Stockholm

Three years watching and waiting and the day finally came for our short cruise vacation to St. Petersburg.

I was a little anxious to say the least, waiting on the westbound Jubilee platform at Southwark waiting for Bree to finally push away from the office.

Fortunately I had printed the boarding cards online and our gamble paid off - that our bags were just on the edge of the guidelines to avoid the indeterminate gamble of checking them in.

An expedited dinner sitting on tall stools with bags stacked up next to us at the quickest place available - happened to be Sushi. I cheated and had a salmon filet on salad greens. Very nice. Made me very thirsty.

For a pound, I secured a bottle of "care" water from the duty free (they give part of the proceeds to a water non-profit organisation) - we were nearly the last ones through boarding, but by walking faster down the ramp, were not the last to board... ominous of events to come.

Easy flight... road the roller coaster ride with Bhutto.

Two shortish lines - we're through the All Other side. Confirmed that we were here on holiday.

Walked rapidly past the baggage check area, with Bree trying to shush me from being antagonistic to those who had to wait for the crew outside to get things unloaded and reloaded.

To the left towards the train station... we've been here before and it feels a bit familiar.

Unfortunately, we learn from a pair of girls 30 yards ahead of us that the train has just departed. It's 11:30 and they're only running every 30 minutes.

Took a couple tries at the machine to buy a ticket - only credit cards accepted, a hierarchy that no longer seems to exist anywhere else in the world. Special summer fare on offer though for two people travelling together - which we intended to do. 240 kroner. Probably about $30.

Bree takes a pit stop.

Trying to confirm that I have a clue where we are headed, I end up talking to the pair who had been ahead of us, who have just returned from a cardiovascular research workshop in London. They say that we're staying in a nice part of town.

It's a national holiday in Sweden - a summer festival rated in the 1,000 Places to See Before You Die book. We consider it enough to have been present in the city on the same day.

The trains are always on time they assure us, and after 30 minutes of waiting, the ride to the centre only takes 20 minutes.

ATM machine trip. And then 5 minutes in an electric taxi with a driver from the south of India. 100 khroner.

Hotel check in goes quickly - maybe it helps that for the first time Bree has a passport with the same last name as mine? Just kidding. If there is the occassional morally minded worker at the hotel desk, no longer will we get the raised eyebrows trying to ascertain whether we are young students living in sin or, given that we both wear wedding rings, whether the situation is even more scandalous. In reality, on this side of the world, no one gives either of these possibilities a passing thought - they don't necessarily subscribe to this code and even if they did, they tend to think it's just none of their business.

A cup of tea with honey to cure Bree's congestion from a verdana in the lobby. Our room is practically right behind the check-in desk - it elicits a very positive reaction. It has very fine wallpaper (not sure how else to describe it!), a chandelier as the main lighting, an all glass shower enclosure, and fancy curtains which need to be released to cover our view of the street. Flat screen plasma mounted in the corner.

A movie we missed a few years back happens to be playing - making it quite the late night. It seems like the Juno of the earlier part of the decade. Seems like it was probably originally a script for theatre.