Sweden

Currently we are in Stockholm and have been for the last few days.  We arrived at the Kung Carl Hotel to find wine, Abba  cd's, and passes to all of the sites and attractions in Stockholm all courtesy of our second au pair, Eva.  We met up with Eva and her husband Eric on Monday night and they took us via their boat to a wonderful Swedish restaurant on the water.  Very "Gar Woods" like!

Yesterday we spent the day touring the city, visiting some of the major sites and taking in everything the great city has to offer.  One of the most interesting and amazing things was our visit to the Vasa museum.  The Vasa was/is one of the oldest preserved ships in the world.  It looked like it was taken off the set of Pirates of the Caribbean.  The ship was built for the Swedish king in the 1600's but because of the enormous weight of the canons it sunk in the harbor.  It lay in in the cold waters in tact until the 1960's when it was brought up to the surface, pieced together, sprayed with a preservative and then moved into its own museum.  This ship is massive and was absolutely incredible to see.

Today we met up with our third au pair Maggie and her beautiful 14 month old daughter Hilda.  Hilda and I bonded right away and within a few hours she was holding onto my finger and walking through one of Stockholm's historic churches.  It was really nice to spend the day with someone whom we haven't seen for many years.  Mom and dad  really enjoyed their time catching up and sharing stories from the past.  Supposedly I was a head strong, pain in the ass, determined little boy--- I don't know about that!!!

Tomorrow we are spending the night aboard a cruise ship and sailing to Helsinki, Finland.  As much as we hate to leave this city we are all looking forward to seeing some place new.