Stockholm

We began and ended our trip in

Stockholm

, thanks to the very reasonable air fares offered on US Airways. (Generally their service was fine, although we had to run from one end of the

Philadelphia

airport to the other to catch our connecting flight. Our bags arrived 24 hours after we did, just in time for us to catch our flight to

Copenhagen

).

Stockholm

is a lovely city. It is composed of islands between a lake (

Malaren

) and the

Baltic Sea

, and the water is never far away. It has many acres of beautiful parks, and a fine combination of well preserved 17^th and 18^th century formal buildings and newer but still stately apartment houses and business blocks. It’s a great city to walk around in, and that’s mainly what we did, along with visits to the usual tourist stops—the recovered Vasa warship, the

Royal

Palace

museum, up to the top of the City Hall tower.

One of the high points of the trip came about from pure serendipity. We were wandering around the city waiting to occupy our hotel room, and suddenly I HAD TO

EAT

IMMEDIATELY. We walked past a strange combination of gift shop and restaurant, somewhat off the tourist track, that seemed to be filled with locals, and Rachel sat down while I queued up to order lunch. She struck up a conversation with a couple of Americans who mentioned excitedly that they were going to the Police concert that night. Rachel was envious. Suddenly another voice popped up—a Swiss musician who happened to have several extra tickets. He was there on his honeymoon and had planned to meet several friends, all of whom bailed on him. So we went to the concert, at a famous round venue called the Globen, and they put on a great show. Stewart Copeland’s percussion alone was worth the price of admission, though Sting’s singing and Andy Summer’s guitar were also fabulous.