Day Two - Stockholm, Sweden - May 1, 2024

 Every day can be a learning experience!  Today I googled "purser," "Krona," "Changing of the Guard," "Nobel Prize"

We boarded our plane in Denver to Frankfurt.  This trip was "awarded" to us, so we chose to "pay" and upgrade to 1st class.  We were in Row 1.  First class - worth it.  Row 1 - not so much.  We were right by the bathrooms and the "galley."  And the flight attendants don't "sleep."  So even with my Bose headphones on, I found it difficult to sleep due to the constant chatter.  BUT I did catch up on a Peacock series called "Apples Never Fall."

There was a gentleman named Jeff who was helping us and he said he was our "purser" for the flight.  Had to look that one up.  He said he'd been doing this for 37 years.  He told me his dad got hired at TWA the day he (Jeff) was born, and his grandfather had worked for Eastern airlines.  (Flashbacks anyone?)  He was fantastic to talk with and he took great care of us too - showing me how to turn my light off/on; pointing out a button I could push if I did not want them to wake me (for meal service etc.) and where the shoulder straps are on a 1st class seatbelt.  (The purser is the chief flight attendant and he/she oversees the flight attendants by making sure airline passengers are safe and comfortable.)

I set my timer on my phone to run because I knew the flight was 9 1/2 hours.  So when I would wake from my naps, I could judge how much time I had slept and how much more time we had to fly.  We arrived into Frankfurt, Germany early which was a relief as we only had 1 hour between flights.  We  taxied for a bit and then stopped.  It kind of seemed like we were just on the tarmac.  The captain said, the airport was too full at the moment and we would be deplaning and taking buses to the terminal.  And so we did.  We basically made it to our seats on our Lufthansa flight to Stockholm and about 10 minutes later the doors closed.  I did have an AHA moment wondering if our bags were being unloaded out there on the tarmac.  But I had another episode of Apples Never Fall to watch, so I didn't worry too much.

Meal on Lufthansa flight / we think it was Salmon

We arrived in Frankfurt and guess what didn't arrive?  You got it!  They do have a great system all worked out for baggage that does not arrive, but it did take us about an hour in baggage claim to fill out the forms.  We then headed to where we thought (catch that - we thought) the HD shuttle to the airport was, but NO shuttle.  HD was prepared for us and had given us a number to call if the shuttle was not there, so I called and the message went like this, "If this is an emergency, hang up and call 911."  So then I tried What's App but to no avail.  However there were at least 20 taxi drivers lined up and happy to help us.  So we went to the first Taxi and told him Grand Hotel. He looks at us and says, "no luggage?"  lol

No lie, we drive about 40 minutes to the hotel.  In the cab it looks like it's going to be at least 599 krona for the ride.  Dave looks at me and says you got me 1000 krona.  This ride is going to take just about all of it.  I'm like NO WAY.  He pulls the krona out and he's got 50's.  Lots of them.  Very long story short, guess how much 50 krona is worth in US Dollars.    FOUR DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS.   I thought I was getting 1000.00 in Krona money (which I was) but that equaled 75.00 US DOLLARS.  Oh EM GEE.  Thankfully the driver was VERY HAPPY with US Dollars.  Key lesson learned - know the exchange rate when you go over to another country.

Today being May 1st, it's a big holiday in Germany (May Day) and a big holiday in Sweden (like our Memorial Day).  When our taxi driver got close to our hotel, a policeman came up to him and said because of the HUGE demonstration going on, he would need to let us out right there in the street and we could walk to our hotel.  So we did.  It reminded me of the peace marches in San Francisco. There were 1000s of people marching.   It was very peaceful, but very large.  

The Grand Hotel is spectacular.  It is directly across the street from the Royal Palace and it was the Kings birthday yesterday and the holiday today so the streets were full of people.  I'll put some photos here of the room.  

This is the Hotel where the Nobel Prize winners stay each year.  And in 1901 the Nobel Prize dinner was in the same location (of the hotel) where our Hunter Douglas welcome dinner was.  There is a Nobel Prize Museum across the street as well.   I find that very interesting and we may go check that out as well.

Hopefully in tomorrow's blog post, we will be wearing something different.  Good night for now!