LH Franz With so much see and do in Stockholm, we agreed we wouldn’t plan anything in particular on this second day and would see how we felt when we got up. We had already planned an “Evening Wildlife Safari from Stockholm” adventure later.
Both of us overslept the hotel breakfast, and so went walking around looking for a likely breakfast spot. It was late in the morning. Most places were serving lunch rather than breakfast. 
Eventually, we found an Espresso House, Sweden’s version of Starbucks, and possibly the reason Starbucks hasn’t really caught on in Sweden. Good coffee and good food. The one we were in (on Kungsgatan) was particularly elegant.
Back at the hotel, DD set about getting their SIM card working, with no success. Techno-geek that they are and much more cognizant of all the possible things to try, they were sure they could figure it out themselves. Nothing worked.
There are two phone stores around the corner from the hotel: Telia and Telenor. We went to the Telenor store only because Telia was busier. The clerk there explained the extra steps we, as non-Swedish nationals, had to go through to get a pre-paid SIM in Sweden: To register for service, you had to have a photo ID. You were to scan the photo ID, then take a photo of your own face on your mobile using the network provider app, and send the two images to the network provider to be verified. If all went well, after a few minutes, a message would come back saying you were approved and could now go to the web site and register for service. Only after that process was completed could you use the SIM card and connect to the Swedish network. (If you did not have a way to do this on your own, you would go through this procedure at the store.)
We learned this verification process was pretty new, started in August the year before. We also learned it could not accommodate eSims. So I also got a physical SIM card. Now back at the hotel, I registered, connecting using my USA phone through the hotel WiFi.
Within a few minutes, my verification notice came through and I was able to insert my Swedish SIM to set up my account. DD still had trouble. They were able to get registered, but still couldn’t use the SIM card. Eventually they determined that the phone, purchased through Consumer Cellular, was locked into the Consumer Cellular network. After contacting CC and getting the SIM code, they unlocked the phone and got set up.
We now both had Swedish phones with Swedish numbers. The phone store clerk told us the SIM cards were good for two years. If we stopped using them, but then re-inserted them within 24 months, our Swedish phone numbers would come back to life. This is definitely something I can try on my next trip.
The SIM card adventure had taken up most of the afternoon. We had a quick dinner at MacDonald’s. Very well run and fresh, tasty food. They had “Buffalo Chicken Nuggets”, which DD liked a lot. (When we returned home, we learned they were not available at NJ MacDonald’s restaurants, at least not then. They’ve since been added to the menu, to DD’s delight!) We finished eating with just enough time to make it to our evening safari.
This activity is run by Stockholm Adventures. It started at 5:30 p.m. from their offices in Stockholm, which were close enough to the hotel for us to walk over. 
There were a couple of guides-in-training with us, plus two other tourists from Portugal. Everyone spoke English.
After driving for half an hour, we arrived at our first stop, a clearing with a large picnic table for a traditional Midsummer celebration, in this case a lovely meal with traditional Midsummer food. The tour leader had brought everything: Tablecloth, dishes, cutlery, drinking cups, and lots of food
He and his trainees arranged it all attractively on the table. There was food for everyone. I had no problem finding vegetarian selections.
All the others around the table were clearly millennial-aged. I felt a little self conscious, not because of the age difference between us, but I thought they should be talking amongst themselves, speaking in their millennial language to each other. However, they kept asking me questions. I’m sure they were being polite. But, you see, as an old person, if you ask me a question about anything, I will probably have an answer. That’s part of having accumulated a lifetime of experience. You always have something to say about just about everything. Furthermore, if I have an answer, I will probably have a lot to say, which also comes with accumulating a lifetime of experience. We just know a lot of stuff about a lot of things.
I knew if I started talking about anything, it would probably fill the time when the young folks should be conversing about millennial things in millennial-ese. Two of them were from Portugal. One was from The Netherlands. One was from Spain. The tour guide was from Sweden. DD was from New Jersey. It was a perfect opportunity for cross-cultural communication. So I worked at restraining myself from talking too much. Not always easy when you have a lot to say about everything.
After eating and drinking and cleaning up, the tour guide distributed binoculars and we drove around looking for wildlife. The tour description notes that it was possible to spot boars, hares, deer, and elk (moose), and that most groups usually spot at least two or three of these. My own goal was to see some Swedish countryside, figuring that we were looking for wild animals in their own habitats, and there was no guarantee we’d see anything at all. (I recall one reviewer giving the tour a bad rating because all she saw on her tour were a couple of rabbits!)
As it happened, we did end up seeing some animals: moose, roe deer, hares, and cranes, all from a distance. One of the ladies from Portugal had an impressive camera with a telephoto lens. I took photos with my Canon PowerShot, knowing full well that I was doing so for display purposes only. No way was I going to get any decent pictures. But I felt if I didn’t try to take any pictures at all, someone would ask me why, and I’d be off on a long explanation about the camera and what it could do and what it couldn’t do and if I’d known I’d need to take pictures from a distance I would’ve brought my old Nikon D40 that I got dirt cheap years ago at a Circuit City clearance sale and… You get the idea.
So I came away with a lovely experience, and blurry photos. If you want to see some decent pictures of moose and roe deer, you can go online.
We saw several moose. Or maybe the same moose a few times. 
At that distance, who can tell? When he turned his head to face us straight on, I couldn’t help thinking he looked like Bullwinkle from the old Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons. This photo shows the rest of the group, DD wisely not trying to cross the wet, muddy trench along the roadside. They are taking pictures of a moose in the distance. Can you spot it?
The return drive was noticeably quieter than the drive to the park. Everyone was tired. We had fun but were completely exhausted when we got back.
