We ended up flying on SAS, which is the national airline of Sweden.  This is the same airline which all the Laureates had used, and one that we could have booked via the assistance of Scanworld, the Nobel Committee’s travel partner.  Ultimately, I had ended up booking directly with SAS once I determined that Scanworld wasn’t offering any special rates to us.  

From San Francisco we flew to Arlanda International in Stockholm.  Total flight time was just over 13 hours, including the layover and plane change in Copenhagen.  I don’t recall much about our flight other than a vague memory of a dinner including some kind of dessert that included lingonberries, and a snack that featured reindeer sausage.  I believe that we were all impressed by the overall quality of the SAS experience, however.

The very first Nobel-related messaging we saw was at the airport, on our way to baggage claim.  There was signage everywhere welcoming arriving passengers to Nobel Week and also directly congratulating the Nobel Laureates.  

There was also a media campaign (which might have been Nobel Week-related, but may also simply have been the normal signage) consisting of large photos of famous Stockholm natives with the message "Welcome to MY hometown" on them.  Examples were Lasse Hallstrom ("Film Director"), Mats Sundin ("Ice Hockey Player"), and Ingrid Bergman ("Legend").  Yes, that was the description on her panel.  I wonder what kind of questions you get asked when you go to a job interview in hopes of being hired to be a Legend?  

Although we could have taken Arlanda Express (aka the regional metro system) from the airport to the vicinity of the hotel we instead opted for a taxi in order to get door-to-door service.  After a long flight through the night we wanted to keep things as simple as possible and limit the amount of lugging of luggage we had to do.  

Of course, Nobel Prize winners are assigned a car and driver throughout their stay in Sweden – a sexy black sedan with Nobel markings on the outside.  It might have actually been a Ford Crown Victoria:  

An interesting side-note about CPV:  Until 1990, she was just Princess Victoria.  However, that year Sweden’s Parliament passed a new law that allowed the crown to pass to the King’s oldest child, NOT his oldest SON (who was younger than CPV).  So at age 13 she was suddenly leap-frogged over her brother as the heir-apparent.  I’d make a joke here, but the story turns (temporarily) sad.  The sudden change in status was extremely stressful for her and she developed anorexia.  She would later say that her life was so regimented that the only thing she felt like she had control over was what she ate – or binged and purged in her case.

To get her help her parents decided to remove her from the fishbowl of Sweden and sent her off to college in the US, where she would have comparative anonymity while going to school and receiving treatment.  One positive outcome was that she met and married her….wait for it…personal trainer.  So they guy in the royal box sitting next to her in uniform is actually a former trainer and gym owner.  (Weo mentioned that, during the Nobel Banquet, the conversation he heard between CPV and her sister was typical suburban soccer mom type stuff.)  To her credit she’s been very outspoken about her struggles in hopes that others can profit from her experiences.

Outside the Grand Hotel, on the light posts, were LED display screens displaying the Nobel Medal on an ever-changing background of colors.  Since it was already pitch black outside (at around 5PM) this was a really nice effect.  Had we arrived earlier we could have attended a reception for the four American winners that was being held at the American Embassy.  I'm sure every Ambassador dreams of the opportunity to make small talk with jet-lagged tourists.

Our hotel, Grand Hotel Stockholm, is the traditional “heart” of Nobel Week.  All the Laureates are guests here, as are about 200-250 of their guests.  In the lobby of the hotel is found the “Nobel Desk” where, upon arrival, we collected our tickets for various events, received a booklet outlining Weo’s schedule (each guest got a booklet customized for “their” Laureate), got a page describing the transportation schedule of the buses that would get us to various venues, and were able to pick up copies of the Nobel posters.  Each discipline was represented with its own poster covering the winners’ achievements and reasons for winning.  The hosts at the desk were also available to help recommend places to eat and act as concierges.  It appeared to me that these folks were working 16-18 hours every day we were present.

One of the items in our goodie bag from the Nobel Desk was this program which summarized the various activities not only of Nobel Week, but the week following.

There were actually 11 different versions of the book, each one customized for a particular winner.  We, of course, received the book for "our guy".  In particular, the events for the 2nd week were generally different for each winner as the book reflected the different schools and other places they would each visit.

After collecting our various “goodies” we went upstairs to our connecting rooms and unpacked.  As might be expected from a luxury hotel, the rooms were…luxurious.  Lots of warm wood tones abound.  

There was a fruit plate waiting for us, but by the time we’d gotten into our room it was very late in the afternoon and we were tired, so we simply called Sharon and Weo to tell them we’d arrived and then ordered up room service dinner. Andrew had the Swedish meatballs because, come on…somebody had to!  Finally, exhausted, we turned in for the night.