When I was en route to Stockholm this past July with a group of journalists and meeting planners,...

When I was en route to Stockholm this past July with a group of journalists and meeting planners, we were advised that Sweden has become quite a gastronomic destination. Traveling nonstop from Newark International on SAS, I stretched out comfortably in the business-class cabin and slept most of the surprisingly short, under-seven-hour flight, waking to expectations of new Swedish cuisine that were to be realized at our home base in Stockholm, the elegant 307-room Grand Hotel, and elsewhere. We sampled everything from humble meatballs (with lingonberries) to savory fish chowders, smoked salmon and herring, baby shrimp, cardamom-infused limpa—the famous Swedish rye bread—and endless varieties of crisp breads—and found it all delicious.

The country of Sweden is also friendly and English-speaking. And efficient: for example, the Arlanda Express speed train runs from the airport to the city center (arriving groups can pre-book private carriages aboard). Sweden also has a long and distinguished meetings tradition. From roughly 800 AD until Pope Sylvester II intervened in 1000, the Vikings would gather every nine years in Uppsala, near Stockholm, to decide which tribes would trade, which would pillage, and which would explore. In modern times, however, Stockholm is renowned as the site of the annual December Nobel Prize ceremony, which is followed by a banquet in the magnificent City Hall. The rest of the year, the cavernous Blue Hall (where winners dine with the King and Queen) is available for groups of up to 700 wishing to recreate the experience by choosing one of the Nobel dinner menus, served on Nobel china and crystal. Our groups had its own Nobel dinner in the warm and attractive restaurant below Stockholm's City Hall.

Equally memorable was the Vasa Museum where a royal warship that sank in the harbor in 1628 and only recovered in 1961 hovers ghost-like above the main floor. The sight literally took my breath away. Groups of 600 can dine there, then repair perhaps to the Absolut Icebar, a glassed-in igloo with walls, bar, and tables created from great blocks of ice, in the lobby of the Nordic Sea Hotel. Even the glasses are made of ice. Guests are given hooded thermal jackets and gloves and allowed to remain no longer than 30 minutes (not that many would want to).

Stockholm is also a popular port of call for ships cruising the Baltic Sea. Our little group made a lunch excursion to the inn at Grinda, one of the 24,000 islands in Stockholm's archipelago. We made the hour-plus trip bouncing over the Baltic Sea on an inflatable boat—a trip that involved more weird weatherproof outfits—and returned more sedately by ferry.

Now, unusually for me, I was actually looking forward to my return journey so I could check out SAS' recently introduced in-flight wireless Internet service—now standard on all transatlantic flights in all classes (business, economy extra, and economy). The service is offered by a company called Connexion by Boeing, which charges a flat $29.95 fee for Wi-Fi on flights over six hours, with an option to purchase 30 minutes for $9.95 and then 25 cents per minute, or purchase a block of 120 consecutive minutes for $16.95. There is also a corporate account program, offering special rates and allowing employees to access their corporate networks via Internet services like VPN. Before leaving, I went online, chose a user name and a password, and received an account number. The plan was to try out the service by logging onto misoapbox.com (the new blog by Successful Meetings and MeetingNews), to see how well we could communicate. I knew my airport card was properly configured, so I was surprised that my initial attempt to get onto the Internet was a big fat flop. When I opened my Mac, a mysterious window in Swedish popped up and refused to let me log on to Connexion by Boeing.

Perhaps now is the time to confess that I have zero understanding of wireless communication, and all the attendant could tell me was that the Internet was currently accessible. Luckily for me, a fellow passenger noticed my plight and suggested I get out of the Safari browser and reopen it. At that point I was able to initiate a dialogue with misoapbox.com without further problem (and the rest is history!). I was also able to surf the net and read my accumulated e-mail, but when I tried to send e-mail, messages sat stubbornly in my outbox. Bottom line: Since I'd never before traveled with my current laptop, I didn't know what limitations I'd encounter. However, experts say that if your laptop works fine for you on the road, it will be equally fine and problem-free aloft. Amen to that.