Traveling with Ellen

  A 4 am alarm started today.  That's 7 pm Wednesday, Phoenix time).   In the atrium on Deck 1 at 4:30 am, departed the ship and identified our luggage before boarding our bus.  We were rolling with a Viking agent in board our bus at 5 am.   Check in and baggage drop took a long time!  One couple, was with the check in attendant for 20 minutes.  And there was only one attendant operating a counter. Finally got rid of our bags and checked through to Phoenix.  Then another small wait in security and a last line in immigration line.  It's 7:05 am here, the pilots and crew just showed up and the plane is here.   Looking good so far.   Wayne received permission to board with group 1.  Bless his bum knee, his brace and his chair came.  Surprise as we boarded, we were upgraded to row 9, first class and all it comes with; a menu and full breakfast.  There are three seats across but the middle seat is blocked so no one can sit.  Never saw this before. There is nothing is in your control

  What a great tour  today to end 49 days of cruising.  It was a busy morning.  We had to go off ship and through Swedish immigration at 8 am and then I had to check in for our flight.  That's always an "iffy" process with British Air.  You just never know what problems you'll encounter with ship wifi and a crummy British air website.  With boarding passes in hand for the first leg of the flight, we boarded our tour bus at 9 am for our 3 hour bus tour of Stockholm.   We had a great tour guide.  He spoke wonderful English and had a great sense of humor.  He has never been to the US but deemed our bus to all Green Bay Packers and Mets fans!  Huh? We learned a lot. Not just about the city but about living here in Stockholm.   It's a very expensive city and country.  As he walked through the math, I'm not sure wlhiw anyone can afford to live, even in the outlying areas that are less expensive. We stopped at an overlook just above our ship for an overview of the ha