Slow train to Stockholm

I think the great thing about traveling with children specifically teenagers is that you can learn so much from them. Despite having so little worldly experience they seem to know how to conduct oneself when travelling. The first lesson I have learned from my son Christopher is that there is no need to show up for a train or plane departure in advance to give oneself any buffer room and doing so only indicates that you have a serious neurosis. Perhaps an anxiety disorder NOS. The second thing that I have learned from Chris is that one should never ever ask anyone for help even people working at information booths. One can learn all from the internet specifically YouTube videos. Being the accepting person that he was of my anxiety neurosis he allowed us to get to the train station 50 minutes early and he tolerated me talking to the information people. We learned that our train across the border into Sweden to Lund where we would catch our high speed train to Stockholm had been cancelled. My heart had a sinking feeling when I heard this. As we were in good time we could take another train and still make our connection which we did in Lund. At the Swedish border there was some pretty intense security with passport checks and ticket checks. I think the era of open borders in Europe may be coming to an end. The high speed train was glorious. I sat beside Cheryl and the children sat in other seats. The trip took about 4.5 hours which beat the 7-8 hour drive had we rented a car. All for $80 for all of us. When we made it to Stockholm we had a 10 minute walk to the subway line where we paid $20 to go three stops which was maybe 2 km. The enigma of Scandinavia. Oh it wasn't a slow train to Stockholm, it was a very fast train. A slow train to Stockholm just had a nice ring to it.

When we got to our BNB accommodation in Stockholm Cheryl and I left the children to play one of our favourite games. It is called find the obscure ingredients for a recipe. This game is best played when you are a little tired and hungry . It is a timed event where the competitor, typically myself is expected to find obscure ingredients that the judge usually Cheryl wants me to find. I cannot be caught by the judge asking anyone for help or else I gain time penalties. At no time during the game must I say " Couldn't we make something simpler for supper or I will immediately forfeit the game and the penalty will be that I will have to make supper. The game went pretty well for me although I had some problems finding chicken broth. The best I could find were Oxo cubes. I also gained some penalty points as Cheryl caught me trying to explain what it was to a shelf stocker. I will have to improve my communication skills for our next game.

We have been in Stockholm for less then a few hours. Maybe I was brainwashed by the Danes but I think that people really did look happier and healthier in Denmark. The Swedes well they appear more like us North Americans, a little frumpy and not as happy .Read more