Thanks to not going to Russia we had two full days in Stockholm. On our first day here we had visited Fotografiska and the Old Town.
Day 7: Tuesday 4th July 2023: Stockholm
Breakfast was again upstairs in the buffet. My trainers had fallen apart after all our walking. A search on Google Maps found us a Skechers store in Stockholm.
So after breakfast, we walked into the city on a mission to find the store and to get some new trainers.
Skechers in Stockholm
It turned out the shop was very easy to find after a few false starts. We were too early for the 10 am opening time. While we waited, we explored the shops further down the street.
We walked into what we thought was a café and it turned out that it was the coffee bar of a hotel. However, no one seem to mind when we use the loos there.
To my surprise the trainers here in Stockholm we’re pretty much the same price as in the UK. After choosing a pair we were in a queue of other customers who were returning shoes. This process was long and by the end everyone was laughing about the hoops that everyone that had to go through .
Tax free?
When it was my turn, I asked about tax-free shopping. While I was stood at the counter, I had to download an app and register myself. The shops till then went through a very long registration process which involved the trainers and my iPhone. It turns out I was the first tax free customer for the assistant. This whole process tied up the till for over 10 minutes. Luckily everyone behind us kept a sense of humour about the time taken.
Back to Island Princess
Getting back to the ship turned out to be very easy with no wrong terms.
Coffee time in Stockholm Old Town – we stopped at Café Runsten on Kåkbrinken 4.
The café was very busy but we did manage to squeeze into a table in the second room.
From the Old Town we walked back past the works on the bridges and then the photo museum following the painted lines on the pavement.
Afternoon on Island Princess
We had lunch out on deck of street food tacos.
Sailing out of Stockholm
Island Princess left early in the afternoon, out through the archipelago and then out to the Baltic.
I stayed out on deck to watch our progress out to the Baltic.
We were followed out of Stockholm by an Aida ship.
A docked Swedish Navy ship.
Then we passed a fort…
The Baltic.
Evening on the Baltic
We had an announcement from the Captain in the evening. As Island Princess had an upcoming sea day and the ship was quite close to Gotland that he had gained permission to try again to land in Visby.
We had another clock change overnight for our planned visit to Visby.