Elle’s in Europe 2025 - Day 13 - Elle the Socialite
Today’s a travel day. When we booked the trip, we thought it might be easier to do a midday flight with Elle. We were able to leisurely wake up this morning, skip breakfast, and meet our driver at 9 AM downstairs to take us to the airport. The staff at the hotel could not have been more friendly and helped make our exit from Munich as easy as possible. Elle slept for most of the ride to the airport. We dropped our bags off at the business class line and made our way through family security before going to the Lufthansa Business Class lounge. We assumed, given this was one of their hubs, this would be a great lounge, but it turned out to be an overly crowded and slightly dirty lounge. We got a few snacks and let Elle eat a croissant before we spent the next 45 minutes walking around the airport.
When it was finally time to board our plane for our 12:10 PM departure, we took a 15-minute bus ride to our plane before boarding it and taking off. Elle did great on this flight, sleeping for a bit, and otherwise being pretty easygoing. I was able to scarf down a quick lunch with a glass of wine, and Jenn had some baguettes and a glass of white wine. The flight from Munich to Stockholm was a little under two hours and when we landed, we waited another 20+ minutes for our bags.
Once we got our bags, we met our driver from the Nobis Stockholm Hotel, who drove us to our hotel. We hit a little traffic, but eventually made it. When we arrived, we were met with six or seven steps leading into the hotel and no one to help us with our 4 bags, 2 backpacks, and a stroller. Jenn quickly took charge and got us some help, and we were able to check in and get to our 5th-floor room. While we were waiting for the crib to be delivered, I ran out and got Jenn a muffin and hot chocolate from a nearby Starbucks. When I got back, we immediately put Elle down for a nap.
I’ll never forget Jenn and me texting during her nap and saying that doing the midday flight was a mistake. It would have been much easier on Elle if we had just done the morning and gotten her back on schedule. Fortunately, she’s an amazingly resilient kid who is a great sleeper, and after her nap, she was ready for dinner. We decided to go downstairs to Bino (or Bistro Nobis) and have dinner outside. Much to our amazement, Elle fell in love with an older couple from Chicago that was visiting for a wedding. Elle would not stop looking over at them and was mesmerized. Even as our appetizers of beef tartare and French fries came, she could barely take her eyes off them, which also meant we were talking with them. Fortunately, as our cocktails arrived (a martini for me and a French 75 for Jenn), they were off to dinner at another restaurant, and it was just the three of us. Jenn had their seafood pasta, and I did the meatballs. It was a great dinner, and we couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful evening to sit outside.
The good news about Stockholm is that it stays light outside until 10 PM. So our walk along the water after dinner was stunning. We did a 2-mile loop towards the Vasa museum, snapping photos along the way and taking in the beautiful city. Obviously, we are just scratching the surface of our time in Stockholm, but so far it’s set up to be an amazing last stop on our European journey this summer.
