Stockholm by water

Stockholm is fully abloom in tulips now. So, Tomte and I went for a tulip stroll

while we were waiting for lunch in this extremely nice (aka fancy) restaurant in a park by the water. I should have known when they didn’t have the prices listed that it would be expensive, but it was in the right place for a quick bite before our next water tour: Under the Bridges of Stockholm.

So, $45 later...(but VERY yummy fish soup)

We’rs headed out for our next tour. It was a 2 hour tour, with continuous narration, which was very informative-not just about what we were seeing, but about Swedish culture. 

Mom...this one’s for you. 

This is an ‘old folks home’! You ready to move here and be treated like royalty? That’s how people in a Social Democratic nation retire!

We went thru a lock, which separates the Baltic ocean water from Lake Malaren, which is an entire waterway system. When the glaciers were here, they compressed the land. When the glacier retreated, the land kind of ‘sprung back’, and so this lake area rose about a meter (over 1000s of years). It’s actually still rising a little bit! So, the lake is fresh water, while the Baltic water is kind of brackish. It was fun watching other boats in the lock, which rose/lowered us about a foot. 

They just hang on to a rope while fending their boat off the wall, and about 10 minutes (and $20) later, we’re all through!
We saw many of these:

These are an amazing green power source. Cogen is what they call it.  Amazingly, garbage is literally sucked down  (yeah...it was weird, a trash bin downtown just sucked the piece of trash right out of our hands!), then separated, some composted, then used to create clean energy. Nothing seems to come out of these stacks, yet energy is produced. I don’t know the details, but I do know they’re evidently way beyond us in both dealing with garbage and in producing clean energy. If I learn more, I’ll update this. 

Anyway, it was a very pleasant cruise. We got home about 6pm, time enough to enjoy more sun in the back yard with some wine, hearing about eveyone’s day!

You’ll notice the pool in the background...it’s been heating for the last few days and now is ready for use! I predict there will be at least a few of us in there before we leave on Sunday! 

Tomorrow...ABBA!!!😀