Is there a city that could be cooler than Stockholm? Probably, but of all the cities that I have visited in the last six weeks, this one is my favorite. With ferries buzzing here and there, public transportation and a host of rental bikes positioned everywhere in the city, it is easy to get around. The long evenings with museums open until late add to your days agenda. The Old Town sports a town square that could not be more charming where one can enjoy the sounds of a guitar. His notes soar to the heights of the old stone building and descend to your delight, soothing your weary body and calming your soul. The town square was full of tourists, but this music was so melodious that the crowd seemed to have come under its spell and all was quiet.

It was a holiday our first day here. Shap and I have now experienced three national holidays and two or three religious holidays. I can no longer keep them straight. We were treated to marching bands, and the King’s horse brigade. Swedish flags flew everywhere and people lined the banks of the many canals, lakes and the Baltic Sea. A particularly sunny day and warm the Swedes were rejoicing and taking advantage of it in a climate that hosts a lot of cloudy, raining days.

The ferry system is great; your bus card also allows you to get on the ferry. From our hotel we can grab the ferry and zip over to Old Town or the Amusement Park where many interesting museums reside. The Vasa museum, which holds the largest sailboat ever made in 1628, was built around the boat. It sunk almost immediately upon launching due to a squall and the weight of the cannons. The King and all the townspeople were there watching as it slipped into the harbor in full sail and within minutes keeled over and sank, killing 50 people. Imagine the reaction to that debacle? It was raised between 1958 and 1961 and eventually this museum was built.

A storybook museum was also part of our agenda, or at least a few of us. This proved to be as charming as you would imagine, complete with a troll hanging out observing everyone that passed by.

The Nordic museum housed a collection of Swedish history through the folk art and traditions. Replicas of rooms through the ages, folk art, textiles, jewelry, all of it was fascinating. Since it was raining most of the day we did spend our time in the museums gathering a lot of visual information. There are many more that we can visit and we look forward to exploring the city for one more day before we take off.

Traveling for six weeks has been a wonderful experience for us. The combination of traveling alone as a couple for four of the weeks and then as a group of seven for the remaining two weeks has been a great time for us. We accommodate each other very well, allowing for individual preferences. Most interesting for me is to see the influence of art and architecture transcending from one country to another. Also the indigenous tribes of many country seem to have experienced the same profiling against them as the American Indians. But they have not only survived due to their ability to keep the stories alive, but also because the younger generations demonstrated their power to take back the culture and let it become alive again. The Sami’s of Norway, Sweden and Finland have their own parliament and elections, although they are still under the rule of their country. We think that the U.S. is the only country to have treated our indigenous people poorly, but we are not alone.

Oh My God, I just looked out the window of our hotel and there is a party on the front lawn with a silver duvet covered bed accented with pink cushions, and a “woman” (not sure about that) in 4 inch heels, a lace body suit with just a corset over it and enough make up to convince me that she is a he. Meanwhile everyone else is walking around kind of frumpy looking. Can’t figure out what is going on but it sure is interesting.

Tomorrow we are back to Vermont, to my Green Mountains and my family. It has been a great experience but I will be happy to settle down, to no longer live out of my suitcase and enjoy the summer to come. Thanks for following the Smith’s.

I thought I would not be writing another blog until we got to Sweden but I could not resist the temptation of sharing the “Midnight Sun” with you. After being out on the water yesterday experiencing the malstrüms swirling by our Zodiac, I thought this area could not get any better. That is until, I experienced our trip into the Fjords guided by the midnight sun.

At 11:30 we turned into a fjord in the Lyofoten Islands, cruising at a gentle speed with the hillsides almost touching our ship. This is exciting to have the mountains so close, but it was nothing compared to the spectacular color radiating through the clouds which are creating the most enchanting colors of oranges, magenta, yellow, purple, blue and white. The sun did not shine into the fjord, but danced along the tips of the snow-covered mountains, and played hide and seek behind large bilious clouds. As if a spotlight was turned on behind the clouds, the sun would burn a blazing hole through them, or in the next minute create a dramatic effect by illuminating the edges of the cloud.

It was hard to know which side of the boat to be on, as the light show changed from orange, blue, and yellow, to pink, baby blue and white. In the first case, the view created a symphony of brass instruments, while the other side was a quiet melody of violins.

Until 1:00 in the morning the sky erupted into one scene after another. Just as you thought you had the perfect picture, another cloud formation would show its beauty. Slowly the light on the mountain tops began to disappear but dusk never came, the sun stuck it out all night while we gave up and went to bed.

Arriving in Bergen feels like coming home. I have been here enough times with Shap that the city is familiar. After all of the traveling, I feel like it is a homecoming. I rented an Air BnB for the seven of us with ONLY ONE bathroom. We all remembered our dorm days and it worked out fine. The “we” consisted of five friends from Stowe: Alan and Ellen Thorndike, Cindy and Jeff McKechnie and Louise Reed. All five of us have traveled together on various trips; although our personalities are quite different we seem to blend well and have a great time.

Lysoen Shap’s Family home

 Lysøen, Shap’s family’s Home belonging to Ole Bull and now a museum

What is meaningful for this trip is the beginning of a new chapter in many of our lives. Louise, with a year gone by since we lost our wonderful Paul, Allen, with a year of recovery from two long years battling depression, Ellen, with a year of retirement under her belt, Jeff and Cindy, coming out of two weddings and the joyous occasion of a new grandson, Then there is Shap and me,we have arrived into our seventies, are blessed with eight grandchildren, four out of five children living close by and our health is good. Decisions have to be made soon for our next number of years, what form this will take we are not sure.

But right now we are on a ship, cruising up the coast of Norway, stopping at incredibly beautiful ports of call. We passed the Arctic circle at 7:15 this morning. The scenery has changed to high snow capped mountains and small picturesque villages and cottages. I thought we would see more marine life but have been disappointed. I am sure the Gulf Stream has something to do with it.

As we cruise along in this pristine area, we hear that Trump is taking us out of the Paris agreement, has turned his back on Germany, and continues to assume a dictators role. Germany is now lining up with China, everyone is distancing themselves from us, and Rufus Wainwright sang “ I am so tired of America” at the Bergen Music Festival while people were clapping in the audience. Try hearing that? We were all so sad that this is the way that we are perceived. We are losing our standing in Europe, everywhere we go people are making jokes about Trump and the U.S. We have become the laughing stock of Europe, of Russia and the world. Even we laugh at the situation we find ourselves in, while being horrified that our senators and legislators sit by and watch the United States falling from grace. We all ask how much damage Trump can do? Just come to Europe and you will find out, he has done too much already.

Enjoy the photos of an amazing place in the world and remember you can help to make a change so get involved so we can keep this beautiful world.

We are all on a Kodiak going going to look at a malstrüm.

                    The malstürm