Living in London

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It's 8:30 pm and darkness will descend in an hour or so. The captain explained that we must be out of the archipelago before dark, and so we left the Stockholm pier 30 minutes earlier than scheduled.

We write this from the 11th floor observation deck, Brandy Alexanders in hand, as the Seven Seas Voyager winds its way out of the Swedish archipelago, past rocky promenades and every size and shape of island covered with dense fir forests.

Since 3:30 pm we have checked in (one glass of sparkling wine), unpacked, then done a safety drill involving our life jackets and assembling on the deck under the life boats (could have, should have brought a glass of champagne), then a reception on the main deck (two more glasses of champagne), then a lecture on St. Petersburg and the history of Russia (one glass of champagne), and now we are up on the observation deck where we are in complete agreement that we could sit for the entire trip.

The ship is quiet but you can feel the engines humming under your feet, and it's a very powerful experience to see the islands melt away on either side.