Stockholm has a wide variety of museums and tourist attractions but we kept our week fairly relaxed. But we did visit some unique museums that are iconic to Sweden as well as few other activities that we enjoyed as as family.
IKEA
First up is Ikea. Haha! Ikea originates from Sweden so it felt only appropriate to visit an Ikea and enjoy a lunch of Swedish meatballs. We went to a rather small Ikea in the city centre but it was still a fun experience. we can confirm it’s pretty much exactly the same as IKEAs in Australia.
THE VIKING MUSEUM
Djurgården Island is where you’ll find many of the tourist attractions of Stockholm. The amusement park, Grona Lund, the ABBA museum, Skansen, the open air historic village, The Nordic Museum and Junibacken, the museum dedicated to the world of author Astrid Lindgren, who wrote Pipi Longstockings. We decided to visit two of the museums here, the first being The Viking Museum.
The Viking Museum was small but really well done in terms of atmospheric set and interactive props. The girls know a surprising amount about Vikings and Norse Mythology due to their love for the How To Train Your Dragon movies and their interest in mythological creatures. Hallie loved filling out the workbook where kids have to find the hidden pictures of mythological creatures around the museum and draw and copy down information about each. Rooney was the only one brave enough to try the ‘ride’ in the downstairs part of the museum. I used the term ride loosely though. We sat in a cart that was on a track and it went through a series of dark rooms that had dioramas depicting a story of 10th century Viking who travels across Europe in a series of adventures. While the miniature figures don’t move in each diorama but the lighting, narration and sound effects made it a really interesting way to watch a story come to life.
THE VASA MUSEUM
This was a really unique museum! The Vasa Museum houses a 17th century war ship that was build in Stockholm but sank with the first two kilometers of it’s maiden voyage, due to delibrartely ignored flaws in it’s huling design. It sat on the bottom of the harbour fo 333 years. Plans to raise the sunken warship started in 1950’s but it wasn’t until 1961 that the Vasa first appeared from the watery depths. It took many decades to dry out all the waterlogged wood and recontruct the Vasa to it’s former glory. The museum that existed today was opened in 1990.
I found this all so fascinating but I have to admit, the girls didn’t really share my enthusiasm. Maybe if they could have gone inside the ship, like the Dunbrody in Ireland, but that’s not at all possible here. The thing that made this museum memorable for girls was the special LEGO shipwreck exhibit.
From the website:
The exhibition was produced by the Western Australian Museum and the Australian National Maritime Museum, the models were built by professional LEGO® builder Ryan "The Brickman" McNaught’.
The exhibition was not originally intended to be a travelling exhibition and has previously only been shown in Australia, but after Sweden and the Vasa Museum, its journey continues in Denmark. In the exhibition, visitors can learn about several famous shipwrecks. In addition to Vasa, the exhibition tells the story of the luxury passenger liner Titanic, the 17th century ship Batavia and HMS Pandora.
So it was pretty cool that this exhibit was original from Australia but we got to see it in Stockholm with the actual Vasa ship.
On one of the quieter days, we found a local hairdresser and got haircuts for the girls. They all got a huge amount cut off, back up to their shoulders, which was very much needed as their long hair was getting way too knotty. The hairdresser was so lovely and friendly but he didn’t speak much english. A very unique experience for sure.
We also asked the girls what is one thing they would like to do again and Hallie and Rooney said ‘ride the little Go Karts again’. (like is Glasgow, Scotland) And sure enough there was a Flip Out in Stockholm, albeit out in the suburbs. So we navigated the trains and found Flip Out in a Westfields Shopping Centre! This Flip Out felt like it caters. more really young kids, Braino and I weren’t able to go in the go karts this time around but I’ve already been researching were we can do mini go karts in Brisbane.
