Stockholm, Sweden

This will be the last post of the Woods Baltic Cruise series.   Stockholm is a beautiful and very clean city.  We had a full day & night in Stockholm, but we could have easily spent another couple of days in the area.  It was overcast the entire day, but fortunately it only sprinkled for about 30 minutes.

Stockholm Palace

City Sites

 

Boat Cruise – We got on the hop on/hop off boat tour thinking that it was a ‘tour’ since that’s how it was advertised.  Come to find out it was really just a water taxi with about 1 minute of recorded talking between each stop.  I was a little irritated because you could hardly hear over the noise and commotion.  I can’t complain too much though as it was fairly inexpensive and it took us to a couple of areas we otherwise would probably not have seen.

I don’t have a picture of it, but one of the things we did was tour a icebreaker boat.   Pretty interesting to learn about the process of navigating an icy sea.

Brady deciding he wanted to play with a stick in the dirt more than he wanted to site-see.

Another thing we learned while in Stockholm the hard way is that stroller are not allowed in the Arlanda airport.  Funny thing is we checked in, took it through security with no one mentioning a thing.  First we heard of the no stroller rule was when we went to pick up the stroller tag at the check-in desk.  It was a bit of an issue, but finally they agreed to gate check the stroller.  I’m not sure that there were any alternatives, but apparently the gate check agent thought we should figure something out.   I think this rule is directly related to the fact that this particular stroller is cursed.  If something can go wrong, it will .  Stuck wheels, folding issues, you name it we’ve had the issue.  Come to find out my theory that Brady’s stroller is cursed was further validated as we got the stroller back with the basket being ripped and the cup holder damaged.   We have since purchased a  WONDERFUL new Maclaren so this will be the first and last mention of the cursed stroller. 

Airport stroller usage has been interesting for us while in Europe.  Brady is quite capable of walking and can do so for miles as long as we take it at his pace.  However, when navigating airports with luggage etc. it is much easier for him to ride in his stroller.  In the US, every airport we have travelled to has no issues with taking strollers through security and every airport has gate checked and brought the stroller back up to the entrance of the plane.  Well, for some reason hardly any European airports operate in this fashion.  Most will let you bring the stroller through security no problem, but you pick the stroller up at baggage claim with all the other luggage.  Why they do this I have no clue.  But I will tell you that managing your carry-on luggage, either carrying or keeping track of a 2 year old, plus walking a long ways and waiting in long lines to get through customs, immigration is less than desirable.  It is enough of a challenge with one child so I can’t imagine traveling with 2 or 3 little ones. 

Anyways, a majority of you probably could have done without my stroller rambling, but thought I would share. 

This wraps up our Baltic vacation.