Finishing up in Stockholm

 I was fascinated by this cemetery where the graves were so well tended, even having live flowers that were planted in the ground, not just in vases.

 Two women and a dog

 Stylish Swede

 Old guys in a boat

 Cool shops

 Look!  Blankets at the outdoor cafe here, too!

 Okay, I have to say that these two look like my stereotypical idea of Swedish women.

 We stopped in a pub for a snack. We ordered fried fish but didn't expect this stack of little bitty ones! They were pretty tasty, though.

Stamp shop

Cute mannequin

Out on the street

On the way back to the hotel, we walked a few blocks to find the bus stop for the shuttle we needed to take to the airport very early in the morning.  We checked on the times and made sure we had the right amount of money to pay for it.  Then back to the hotel, eating in their dining room since we were worn out from our day long trek around the city.  Our trip was almost finished. One more stop in Iceland, then home to Alaska!

Day Two in Stockholm

We got up early the next day and left the ship.  Honestly, we were glad to get off.  It was not the great experience we were hoping for, but we were philosophical and said, "Well, at least it got us where we wanted to go and we saw some beautiful and interesting places along the way."  One of the funniest things about the cruise was that their activities were like something out of the 1950s.  On the Celebrity cruise prior to this one, there were so many things to do that it was hard to choose.  On this cruise, they did have some talented dance instructors who taught different kinds of dance classes every day, but I couldn't talk Rich into taking them! haha Otherwise, they had things like rolling hula hoops across the deck, a "crazy hat" relay, the relay where you blow up a balloon, run to a chair, sit on the balloon and pop it, trying to make a basket into a kids' size basketball net while a staff member was moving it back and forth, and so on.  Coincidentally, there was an old documentary about cruising playing repeatedly on our cabin TV, and the same games were being played.  Anyway, we were pretty bored on this cruise and were thankful for port days.  I can't say that we will ever cruise on Costa again.

We caught a cab to our hotel, which was in a nice walkable neighborhood, though a little distance from the sights.  After checking in, we went out to look for some lunch but found a grocery store nearby so bought some goodies there instead and ate in the room.  Then we took off for more walking adventures!

 Stylish Swede

Sir Paul comes to town

 Chanters

 The address says 24 Highway to Hell  :)

 "The wandering kind out after dark"

The end of the cruise and two days in Stockholm

We arrived in Stockholm and had one day to go ashore, then one more night on the ship before disembarking the next day.  The first day was cold and rainy so we decided to take the hop-on/hop-off bus rather than walking around too much in the rain.  We ended up walking quite a bit anyway!

 One of our favorite things, of course, an outdoor market

Giant white asparagus

 We were walking past this church and heard the organ playing so we went inside for awhile.  Beautiful!

By this time we were very cold and wet again, so we found a cafe where we sat under a heater and had a hot drink before running for the bus to get us back to the ship! 

Even though this was not the best cruise we've ever been on, we did meet some lovely people. Above, our gregarious waiter and friendly assistant.

A nice dessert

Our room attendant.  He was pretty shy and didn't interact with us much, but a sweet guy.

The infamous table mates. I hope they never run across this blog.  :)