Stockholm for my (happy) birthday

This year was a "round number" birthday, as I told my friend Fergus. I wanted to spend it some place fun. I figured to make a spontaneous, and by the time we got to Gothenburg, it occurred to me that a splendid place to go would be Stockholm.

What a beautiful city, in a light-filled majestic way. Seeing it the first night, when we were out on the quay near our hotel in Östermalm, with a view across the water through the gap in the city islands, to the illuminated buildings on the cliff on the far shore, I was blown away by the intricate, enticing splendor of it. As I told Red, it was like a few other places that way---Manhattan at night the first time, for example. Or the playa.

Stockholm lived up to all our expectations. We had lots of fun there, and wound up staying eight days in all, in three different lodgings throughout the city. After our splendid time in the upscale Östermalm, we spent two nights in more hip and working class Södermalm, in a hotel boat moored along the foot of the cliffs. Then we switched sides of the river again and spent three more nights in Kungsholm, in a contemporary nordic long-term stay hotel, that seemed to be popular with foreign workers. The hallways were wider than many rooms in the rest of Europe. The breakfast was good, and the wi-fi worked.

The birthday idea worked well. We went to the Abba Museum, and rode a boat around the harbor.

The only negative about the entire Stockholm adventure was my leaving behind, in the first hotel, the last of my US-to-Europe plug adapters allowing me to charge my laptop and iPhone. Red had a back-up as well, but we were now down to one, from our initial collection of three.

Fortunately the woman at the boat hotel front desk gave me good advice about findings the right store in Stockholm to buy a replacement. Her suggestion---in the heart of the Stockholm shopping district on the north side---was right on the mark. I found a replacement---a more complicated device, and more expensive. It was made in Switzerland and cost 99 Swedish krona. I was extremely happy to find one hanging on the wall in the store.