Sunday 8th September 2019
Cast:
Shaun - me, 50's, loves travelling
Alison - wife, 50's, loves travelling
Index:
HERE
We had a reasonable night’s sleep despite changing rooms late and when I looked out of the bedroom window, across the terminal it was quite foggy. We showered and got ready and headed downstairs to have breakfast as the fog slowly cleared up. It was a lovely buffet, with a hot food station, breads, juices, cereals, cold meats, fruits, yogurts and teas and coffees. The view over the terminal was good for people watching!
Back up to the room to pack our bits and pieces and we headed downstairs to check out and leave our baggage in the holding area before going out for the day.
We walked through the airport and picked up the
Arlanda Express into Stockholm Central.
Not the cheapest option but they did have a deal on and it’s very fast, efficient and now carbon neutral so that has to be a good thing. From the train station it's only a short walk down to the quayside.
We saw the Stromma kiosk and the long queue and felt glad that we'd pre-booked tickets online before arriving.
We narrowly missed out on front of boat area but managed to snag the last couple of seats at the rear.
Nice to sit back, wind in hair and take in the sights as we made our way to
Drottningholm Palace.
The boat arrived at the castle (although technically it’s a palace as the Royal family have used it since 1981).
As it was getting on a bit in the day we stopped for "fika" or coffee and cake which hit the spot.
We decided only to stroll around the grounds and not go inside the buildings. As with most of Scandinavia it's so expensive here!
And so, after a quick comfort break (for me at least) we strolled out into the gardens and looked around the various buildings etc.
All very nicely kept and lots of locals were out for a Sunday stroll with family and pets. The whole area was a pleasant mix of formal and informal gardens, historic buildings and walkways – actually quite English in feel.
After quite a bit of wandering around we knew that people would start queuing early for the boat back and we wanted to be in with a chance of front seats tine so we joined the queue and made a fuss of a local Border Terrier (we lost our BT Rusty just over a year ago and really miss him still!). After a short while the boat arrived on time and as luck would have it we managed to get the last couple of seats in the front of the boat and got few different snaps on the way in.
We now had a bit of time to kill so we headed off to the old town or
Gamla Stan.
We wandered around the streets for a while and decided on another expensive coffee but no food as (a) it was expensive and (b) we'd be having food in lounge or on the plane later anyway.
A relaxing coffee break over we made a slow move back to the train station, sightseeing and pottering around the shops and pulled into
Max Burger for a bite to eat (as we’d decided we couldn’t wait until later!). We chose off the screens as per McDonald’s, took our number and queued up. Our number didn't show so we waited and waited. Alison noticed a meal all alone at one end and figured out that it was ours. Yup!
The food was delicious even though I didn't realise that mine was actually a vegan burger! We lingered for as long as we could before boarding the train which was actually quite busy, not as expected.
Once back at the hotel we collected our luggage and rearranged all our bits and bobs across our cases before travelling to the check-in desk. We had a nice chat with ground crew staff at the desk before going through Fast Track security.
After a bit of a faff we found the lounge and as we’d been before (not that you’d know it considering we got lost on the way to the lounge!) we didn't have huge expectations for the place. Typically the draught beer was off, not that it mattered much, I knew there would be more options once on board. We relaxed and charged up our devices then headed to the gate for boarding.
Finally we boarded and being AV geeks we took lots of photos of the A350 Q suites as it was our first time! Forward facing window seat for me and rearward facing window seat for Alison. Lots of new knobs and buttons for me to push. Oh the joy! The TV screen was huge too and we loved watching the onboard cameras!
A champagne for each of us to start
and then after an on time take off at about 10.45pm we both changed into pyjamas and perused the menu
and had some delicious sliders washed down with some lovely 2012 Bordeaux (me) and sparkling water and a So Jennie cocktail (Alison).
I had a glass of brandy to accompany my coffee and chocolate before settling down for the night.