Stockholm

 We docked in the middle of nowhere again in Stockholm.  There was another MSC cruise ship in a berth beside us and again, Rick Steves came in handy because he told us how to get out of every berth in every port in the city.  Public transport is more complicated here because it is A: expensive and B: buses, trams, metro, and 

boats.  I did not know that the capital of Sweden is a series of islands.  I did not know this most basic information about this city, so we had to pick a place and pretty much stay there.  We picked the old town with the palace and the changing of the guard to

 watch.  Now, this was a very interesting ceremony and we watched it with hundreds of people, but after the changing of several guard units, the military band began to play music at the end.  And this was not music that any military band should be playing.  It was one thing when there was jazz saxophone in one number, but as we were leaving the ceremony to go see more things, they broke into “Love is in the Air”.

   What?!?!?!?!  From a military band?  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and it was a very vibrant, dancy Love is in the Air. 

Weird.  Anyway, saw old churches, didn’t go in because they wanted 6 dollars to do so, saw rune stones, a lock (like Soo locks), and noticed that the Holland America ship that was in port was docked in the old

town.  Now, this means that everyone on the ship had to tinder in to port, but you don’t have to do anything but step off into old town.  So, I’m fairly certain that we have picked the cheapest cruise line in the world.  Now, we have cruised

Carnival many times which really is the cheapest fares in cruising, but we have never felt that we were on a “cheap” cruise with Carnival.  I hate MSC.  They are not restocking the ship as we go and this is a 12 night cruise, so we are out of a lot of things on the ship already.  Carnival would restock on a 5 day cruise if they ran out of something.  The food is awful and someone on our tour said that they had heard that MSC doesn’t pay the crew except through the tips that they receive, which is why they had a mutiny not too long ago.  So, this is our first and last cruise with this company.  I could rant and rave until I’m blue in the face about this cruise so I won’t bore you with the details, just suffice it to say that I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone.