Well, owing to a delay in our flight home, we have excess time to cull pictures and write these final journal entries. This will be the, let's see, sixth delay or re-routing on this trip. Two boat trips were re-routed; two train trips had bus sections; there was a road closure coming back from our Flåm excursion; and now our flight is delayed 6 hours. Oops, received another text from the airline, now it's 7 hours.
So Monday morning at 8am sharp we were at the gate of the US Embassy, Marian clutching her paperwork and practicing to look charmingly pathetic.
And it all went very well. The guard called inside and told us to come back at 9am and wait in line, and they would see us (i.e. without an appointment). So to pass the time we took a walk along the shoreline in the nearby City Park.
Towers of the amusement park beyond.
We saw a gazillion Barnacle Geese (smaller, neater and more attractive than Canada Geese). This gaggle had been spooked by a passing dog,
We saw some of the damage from the high winds in yesterday's thunderstorm,
Back at the embassy we waited outside in the line for U.S. citizens for 30 minutes. During this time we observed the security procedure. The next person in line, when summoned, walked up to the very heavily-built guard house (sorry, no pictures of this, it didn't seem wise). They put their passport or other ID against the glass for a guard to read. Then the guard would, through an intercom, ask them to turn around and "show me the bottom of your shoes." Why? We don't know and didn't want to ask. But they did it for everybody, citizens and Swedes alike. They were very polite about it, though.
Anyway, once inside Marian was treated very sympathetically and politely by the clerk she talked to. She of course had all the necessary papers and the photos. (They did not check the photos for being exactly 2x2 inches or having the eyes above the center-line, and all the other exact specifications Marian had obsessed over most of Sunday evening. In fact in the final document it is obvious that they have scanned the photo, digitized it, and it is printed at about 1.5 by 2 inches causing Marian to have a thinner face. Oh well.)
By 11am, just an hour and a half after entering the building, we were out with a nice temporary passport and set to continue the trip as planned. This was a huge relief, a load of worry just evaporated. Also, we should say that every person involved, the Radisson staff, the Stockholm police, the Embassy guards and clerks, were in every way polite, sympathetic, and helpful. It was about as nice an experience as the loss of a passport can be.
With that out of the way we still had half a day, so we took the excursion boat to Drottningholm Palace, which David had expected from the start would be one of our best "stately homes". We took another of those classic old motor cruisers.
This gave us a look at the Radhus, city hall (where the Nobel Prize ceremonies are held). We'd meant to visit it but never found time.
Nearby is the Waterfront Congress Centre, a dramatic new building.
After a 40-minute boat ride we reached Drottningholm, the "Queen's Estate" (Drottning means Queen).
Here we met some disappointment. The first was a clear "no photography" sign on the door. And in fact there were numerous polite but emphatic young docents around monitoring this policy. The second was a bit of price-gouging: entry was 120skr each (about $20) and if you wanted a floor plan, that would be another 50skr. And the rooms themselves were mostly bare of original furnishings, just big rooms lined with huge portraits, or ceilings or walls painted with classical themes or battles. Only the Queen's bedchamber was original with an amazing amount of gold trim and ornate furniture; and the Library. David grabbed an illicit pic of the Library.
And a cute blond docent was on him immediately, politely explaining that pictures were not allowed. On the way out we took another illicit pic of the stairway, which was quite magnificent.
And it was hot, hot, hot, hot! That can't be blamed on the palace, in fact they were doing their best by opening many windows and having fans in some rooms. But we ended up taking an earlier boat back than originally planned.
Back at the hotel we cooled off for a while then went out for supper near the hotel, on busy Vasagaten. Finally settled on an Argentine-style barbecue place, having ribs and fajitas.
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