SWEDISH RAPSODY

Today Saturday 9th June was the exciting day we had planned for!

Today Linda and Sue finally met up!

Initially Dusty was coming too but the sun was boiling hot even early in the morning and so he decided to take the shade on board the Saga Ruby.

First Linda and I planned the time to meet and after that we tried to telephone each other but there was no signal aboard the ship! Then after a couple of more attempts they had contact on their mobile phones to say where everyone was coming to the meeting place! Finally, Sue and Linda were at the Cruise Ship Terminal - on opposite sides of the building! Both could see Saga Ruby and eventually they kept mobiles on and walked towards each other and then
Sue and Linda and Lars all finally met up and big hugs all round!!!

Linda and Lars live in Sweden at Humlekarr - and they provide the Humlekarr Year diay on the website www.ivyvillacompany.com which everyone enjoys of course.

The main discussion was the fact that the Marathon was to start at 2.00 pm so a plan had to made so that the day could be enjoyed without Sue getting 'trapped' in Stockholm by the runners and unable to return to the Ship!

However, all went well, and Linda and Lars had thought of everything! First we went on a bus into Stockholm and had a wander around the City; something they rarely do themselves they tell me! We had some window shopping, gift buying for others at home and then a coffee stop. This was important as the temperature was by now 28 degrees and it was only 11.00 a.m.!!!!!!! All through this time we took lots of photos on both our cameras so we will be busy
emailing them to each other for a while!

We continued on and had a wonderful boat trip across the harbour - looking at all the pretty islands, the important buildings and other ships including a Tall Ship moored nearby.

Once we had gone a few stops on the Hop on and Hop off boat we got off and we were on an island which name in Swedish escapes me (!) but means 'Animal Garden' or 'Animal Island' because there is a Zoo there and lots of green spaces and trees for leisure time and a river and cafes and so on. It was very good after so much heat from the pavements.

We had a wander round there and some cold drinks in the shade of course.
Because of the time element and the Marathon due to start at 2.00 pm (at which time all the traffic stops and movement around is difficult) we set off back on our re turn to Saga Ruby. Linda and Lars were wonderful and had decided to give us a good margin of time for any errors or unexpected things happening!

This was just as well as first the boat was full and we had to get on another; then when we got to the stop we needed the Marathon had started and was running by us! From then on we took photos (of course) of the runners but were forced to stay on one side of the road only as hundreds of competitors were going by. Initially we felt a bit 'panicked' as we could not get to the underground subway trains - but then kind fate smiled on us and someone in the crowd pointed us to a station on our side of the human traffic! We got into the underground which was lovely and cool and then after one or two changes the next and last step was to try and get a bus for the last lap back to the Ship.

Unfortunately, despite saying they would continue running, after 10 - 15 minutes we knew that a bus was not coming. By now there was only one hour left to boarding time but wonderful Linda spotted a taxi coming and flagged it down. Although he could not take us as he had another fare to go to, his colleague who was dropping a passenger off waved us over and all was well! We all piled into the taxi and got a lift back to the Saga Ruby.

THANK YOU LINDA AND LARS FOR A WONDERFUL DAY IN STOCKHOLM

You will all be able to view the photos we took in due course when we show then on the Humlekarr special holiday pages!!!