June 7th, 2006

Stockholm, Sweden. 11:16am

Successfully arrived in Stockholm yesterday for the national holiday celebration. Found many happy and beautiful Swedes to greet us, and spent the next few hours adjusting to the city and getting lost while trying to find our hotel. However, after we managed to settle in. John and I walked through the old waterfront district which is five minutes from our hotel, and discovered that it is filled with incredible coffee shops and hundreds of people sitting out, enjoying sun and beer on their day of national celebration. We then met up with Bill for an elegant Greek dinner, but before setting off we sat down to watch the address that the king was giving in a park across the water from Bill's hotel. While watching the ceremonies on television, we realized that the Swedish airforce were flying over the ceremony and we were able to rush to the balcony in time to see them cruise overhead. It was like getting to see the Blue Angels up close and personal.

Much of dinner was spent navigating the Swedish menu, and generally harassing the waitress in our attempts to acclimatize ourselves to the surroundings. Upon getting out of dinner around 10:00, we walked out to find that the sun was just beginning to set, and it was only on our way to bed around midnight, that it finally dropped below the horizon for a few hours leaving the city in a perpetual twilight.

Finally got to bed around 12:00 after more than 36 hours of traveling and touring the city and slept like logs.

Have plans today to visit the many Viking exhibits that fill the city, to learn more about the northern culture that may have ancestral links to the modern Mediterranean people.

Mostly we have been busy enjoying this beautiful city and awaiting the arrival of the rest of the team so that we can get down to work.

Signed,

John and Caleb