Yesterday, the 19th, was a day lost to travel: left our place around noon and took a taxi from Rostrevor to Newry (about a 20 minute ride), then the Translink bus to the Dublin airport (about a 1 1/2 hour ride), then waiting around in the Dublin airport to board our plane to Amsterdam. The plane was delayed and we were worried about missing our connection in Amsterdam to Stockholm, but we were to find out that almost ALL of the flights in and out of Amsterdam Schiphol airport are delayed all the time, so making our connection was no problem as THAT plane was delayed. We finally landed after 11pm and with the taxi ride (about 45 minutes) to Maria's home in the Sodermalm district of Stockholm we didn't get to sleep until almost 1am.
"Stockholm (Swedish: [ˈstɔ̂kː(h)ɔlm] (
listen))[8] is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality,[9] with 1.6 million in the urban area,[6] and 2.4 million in the metropolitan area.[9] The city stretches across fourteen islands where Lake Mälaren flows into the Baltic Sea. Outside the city to the east, and along the coast, is the island chain of the Stockholm archipelago. The area has been settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC, and was founded as a city in 1252 by Swedish statesman Birger Jarl. It is also the county seat of Stockholm County and for several hundred years was the capital of Finland as well (Finnish: Tukholma) which then was a part of Sweden. The population of Stockholm is expected to reach one million people in 2022.[10]" Bold emphasis is mine.
The next morning Maria made some strong coffee for us in an old fashioned percolator that she has had for years (I love that coffee pot!) She gave us each a transit card and told us to be at her job (Radio Stockholm) by 10:30 so we could tour the building before seeing a concert at noon. She then went off to work and we had a light breakfast and unpacked the rest of our clothing for the week we would be spending with Maria.
A little background on how we met Maria: she had originally contacted us on HomeExchange.com in 2016 about a possible visit because she is a huge fan of Prince and his music. We weren't able to set something up until 2017 when we had an exchange with a family in Finland, we stayed for four short days in her home at the end of that trip. She was on her way to Lappland for her midsummer vacation but graciously allowed us to stay in her home while she was gone. We were able to return the favor in 2018 when she stayed with us for 10 days in April while she went to many concerts and activities celebrating Prince's life and music.
It was nice to be back in Stockholm and this time to spend that time with Maria in her city.
Don and I took the bus to Radio Stockholm and walked just two blocks in light rain to the building. That was the only time we encountered rain on our week in Stockholm, quite a change from Northern Ireland!
We ate here at Strand 54. Don had spinach and cheese pierogies and I had pasta. Both were quite good.
Maria lives on the fourth floor of a building on the historical register, it has tall ceilings and we walked these spiral stairs many times.
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