Day 1: Stockholm - Gotta Get to Stockholm

It’s never a good sign when you’re about to go on a trip and show up at the airport to see your flight is delayed.  In this case, Dawn has already been in London for a week and the plan is for me to meet her in Stockholm tomorrow afternoon.  As I get to the Huntsville airport I can see that my connection to Chicago is delayed.  The person at check-in tells me that the in-bound flight had mechanical problems.  To make things worse, President Trump is visiting Huntsville this evening and guess which airport Airforce One is going to land at and shut down….. This one.  Things are not looking good.   

The exact arrival of Airforce One is supposedly kept a mystery from airport staff, and in the end, we’re fortunate enough to get on our plane and get in the air before it shows up.   Also fortunate, I have a three hour layover in Chicago so I’ve not jeopardized my connection to Helsinki.  

O'Hare makes life difficult by listing the gate for literally every outgoing flight but mine (Helsinki). Thanks. I have to hunt down someone and ask them what to do. They look at me like I'm and idiot and tell me if I'm going there I need to walk leave the secure area, walk to a completely different terminal, and then go through security again. Sure, I don't know why that wasn't obvious. Leaving the spot blank on the connection board really helps communicate that.

The flight to Helsinki is pretty uneventful.  I’m in a middle seat and the lady next to me falls asleep instantly and decides that my shoulder is the ideal pillow.  She’s really laying into my shoulder and every time I slip her she mumbles something and then goes right back to leaning into me.  It’s like having an annoying cat in the seat next to me.

The rest of the trip goes smoothly and I manage to meet Dawn at the baggage claim in Stockholm - LIKE WE PLANNED.  We manage to find our hotel without too much effort.  This is the first international trip we’ve taken since we ditched Verizon and went with Google Fi for our cellphones.  Now our cellphones magically work in Europe and we’re able to use Google Maps to give us walking directions around cities.  That’s a real quality of life improvement.  

The green part is the width of a normal door...

Our first hotel is called Hotel with Urban Deli.  Urban Deli is part grocery store, part restaurant, and part bar that apparently also has a hotel.  Kind of like how hotels usually have a restaurant associated with them... but the relationship is reversed.  The entire hotel is underground beneath the restaurant.  The rooms are small, but funky with industrial design touches.  The doors are super thick and Dawn says it’s like sleeping in our very own vault.  However much force you think it takes to open a hotel door… this takes three times that.  I’m guessing there is a lot of sound proofing involved, because this is one of the quietest hotel rooms I’ve ever been in.  The shower is a bit of a puzzle and it take me a good 4-5 minutes to figure out how to make hot water come out of it.  It’s a rainfall shower, but if you get the knob puzzle wrong it will shoot ice water in your face from something you did not expect water to come out of.  I narrowly missed that fate because I was already cowering in the corner to avoid the cold water coming out of the rainfall showerhead.  I eventually work out the correct set of knob rotations and win an much needed shower after who knows how many hours of traveling.

We’re both pretty exhausted, but we venture out for dinner and to see a bit of Stockholm.  Dawn suggests a restaurant named Adam/Albin that she read about but couldn’t get reservations for.  We decide to go there and see if we can get a walk-in spot at the bar.  When we get there the bar is full, but they’ve had a cancellation and we can get a table for a five course dinner if we’re willing to eat it in 2 hours instead of the usual 2 ½ hours.   We take them up on the generous offer and have a pretty stellar first meal in Stockholm.