The happy crew set off afore daylight to the hellhole called Stansted Airport where we took advantage of Ryanair's on-line check in and avoided that pointless queue at the check in desks, quite like this idea.

Sailed briskly through the liquid and shoe police to pick up a few bottles in the duty free (although it isn't really duty free in the EU or often cheaper than your local supermarket) as booze is reputed to be quite expensive in Sweden and then off to the gates where we joined the rest of the people in the priority queue for on-line check in. Now because its cheaper and quicker to check in on line the Ryanair priority queue is longer than the one for the rest of the passengers!

This was our second time with Ryanair (Ireland two weeks before was the first) and to be honest I thought the flights were better than I had been led to expect from the airline's reputation, although the bright yellow interior trim was a bit overpowering and the seats became very uncomfortable towards the end of the flight, but it was very cheap. Much amusement was had when the Captain introduced himself as Captain Anus McAnus, or something very similar.

On arrival at Skavska we bought our bus tickets to town (250SEK return about £25 not too bad for 100km) and settled down to watch the scenery pass by and I was delighted to spot a Red Kite hunting over a field.

When we got to Stockholm it was raining and following the directions from the hotel's website we were soon lost. so out came the guidebook and eventually we were dropping off the bags at the Hotel Adlan before popping out for an Iskander Kebab at the street corner. Not bad value for Sweden at about 65SEK (£6.50) but could have done with a bit more chilli in the sauce.

When I got back to the Hotel we were gripped in bear like hugs by both Meno and Mira who had missed us at the bus station, but had determinedly tracked us down. So after a brief freshen up we were whisked off on the scenic route to Mira's flat, stopping only to buy some salmon at the supermarket where Old Nick and I got told off for photographing products that sounded rude in English (see Old Nick's blog. did we let that stop us? Hell no.

At the flat we met the pigeons and I got busy with a corkscrew while our lovely hostess dished up to homemade houmous and the baked Salmon with a caviar and dill sauce. It was delicious, what a wonderful lady she is.

Only too early we had to catch the train back to our hotel, so after more hugs we were off on a huge Swedish Railways train looking forward to what the following day would bring.