Round the World Trips, Sweden

The flight was long... we caught the last bus to Stockholm airport at 10pm, then crashed out on some benches, but didn`t get much in the way of sleep. We checked in for our flight a bit before 5am for a 6:50am flight.

In Madrid there was only an hour for the connecting flight in a different terminal, but we got on ok. Got into Quito with our bags at 5pm local time (Midnight in Stockholm).

Definitly not keen on flying Iberian again. Seemed pretty slack, Not much happens when you push the call button, and when I went down the back to get a drink, the first time the stewardess was reading a magazine, and the second time eating a sandwich. I recon she could have spared a second or two to bring me a drink in my seat.

Everybody Panic!

A slow morning sleeping in, and Carla watched a chick flick on the hotel in-house movies before breakfast. Linda turned up at the hotel just before we were finished, and came up stairs while we packed. We got rid of quite a few kilo's of stuff that she offered to post home for us, or if Doug happens to turn up with not much stuff, perhaps even fly back with it... either way, easier for us with Kings's birthday and labor day celebrations going on around town this weekend.

Got onto email finaly today, and tried to arrange a Spanish course in Quito. We got a response within the hour, so we get picked up at the airport and everything tommorrow in Equador! We feel much happier about the whole thing now.

We will try to get one of the last buses to the airport around 10pm tonight, for our flight just after 6am tommorrow. Accommodation is just a little expensive with all the festivities going on in town.

A slow morning of sleeping in, great breakfast and a wander to look for laundry and internet places directed by the hotel. The laundry was closed, with a notice in the window, so we took a photo for latter translation, and the Internet place was a big gaming place where we needed to buy a card to get access, so it worked out quite expensive if we just wanted to use it for an hour or so.

We met Linda and her sister down at a cycle pump in Slussen, then went to see the king and all his guests parade out of the palace for his birthday celabrations.

Guard The King and Queen

Then we got a bit of a tour of town, ate at the same cafe as yesterday with baked potatos, and caught the bus over to the vasa museum, a massive ship that sank 400 odd years ago just moments after it was launched. It is remarkably intact, and the amount of time they have spent preserving it is amazing.

We caught up again for crepes for dinner, then walked down to have a look at the bonfires the city lights on this night of the year, all with a nice quiet beer in a pub.

The train left Bergen late last night just before 11pm, and it was overnight to Oslo by around 6:30am. Then onto the airport train for a 8:50am flight to Stockholm.

The flight was going onto Helskini, and only 4 or 5 people got off the full plane in Stockholm. My bag wasn't on the carosel so probably went to Helsinki. Finair must have found it fairly quickly as it was back at the hotel ok before dinner time.

Linda turned up at the hotel around 3pm, and then showed us around town.

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