Lo 'n Anna - Family Travel Adventures: Stockhom Sweden

STOCKHOLM SWEDEN!

Snuggling after our unplanned late arrival!

With school being out, we have no reason not to bring the gang along for more work trips!

Stockholm Sweden was the next place on the agenda and ALL of us were geeked to see at least a portion of Scandinavia! The trip however, didn't get off on the best foot. We aren't exactly sure why, but our luck with flying hasn't been the greatest. Flight delays and cancellations are getting old!

Friday afternoon, we were planning to fly out and be able to spend the weekend in the city before work started on Monday. Shortly before we were supposed to board, the flight was delayed by and hour and a half and then was eventually cancelled. We didn't end up getting to Sweden until the evening on Saturday, but were determined to make the best of it!

Knowing we had only one day before the work week, we wanted to take advantage of Sunday and try to see a few of the things on our list. First up was the Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet). Yep, we dragged them back to another museum. This one however was INCREDIBLE!!

Crazy to think this thing was underwater for 333 years but remained so well preserved!

Exploring from the top!

The Vasa was a Swedish warship that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628, just 1,400 meters from the coast. The ship was built on the orders of the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus as part of the military expansion he initiated in a war with Poland-Lithuania between 1621–1629. Richly decorated as a symbol of the king's ambitions for Sweden and himself, upon completion she was one of the most powerfully armed vessels in the world. However, the Vasa was dangerously unstable and top-heavy with too much weight in the upper structure of the hull. Despite this lack of stability she was ordered to sea and capsized only a few minutes after encountering "a wind just stronger than a breeze."

In 1961, after 333 years under the sea, an intensive recovery mission lasting two years resulted in the Vasa being lifted from the sea. Thousands of artifacts and the remains of at least 15 people were found in and around the Vasa's hull.

Many of the artifacts and remains were impecabally preserved. Needless to say we walked fairly quickly through the "open grave yard" to avoid any nightmares!

She loved this miniature version of the ship which showed all the levels.

After the Vasa Museum, we headed over to Junibacken, a children's museum devoted to Swedish children’s literature. Particular focus is paid to Astrid Lindgren, the author of the Pippy Longstocking books.

The girls enjoyed exploring the little village that was designed to replicate the story books. There also was a story train ride, which flew us through many of the stories. Most of the stories we were not familiar, but left us excited to find out more. The last place they ventured through was the home of Pippy, Villa Villekulla.

Super cool place which gave us lots of ideas for more books... while we tried to buy some there as souvenirs, the majority were in Swedish, so we opted for Amazon instead!

Playing in one of the shops... this one specialized in all things GOLD or Guld in Swedish!!

Every time I see this picture, I hear Mike Meyers voice playing the character Goldfinger from one of the Austin Powers movies... I mentioned this to the girls as I attempted to recreate his accent saying "I love Goooooolllllllllllllllld....... " Didn't even get a smirk. I went on to explain that Uncle Mike also loves gold to which they responded "Why?"

Pippy's House! I couldn't get them to hold still long enough to take picture with them actually in it!

Caught ya!

Life-size horse carved out of wood!

They loved the giant Bananas!

Finally we made our way down the streets, across the bridges and along the water to Gamla Stan (The Old Town). The town dates back to the 13th century and has lots of medieval alleyways, cobbled streets and archaic architecture. In many ways it reminded us a lot of Venice. Sleepy stores, coffee on every corner, shops, snacks and all things lazy.

In front of the palace! The girls were geeked to learn that Sweden also has a King and Queen... unfortunately, they didn't come through the front doors while we were standing there... Still working on adjusting expectations. A few weeks before I was here on my own and the youngest royal was being baptized! This wonderful event had quite an adverse effect on traffic and whatnot, but the girls loved seeing the little boy all dolled up in his white dress!

More souvenir stores to find our spoons and magnets! I thought these piggy tails were adorable, but didn't have any takers. Lo requested yet another stuffed animal and I almost lost my S^%T. Who are we kidding, totally lost my S&%T.

While at work Russ took the girls to the amusement park Gröna Lund located on a small island in the Archipelago called Djurgården! Of course, this was the highlight of the trip for more reasons than one!

One of Annelyse's front teeth has been hanging on for dear life for a good month now... Seeing how teeth are the one and only thing in life that makes me squeamish, I truly believe this child adores torturing me with her ever present "wobbly tooth." She never missed the opportunity to show me just how 'wobbly" that little baby tooth was by wiggling it thing back and forth like it was her job. Well, all that wiggling and wobbling finally got the best of the little gal and she popped out on a boat with the help of some Skittles. I told Russ that's what he gets for feeding them candy! Here are the stats to date.

Tooth 1 = Belgium

Tooth 2 = Ireland

Tooth 3 = Sweden
Tooth 4 = TBD (perhaps Portugal?)

Hanging on by a thread... ugh... so gross!

We told Annelyse the tooth fairy has been getting her exercise flying over Europe to find her and the correct currency to fork over for those precious teeth. Of course tooth 3 had to fall out on a water bus from Old Town to Gröna Lund.

The suspense is killing me!!!! Lo's face cracks me up! Love the picture of the guy behind them... totally unfazed by the excitement and the gore. Cool cat.

Got er'

Why do they instantaneously look older without teeth... where did my baby go... The bottom two were much less obvious.

An amusement park on an island... a.k.a. BOBLO!

After the precious ivory was secured in daddy's wallet, a fun-filled day at the amusement park was next-up on the agenda. NOTE: Seeing that Russ only planned for the excitement of the amusement park, he was likely worn out before they stepped off the boat given the gory display on the boat ride over. Buckle up daddy, cuz were going for a ride...or two... or 17!

She nearly pukes every time we are in the car, but somehow finds this mess fun?? I don't get it?!?

Taxi Stockholm...a legit taxi company in Sweden
Their first ride in a bumper car.
My first ride in a Tesla.
Judging by their faces, their Taxi Stockholm experience was much more pleasurable than mine. After naively asking the taxi driver what kind of car we were in, he proceeded to tell me more than I could dream to know about Teslas. After several excruciating details about Elon Musk and the genius he is, the light turned green and the driver hit the gas. Obviously my fake interest in the car I was not impressed by the with feeling like I was going to fly thought the windshield after the light turned green.
Utterly jealous of their experience vs. mine (not to mention I was not smiling during the commute from work to the hotel!)

Friday afternoon I headed home after lunch and we ventured out into Stockholm's' Archipelago. Thirty-thousand islands, islets and rocks; each with its own character make up this super unique place. While there was many islands to choose from, we settled on Fjaderholmarna. The highlights of this charming tiny little island, were the capsized boat that was turned into a climbing wall and a restaurant that served "the best hot dog" ever created.

It barely started to sprinkle while we were waiting for the boat, however any evidence of rain requires the appropriate "performance gear"... this is a term Russ uses whenever he buys new clothes, because somehow every article of clothing he owns servers at least 4 purposes. This consistent phrase used when defending purchases has now rubbed off on the girls. In this case, they asked Russ if he "brought any high-performance gear" for the rain... obviously based on these smiles I was harassing him for yet another purchase that miraculously surfaces in a quote "time of need" to save the day. The raincoat in this case, was in fact triple-purpose... ie, they both fit in it and it keeps the rain off!

Pole dancing on the ship...

Me: Lo, can I help you?
Lo: No, I can do it... don't you see me doin' it myself?

They were convinced they couldn't get to the top, so I had to show them that it was possible!
Then I pretended to be a Plinco chip on the way down which got a great laugh, however they both thought I was going to hurt myself and kept saying, "Mommy please be careful"... guess I look older than I feel :)

Loralye hanging on for dear life!

The highlight of the boat trip home was a swift wind from a small opening in the side of the boat which was directed precisely up Annelyse's skirt! Contagious, hysterical laughing for the duration of the voyage.

Lo was even able to get in on the action. After this adventure we had the opportunity to learn about Marilyn Monroe...
P.S... Annelyse is still on a mission for a "flowy white dress"

Seriously, this wind helped me get some of the best smiles EVER! Such a beautiful night!

The next day, we headed to another island in the Archipelago called Djurgården for a fun-filled day of all things farm at an open air museum/farm called Skansen!

Skansen was opened in 1891 and is the world’s oldest open-air museum and is situated on the island of Djurgården.

Pretending to be good students in the old school house!
They got a big kick out of the fact that the teacher along with his family lived at the school and that 'perk' was the majority of the teachers pay.

I loved the idea of this roof. I have also started to plant (no pun intended) the idea of a scaled-down version of this house as a play house for the girls. We will have to wait and see!

The park was filled with lots of native species from the Nordic region. The big burly bear and her cubs were an obvious favorite along with the moose and elk. The bear cubs kept hiding in the hollowed out logs, so we weren't able to get a good picture. Nonetheless, we had lots of hypothesis about how wonderful it would be to snuggle one of them!

The park also had a really cool up-close and personal experience with the lemurs. They were funny little guys and gave us all many good laughs, especially the baby one who kept hopping from one adult lemur to the next. While there were a plethora of signs suggesting we don't touch them, on more than one occasion the girls got a nice little hand-shake or feel of their zebra-like tails.

There were also lots of reptiles and sea creatures to touch and feel. The girls were all up for touching the python and tarantula. While bugs don't bother me, I can't say you would catch me fighting with my sibling to be the first on the stool to pet a furry spider.

After touching the snake I asked Lo what she thought...
Lo: "Now my finger stinks"
Me: "Yes, snakes do have a different smell... but how did he feel"?
Lo: "Stinky"

The spiders name was Rose and the sign said she only liked her back legs touched. My very pragmatic Annelyse asked the gentleman manning the booth, "What happens if you touch her front legs?" I too was anxious for this response given I was not aware of the equivalent for 911 in Sweden. The keeper advised that if the spider became aggravated, she may sting which would feel much like a bee sting. That was enough for Annelyse to give her one tiny pet and move on.

We adore chameleons given how close their name sounds to ours and with this little guy the feeling was quite mutual. Once the girls approached the glass, he wasted no time making his way down to Annelyse and her "kissy face" With his little robot-like pincers, he kept trying to get to her. Not sure if this was a good or bad thing... thankfully, we didn't have to find out seeing that the glass was there!

At lunch, there was a little girl (not our's I SWEAR) chasing this poor peacock around. He had obviously had enough and quite ignorantly, parked himself right next to us. After a few minutes, for no apparent reason, he started rustling and shaking and opened up into this beautiful display. He must have stood there posing for 10 minutes. At one point, a small gust of wind, got behind him and almost blew him over.

I was teasing Lo that he showed his feathers because he was competing with her and her outfit since they looked so much alike! Blue with polka-dots and about the same height were enough in my book to throw those feathers flying. Likely, his instincts sensed Loralye's competitive spirit and he felt threatend by her sheer presence...

No place like this would be complete with lots of 'extra-offerings'. Below are a few of the bonus activities were were suckered into during the visit!

Trying the stilts!

The last day we puzted around Old Town taking in all the sights, sounds and smells of Stockholm! Even though this was a quick trip, jam packed with things to do, the town was beautiful, vibrant and full of energy.