Stockholm - 2019

9

Stockholm Convention

After almost two years of planning and preparation for our 50th Convention and 60th celebration of WWI, we finally landed in the beautiful city of Stockholm. The day before the convention, 80 happy members arrived from the fantastic experience of cruising along the wonderful coastline of Norway, on the famous Hurtigruten. What a start to open a convention! The sun was shining, the days were still mild, and we, the Convention team, were ready to go and to welcome 370 members and guests to our convention.

We had chosen the Sheraton hotel as our Convention hotel and that’s where we met the first evening for our Get-Together party. It was a happy gathering and the entertainment we provided was a couple dressed in 17th century costumes, singing Swedish ballads from the 17th and 18th centuries. The party spirit was on top from the very beginning and so was the joy in meeting old friends. We even attracted a lot of attention from other guests at the hotel who
wanted to join us. Sheraton has several airline crews staying there and they were, of course, excited to see all thes Pan Am / WWI roll ups and flyers everywhere.

On the second evening, a Friday, we arranged for a boat tour on the waters around Stockholm with dinner, movies and disco dance. On the lower deck of the ship there was a large movie theatre where we presented all the PAN AM movies we could find on YouTube. Along the side walls of the theatre, we had the opportunity to project a frame of PAN AM’s 747. A very nice and enjoyable evening.

Saturday night and time for our Dynamite Nobel Dinner, a highlight out at an incredible building, Alfred Nobel´s old factory from 1891 approximately 30 minutes from the city center. A glass of Prosecco was served outside in a beautiful autumn evening, still not cold. The fabulous dinner was served in the Grand Hall and prepared by a Master chef; a very well-known chef and a regular guest on Swedish Television. We had the pleasure of being entertained by a group of nice young men singing catchy Barber shop music. The wonderful evening ended with the best disco ever before the buses took us back to the hotel.

On Sunday we arranged two excursions. One was a Daytrip by boat to Drottningholm Palace, the home of the King and Queen. It is the most well-preserved royal castle in Sweden, built between 1662 until around 1750, and at the same time is representative of all European architecture for that period and is on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. The other Daytrip was to Gripsholm Castle, a fairy-tale like castle built 1537. The current castle has no shortage of historic drama. However, there was already a stronghold here in the 14th century. A memorable day for all of us.

We all left the Convention with happy memories; meeting old and new friends in nice surroundings from Hurtigruten to Stockholm.