Stockholm Day 2

 Cloudy again this morning, and it had obviously rained overnight. We had a light breakfast in the morning, and then Karen and I set out on the local bus. There is a stop close to the ship, and bus #53 took us to the downtown area in about 10 min. The bus system is very good here, and you just need to tap your credit card to ride. 39 SEK for 75 minutes, or about 5.00CAD. We headed over to the City Hall. Not open today, because apparently summer is over in Sweden? But a beautiful building and a lovely setting and so worthwhile. We then walked over to the Palace and bought a ticket to go through the Royal apartments and treasury. Very ornate rooms, with most of the original furnishings. Some of the rooms are still in use today for ceremonial use. By the time we came out it was brilliant sunshine. We had another wander through Gamla Stan heading for the bus stop. Stockholm seems to have a lot of construction going on, so traffic can be a bit slow at times.

Back to the ship for lunch. Special was a dilled shrimp sandwich on Swedish rye bread, very good. Afterwards I needed to head back to the cabin to catch up on some work and have a shower. Sail-away at 3pm today was really wonderful, as we were passing through the archipelago on our way to the Baltic sea. We had over 3 hours of winding through small and slightly larger islands. There are some narrow passages to go through. The area reminded me of the Gulf Islands. Quite rocky, many with evergreen trees, and many summer homes. Very little wind, and the sun was out so it was very pleasant. 

This evening we were invited to 2 cocktail parties. First the Virtuoso party, and then the Azamara Circle for past passengers. The Virtuoso was a nice intimate affair, and we had a chance to meet some of the officers and chat with fellow passengers. Michele, the Virtuoso Host is from Miami and I hope to have a chance to have a longer conversation with her later. The Azamara Circle party was quite crowded. Most Azamara guests seem to cruise with them again and again. I did have a chance to talk to the Future Cruise officer, and got a few good tips from him. There were lots of great finger food at the parties, Karen and Aaron decided to partake and skip dinner.

Ian and I headed to Windows for the British buffet. We sat outside so we could watch the last of the islands and then the sunset. I had a sample of steak/ale pie, roast lamb, shepherds pie and chicken tika masala with a variety of salads. All very good. Ian had the fish and chips that they were frying up fresh as you waited. I had a taste and it was excellent. After watching the sun set I went back to check on emails, then caught part of the show in the lounge. We are losing an hour tonight, so I decide to have an earlyish night.

















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