Last Day of Oma's Conference

On Tuesday evening the Swedish national soccer team was playing a game against Greece and there was a big gathering in the hotel dining room to watch it together and party. Apparently adult beverages were also being consumed. Oma and I had taken a walk in the neighborhood near the hotel. As we approached the hotel entrance, we noticed an obviously inebriated young man trying to go the wrong waythrough the revolving door. Oma motioned to him to turn around and go the other way, which he eventually did. Then Oma entered door being him, only to realize that he was pushing it very fast. The heel of Oma's flip-flop got stuck under the door and the door knocked her to the floor. No broken bones, but she skinned her left knee and seems to have a pulled muscle in her left rib cage just under her armpit. She was in a lot of pain. She took some pain reliever medication and went to bed. Wednesday morning we improvised a sling from a bath towel and she went to her conference. She is still very sore.

On a brighter note, while she was in the conference, I ventured into downtown Stockholm on my own. I decided to visit a museum with a 17th century warship inside. The ship had sunk on its maiden voyage, then the remains brought up in 1961, after over 300 years under water. Because the water was cold and much less salty than most of the ocean, it was remarkably well preserved. I spent a couple of hours in the museum learning about it. Unfortunately, my pictures aren't good at all, but here is one to the right.

Something I never thought about before coming here is the Swedes' love of boats and the sea. Duh! Hadn't I studied about Eric the Red in history? Anyway, visiting Stockholm and seeing all the boats is very impressive. The final activity of Oma's conference was taking a boat ride out to a restaurant near the fortress that an ancient king built to protect the passage from the Baltic Sea into Stockholm. The views of the islands and boats were spectacular. The food and the service were excellent. The boat drove right up to the restaurant in the picture below.