restaurant, and Roman and Cynthia went to meet up with Roman’s aunt (he wanted to minimize the number of people that he had to translate for).  Once they returned, we went for dessert at a coffee shop in old town, then wandered around old town a bit to see what it was like at night.

Pictures from Riga

Once the train arrived in Riga, we were able to walk from the station directly to our hotel. We were still a bit tired from the train ride, but unfortunately were too early to check-in to the hotel.  So, we left our luggage in storage, and walked around “old town“. First stop was an ATM to get some Lats (fun fact: all three of the countries on our Europe trip used different currencies, and none of them were Euros).

Once we had some money, we stopped at a cafe to get some breakfast (I had a raisin pastry and another one with bacon bits in it).  After breakfast, we walked around old town some more and saw some really old buildings (i.e. churches from the 1200’s), a bunch of different squares, a building with cat statues on the roof, the old city walls, etc..

We walked over to the canal/river (which I think was out of or on the edge of old town), then back again and went for lunch at a nice (and very cheap) restaurant.  I had a chanterelle risotto with smoked chicken, a raspberry smoothie, and shared a salad with Michelle.

While we were eating, it started to rain, and by the time we finished and got back to the hotel it was pouring.  Once we were checked in, we went back out (where it was still raining) and went to a restaurant in the basement of a building for dinner.  I forget the name, but it was pretty good (I had duck with apples).  After dinner, we met up with Roman’s Mom’s friend’s son (and his wife and son) for coffee, then back to the hotel for some much deserved sleep.

As this was our last day, and the day of the navy day parade, we got up fairly early and walked down to the english embankment (which is where the parade was supposed to be).  However, we couldn’t really figure out what was going on or whether there was a parade. There were a couple of ships on the river, with sailors on them, but the sailors were all just standing around.  Eventually, a smaller white boat (i.e. not obviously a navy boat) drove by the other ships a few times, the sailors yelled at it, and then the white boat came to shore and a bunch of officers got off.

As the parade didn’t seem that interesting, we went to Elki Palki for breakfast/lunch. Afterwards, we split up and Michelle and I went and hung around in a park by the hotel, and Roman and Cynthia walked around by the river.  We met up again at Teplo for lunch, where I had carbonara, prosciutto and melon, and carrot cake (pretty good).

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to collect our things and check out, and then headed to the train station.  We eventually found our train to Riga, which was sitting outside in the sun.  When we first got on, it was approximately the temperature of the sun, but once it started moving the air conditioner kicked in and improved things.  It definitely wasn’t as fancy as the train from Moscow (also not as fast), but it was nice enough.  We were served some tea and cookies by our train car attendant (when we asked if they were free, we were told that they were not free, but included in the ticket).

Our room on the train had four beds, and we eventually tried to get to sleep.  It sort of worked, but I woke up a fair bit.  At 2AM, we were awoken by Russian border guards with large dogs.  They questioned Roman in Russian for awhile, then took our passports away (luckily they gave them back eventually). Once we got moving again we didn’t get to sleep for long, as 40 minutes later we arrived at the Latvian border and had to have our passports stamped. This also took awhile, so it was 3:50AM by the time we continued on.  Luckily however, I was able to sleep until about 9.  So all in all, it was probably a better experience than an overnight flight, where I normally can’t sleep at all.

For breakfast today, went back to the crepe place from the first day and had a cherry crepe.  Pretty good.  After breakfast, we took the subway to the Peter and Paul fortress. It’s a big castle like thing (or, “fortress”), on the river with various little beaches outside the walls.  We wandered around a bit, looked at the cathedral, but didn’t go up on the wall because you had to pay.

After we got bored, we went and got some ice cream and ate it sitting in a nearby park, then walked to the artillery museum.  There were a large number of tanks and missiles sitting in front of it, which were fairly interesting to look at (and free to look at).  We didn’t bother going inside.

Continuing with museums, we walked Knustkamera museum, and checked out the “abnormal biology” exhibit. It was full of jars of deformed fetuses, siamese twins, crazy animals, etc..  Another highlight were all of the local sailors that were also checking out the museum.

After the museum we took the subway to a stop near the circus, and went to a georgian restaurant where I had mutton for dinner (pretty good).  After dinner, we went to the circus.  It consisted of an equal mixture of comedy acts (clowns chasing each other around, etc..) and acts more in the vein of cirque du soleil (acrobatics high up in the air, etc..).  All in all, pretty good.

One cool thing about St Petersburg in the summer is that because it is so far north, it doesn’t really get dark out until around 11.  This can make it a bit confusing, since you’ll finish dinner or the circus or whatever, and it won’t really feel as late as it is.

For breakfast today, we found another one of the chocolate cafe’s from Moscow, where I had blueberry crepes with lots of heaped berries again.  Pretty tasty.  After breakfast, we walked to the Hermitage to see some history and art and stuff.  On the way there, we walked past a street band which consisted of two accordions, a violin and a tuba.  They were surprisingly good, and Roman bought their CD.

We walked around the Hermitage for awhile, and saw things such as a mechanical peacock, rooms with crazy marble walls, old paintings, etc..

After the museum, we walked to the square with St Isaacs cathedral, and walked to the top of it (Michelle was not a fan of this part).  It’s fairly tall compared to everything else in St Petersburg, so it was a good spot to take pictures of the city.

After the cathedral, we took a boat tour along the canals, which was a nice way to see the city quickly.

Once we got back to the hotel, Roman tried to get the front desk to make reservations for us at Teplo (rated pretty high on tripadvisor), but they were full.  So instead, we went to a restaurant called 1913, which was also pretty good.  When we first got there, it was kind of weird as they brought us to the top floor which was fancy looking but completely empty.  After we’d sat down, they found a table downstairs (where there were actually other people) and moved us.  Not really sure what the deal was with that.