Day 181: Bergen to Stockholm

by Ted · Published July 5, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2019

Relatively uneventful travel day.

Got one last breakfast at Solstrand Hotel then drove to the Bergen Airport for our FinnAir flight to Stockholm.

We got to bag drop right after a huge group of Chinese tourists and ended at the back of this line.

While waiting at the gate a little girl approached Willa said something in Danish. Willa gave her a blank stair so the girl said, in perfect English, “Were you at KODE 4 Museum yesterday?” She must have seen us in the children’s art area. She was there with her dad who was originally from Indiana but married a Norwegian woman and moved to Bergen.

When we landed in Stockholm, James once again claimed he needed help putting his iPad and earphones back in his backpack. Margaret tried to refuse but then the door of the plane opened, we were seated near the front and people were waiting so we grabbed everything and ended up walking out of the plane with Margaret, James and I each holding on to multiple parts of his backpack, earphones and iPad. It was a total cluster.

When we got off the jet bridge we handed everything to James and asked him to pack it up which resulted in a fall on the floor, throw-O’s-hat-at-Dad meltdown.

He quickly recovered, we got our bags and were off to the Hilton Slussen in Stockholm.

The hotel is split across three buildings on Slussen — an island with easy access to most of the city. Slussen is undergoing a major renovation that apparently will go on for 10+ years. There are cranes everywhere. Nothing we’re not used to in NYC.

We grabbed lunch in the hotel, highlighted by some excellent Swedish meatballs. When done James and I dusted off the Rat-a-Tat Cat cards for a few games.

We went upstairs to the “Exec Lounge Happy Hour” for a kid dinner and drink. It was packed— but there wasn’t one work-traveling “Executive” in sight. It was all tourists who either had a bunch of Hilton Honors points or, like us, had booked through a travel agent with perks.

We sat next to two couples from Michigan: Peggy, John, Nancy and Chris. Peggy and Nancy are sisters and the four of them had arrived this morning and were headed off on a 2-week cruise tomorrow. They were super nice, engaging the kids with questions about our journey.