Sisters Sailing Scenic Scandinavia June 12-22 Live report

[May B]

2 minutes ago, Azulann said:

Looking at  picture of Jungle Story by Kipling, winner of the first Nobel prize for literature . Young man next to me said, he was born in the area of  where Kipling  placed his story. 
 

 

Sometimes the best travel experiences are the unique people you meet. So far, you’ve met two!

[Azulann]

Cathedral of Stockholm and the famous statue of St George slaying the dragon ‘

 

 

[Azulann]

Love Stockholm. The buildings are colorful in old town, not ornate but solid many with mansard roofs . 
aToured the tall ship in the harbor. It was a USA Cosst Guard ship. The crew had sailed the Baltic Sea for five week coming from Amsterdam. The ship leaves on Monday  for the island of Madeira 

Dinner tonight was at Mearballs for the People  . It is 4 minutes from our hotel . Had the classic meatball dinner with mash potatoes , beef/ pork meat, pickled cucumbers and lingonberries. had a great Swedish lager beer that was recommended. 
 

 

[SJD117]

15 minutes ago, Azulann said:

Love Stockholm. The buildings are colorful in old town, not ornate but solid many with mansard roofs . 
aToured the tall ship in the harbor. It was a USA Cosst Guard ship. The crew had sailed the Baltic Sea for five week coming from Amsterdam. The ship leaves on Monday  for the island of Madeira 

Dinner tonight was at Mearballs for the People  . It is 4 minutes from our hotel . Had the classic meatball dinner with mash potatoes , beef/ pork meat, pickled cucumbers and lingonberries. had a great Swedish lager beer that was recommended. 
 

 

Did you visit the Vasa Museum? Highly recommended!

[Azulann]

36 minutes ago, SJD117 said:

Did you visit the Vasa Museum? Highly recommended!

No we are not. It was toss up for our first Viking excursion on Tuesday. We are going to the Viking museum which is next door to Vasa. 

On Sunday, we are going to the Stockholm City museum which is again only a 5 minute walk from our hotel on Sodermalm.

Realize there is so much to do in Stockholm you would need week to take it all in. 

[Azulann]

Day 3 Pre-cruise in Stockholm

Sunday morning breakfast at hotel  has great variety. Live pate, herring cheese  etc. Bacon and scrambled eggs could have been cooked longer for me. 

Found a Catholic Church  6 minute walk from hotel.

St. Erik  was to have a 11:00 service. so we got there about 10:45 and stumbled into a High Mass with the Bishop , full choir, and a Corpus Christi procession after Mass around the neighborhood.

The police blocked off the streets and  one guy had a portable sound system on his backpack, so the band and choir could be heard through the neighborhood.  

Scandinavians , whether Lutheran or Catholic , sure can sing. It was another serendipitous morning, an unexpected surprise.😇

Relaxing in the courtyard of our hotel for awhile. 

Deciding  which museum we want o go to this afternoon: City  museum of Stockholm or the Museum of  Photography, both  nearby. 

Another picture perfect day, blue Swedish sky , high in the 60's ,no rain.

 

Patti  and Paulette

[Clay Clayton]

Hmmm, live pâté huh? I prefer mine at least medium rare😂

[Azulann]

City museum of Stockholm is an interactive museum for all ages. If a one has ancestors from Stockholm , this museum is for you ! 
It traces the history from early 1200’ to modern day on three floors. Multi media presentations bring history alive. 
 

Walked 3.7 miles and 6 flights of stairs today! 
now on the beautiful NOFO outdoor courtyard having a local beer! Pictures to fiollow. 

[Azulann]

For CC beer drinkers: Besserweisser , Stockholm Brewery. It is a German style Hefeweizen.

 

[Azulann]

Hanging out on this courtyard patio, and pizza and wine later for dinner on the wine bar. 
 

[Azulann]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

Hmmm, live pâté huh? I prefer mine at least medium rare😂

Clay, my sister will now be my editor of my posts before I hit the done button . 😂

Edited June 11, 2023 by Azulann

[DGHOC]

Hey Patti, just catching up here! 

Your enthusiasm shines through, so glad you're having a happy time.

What a fabulous city, we love it. We haven't stopped galloping around, we're flopped in the hotel bar now catching breath.

We did Meatballs for the People for lunch today, delicious, certainly beats Ikea! The weather is just perfect, architecture is fascinating, frequently difficult to date but often five hundred years old when it looks twentieth century. The people are super friendly too.

We've started looking in Estate Agents windows, always a good sign!!

Hope to meet up with you soon.

Deb

[BluebonnetTexan]

We did 4 days in Stockholm in 2019 before sail out and loved it. Would love to come back for a week and still wouldn’t be able to see and do everything! 

[purpleally]

On 6/8/2023 at 7:57 AM, Clay Clayton said:

Looking forward to hearing your adventures!  Let me know if you want a packing list😂

I do!

[Azulann]

DAY 3.  final evening of Pre-cruise Stockholm.

 

Had our final dinner( sister did not want to eat pizza) in Stockholm at Kvarnen restaurant  four blocks from our hotel . Stockholm’s version of MN/WI supper clubs ! Traditional Swedish menu , old fashioned service , candles and white tablecloths. 
The dry martini , ribeye steak with French fries  I ordered was old 50’s style meal. 

The surprise was the large tables of 20 people when we came in. ..
Seated in the back of restaurant  we ordered our drinks and meal . Suddenly a man in white dinner jacket ,at the  large table at the front, stood up. other men stood up.The room filled with the sound of male voices singing in harmony, “ Under the Boardwalk….,!
They are a Norwegian men’s choir who are in town for the week . 🎶

What a great final meal in Stockholm .

 

Music , hospitality, friendliness filled our three days in Stockholm . 
Love the cashless society , just swipe your card, English spoken everywhere even children . 
The food was all very fresh with great flavors.

Love the various museum’s cafes for reasonable priced  fresh food and drinks.
 
Tomorrow is embarkation day ! 
 

Edited June 11, 2023 by Azulann

[CCWineLover]

5 hours ago, BluebonnetTexan said:

We did 4 days in Stockholm in 2019 before sail out and loved it. Would love to come back for a week and still wouldn’t be able to see and do everything! 

Totally agree!! Stockholm is enthralling!  Want to go back.

[Louhut1]

What a great start to your trip!  Stockholm sure has treated you well.  Have a good embarkation tomorrow.  I’m leaving MN tomorrow.  

[Azulann]

2 hours ago, Louhut1 said:

What a great start to your trip!  Stockholm sure has treated you well.  Have a good embarkation tomorrow.  I’m leaving MN tomorrow.  

Wish you were able to join us on this cruise. Will be thinking of you when we are in Visby .🥰  

[Clay Clayton]

19 hours ago, purpleally said:

I do!

It’s actually more of a procedure and philosophy than a list.  The procedure is to determine how many days we are going to be gone and divide that by the number of times we are willing or able to wash clothes. We know the max we can fit in our rollaboards and underseat bags is typically 10-12 days (depending on season and whether we need anything dressy). The philosophy is that we aren’t out out to impress anyone and if we end up wearing the same shirt three times on a cruise that most folks won’t notice and if they do, it’s not going to bother us. The other philosophy is to pick a colorway and make sure everything we bring can be worn with most everything else. 

 

The hardest part is shoes but we try to limit ourselves to one packed pair and a pair of flip flops or water shoes and the pair we wear on travel day. For this last trip because we need boots and cold weather gear for Iceland, we really had to stuff our suitcases. 

 

Keep in mind we are both big men so our clothes take up more room so it’s likely most can fit in more than we do. 

 

Below is the list for our 15 night Transatlantic on NCL, 6 nights in Paris, and 4 nights in Iceland. We both ended up with more clothes than we actually needed😂.  

 

Let me know if you have any questions! That is Mike below with his bags on the Paris metro headed to the airport to fly to Iceland. That black bag in front isn’t ours. 

 

Transatlantic Packing List

Will be gone a total of 26 days 

4 travel days (RDU-NYC, BCN-Paris, Paris-KEF, KEF-RDU)

7 sea days

7 port days

5 days Paris

3 days Iceland

 

Travel Days-Boots, polo, jeans , underwear, socks

 

Each will wash one free bag on board (loyalty perk) and in Versailles at Airbnb 

 

Pack List

Each Rollaboard

9 underwear

9 socks

2 Khaki

2 shorts

7 short sleeve/polo

2 long sleeve/dressy

Tennis shoes 

Black shoes

water shoes

Bathing suit

Sunhat 

Sleeping shorts 

T shirt

Thermal Henley 

LCR dice -in Mike’s rollaboard

Uno -in Mike’s rollaboard

Corkscrew

Watercolors

Ice trays -in Mike’s rollaboard

Viking folding tote -in Mike’s rollaboard

Picture frame -in Mike’s rollaboard

Day bag -in Mike’s rollaboard

NCL luggage tags -in Mike’s rollaboard

Walking stick

First aid -in Mike’s rollaboard

Medicine kit-in Mike’s rollaboard

COVID tests -in Mike’s rollaboard

Big cup -Mike’s rollaboard

 

Mike’s Underseat 

2 Puffer coats-space bag 

2 pair of gloves- space bag

2 scarfs-space bag

Penguin Hat-space bag

Alaska stocking cap-space bag

Bug repellent

Waterproof phone bag

Ziplock bags in zipper pocket

Extra spacebag 

 

 

Clay’s Underseat

Charger

Clay’sIpad

Clay’s Sunglasses

2 Power adapters 

Clay’s Toiletries -add small bottles of periguard

Ziplock with sunscreen, vasoline, downy 

 

[aungrl]

Seriously, Mike needs to sell these bags.

 

(If I keep saying it enough times, maybe it will happen! 😉)

[Clay Clayton]

1 minute ago, aungrl said:

Seriously, Mike needs to sell these bags.

 

(If I keep saying it enough times, maybe it will happen! 😉)

Doubtful, he says that would make it a job and he would have to make them perfectly. (We are starting to see a seam pull apart). But drop me an email at BigNCBear at aol for com and maybe I can convince him to do one for ya. 

[aungrl]

5 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Doubtful, he says that would make it a job and he would have to make them perfectly. (We are starting to see a seam pull apart). But drop me an email at BigNCBear at aol for com and maybe I can convince him to do one for ya. 

Well, we definitely don't want to give him a job at this stage!  But yes, email on it's way.  

[Azulann]

Day 1.  Stockholm overnight 

 

view from aft  of Jupiter . This is a test to see if the WiFi is good and picture loads quickly .

[janetcbl]

4 hours ago, Azulann said:

Day 1.  Stockholm overnight 

 

view from aft  of Jupiter . This is a test to see if the WiFi is good and picture loads quickly .

Stockholm is my favorite city (I was fortunate to live there for awhile and have visited many times). Your photos were wonderful and I am so glad you enjoyed your time there and had so many great experiences!

[CCWineLover]

Patti - hoping you enjoy the absolutely stunning sailaway from Stockholm through the archipelago!!  Enjoy!!