Note
Figured we needed to do something special for G's last day in Europe. The plan to "go out for breakfast" was somewhat thwarted by the fact that all the cafes open at 9am only had sandwiches on offer (and it's pretty weird to eat salad at that hour). Next came a visit to the Nobel museum - interesting, but far too small, because I would like a detailed description of every laureate's contribution (well, those who contributed to scientific fields, anyway). As it is,a brief summary of the awards from each year is available on touchscreens, and overhead floats a continuous procession of all 800+ names/photos hanging from an endless conveyor belt; I was tempted to watch them all come through but apparently that takes about 6 hours.
At 1pm we hopped on a ferry to Vaxholm, inner heart of the archipelago - and G didn't even protest about getting on a ferry again! I figured this was a way to show him some of the scenery I'd seen on yesterday's run, but it turned out far better than that. Ferries, yachts, tiny motor launches and great big cruise ships were everywhere. Wooded coastlines with granite rocks coming right down to the water and lots of islands; even the tiniest often had houses on them. I was reminded a lot of having caught a ferry from Vancouver to Vancouver Island in 1998. Vaxholm is not at all like Victoria, though - instead it has lots of beautifully painted wooden houses perched on granite rocks, and a really great little restaurant on the water about 1km north of the wharf, with the best cake buffet on display that I have ever seen. You pick your cake from the table, and then you take it to the register and pay for it!
In fact the ferry was like that too - buy your ticket after getting on the boat (a refreshing change from wrestling with ticket machines as the train draws near), but you can't get off without handing over a ticket. We have generally found Sweden to be very trusting (mind you, our tickets were never checked in Switzerland, and we've been surprised by the general lack of safety warnings throughout Europe) but there are warnings everywhere in Stockholm about pickpockets. Maybe the warnings are a community service, like the emu parades of teenagers picking up litter. Once back in Stockholm we wandered around the little connected islands of Skeppsholmen and Kastellholmen, watching the screaming people on the rides at the Tivoli amusement park across the water, and then looking at all of the old restored boats along the waterfront (plus their mailboxes, nailed en masse to bollards, and which I think Kay would like). For some reason I hadn't registered before coming here that Stockholm is so much a city of the water.