After a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, we set out to figure out the cities mass transit system. Bought our "pensioners " tickets at the 7/11 across the street from the hotel and boarded the bus to the city center. Then took the escalators three to four stories down to catch the train to the wharf. The subway is a free museum for art. There were statues on the walls,unbelievable mosaic work, and other marvels. Not knowing which way to go after we got back to earth, we spied water down a narrow alley and headed towards it, lucky for us it came out right by the ticket booth for the Stockholm Bridges Boat Tour. This is a great way to see the city and learn about its history during the relaxing two hour ride.
The Stockholm marathon is going on today, so when we left the boat we were greeted by closed streets and lots of people lining them, but nothing was happening. So I wandered around taking photos when bikes, then a pace car, and finally the two lead runners went by followed by another pace car. Pretty exciting, thirty seconds later a couple more runners and then nothing. We then decided to walk to the city hall and check on its tours. The excitement during this walk was when I almost got run over by a bike while taking photos. My fault as I learned that inlaid bike outlines in the pavement means bike lanes, not stand in the lane like dumb tourists taking photos. We heard music and along our walking path and encountered an all girl band playing on another corner of the marathon route and 20 seconds later here come the pace cars and lead runners again. Finally we got to Stockholm City Hall with its tower topped with three gold crowns and found out the blue room is red and the immense gold room is covered with sandwiched gold tiles and beautiful mosaic pictures. This is the building where the Nobel banquet and dance are held.
We headed home by foot as mass transit was not running due to the marathon and finally saw the masses of runners a good hour and a half behind the leaders.
Stopped at a pub for Swedish beer and fish and chips ($45) eating outside to watch the local traffic. Back at the hotel we were relaxing in the lobby when who should start arriving, but those tired marathoners.