England and Sweden, June 1998

Jolly Olde England was the site of my June travels, where the weather was beautiful and (for at least one day) so was my golf game.  Around my full days of work I  managed to indulge local culture as well by downing a pint of Guinness, striking 18 holes at the Seckford Golf Club of Woodbridge, Suffolk, and watching most of an episode of Baywatch (they saved some people from drowning in the episode).  Needless to say, the U.K. is an excellent tourist destination.  I spent my Sunday there in London and I must say that they've got the place looking much cleaner than I remember back during my only other trip there in 1984.   Plan your own trip at their Britain's Official Tourism Website!

I left England (via the other London airport, Stansted, which I highly recommend flying into or out of if you can as it is much more manageable than Heathrow), destination Stockholm again.  Unlike my last trip a couple months earlier, when the weather dissuaded me from much walking about, summer was in the air this time and the short stay was more enjoyable.  Stockholm being the European Cultural Capital in 1998, there are a multitude of things going on.  In addition to seeing an outdoor, very modern and very abstract performance art piece called "The Summit" (featuring such things as a nearly-nude woman performing single-pole exercises on a raised platform in the center of costumed mad-scientist types standing on large metal contraptions shooting the crowd with plastic rayguns while all sorts of odd music boomed from the giant sound system and fireworks exploded overhead), a multi-ethnic food and music festival was also happening down the street complete with dozens of food and drink establishments in tents (think "Taste of Chicago") while, at one point, a band which looked like Loverboy but sounded like Quiet Riot-Lite pumped the crowd full of what I can only imagine were Swedish Rock Anthems.  To top off the trip, I was staying in the legendary Grand Hotel (which also features legendary prices), build in the mid-1800's and overlooking the King's residence, the Opera House, and a virtual fleet of ships ranging from sightseeing boats to three-masted vessels to a large wooden ship which looked to be straight out of a Viking legend.  The sun just barely sets in June, so during my trip it was light until about 11 p.m. and was full daylight by 4 a.m. once again.  Plenty of quality daylight hours even after work to see what has been described as the most authentic medieval city left in Europe!  Still, after 12 days on the road it felt great to be coming home to the Portland summer once again, where the Rose Festival was in full bloom...