SWEDEN - Vikings, Shipwrecks, Ikea and Go Karts

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.

SWEDEN - Photos From Stockholm’s Historic Areas

We loved our time in Stockholm, although we did take it a little slower than Copehagen in terms of museums and checking of touristy attractions. Stockholm does have a tourist card with similar attractions to Copenhagen, like an illusions museum and a science museum but we opted for a slower paced week (Although I will share another post with the museums and activities we did visit.)

So this post is basically dedicated to some pretty photos I was able to capture in Stockholm on a gorgeous sunny day.

On the first full day we had after arriving, we did the Kiki’s Delivery Service Movie Location Tour with Aya. This gave us a fantastic introduction to the city centre but we made it a priority to come back to the charming Christmas markets in Stortorget, the oldest public square in Stockholm, located in the historic area of Gamla Stan. 

Iconic building of Stortorget in Gamla Stan with Christmas Markets

Purchasing Glogg at the Christmas Markets

Christmas Markets in Gamla Stan

The old town area of Stockholm was the so beautiful! All of Stockholm was beautiful! The Christmas markets were a highlight! Braino and I tried glogg - a spiced red wine, also known as mulled wine. It’s served warm and usually has spices like cinnamon, cloves, star aniseed and orange. It was surprisingly delicious. 

Christmas Markets in Gamla Stan

The other area we revisited for the purpose of photography and enoying the views of Stockholm was the small island of Riddarholmen, next to Galma Stan. Riddarholmen roughly translates to The Knight’s Islet and contains many historic building and palaces that date back to the 17th century. We came here with Aya during the tour but by this stage in the afternoon it was getting quite dark. So I wanted to return on a day where the sky was clear, just before sunset. During the winter months, the sun sets around 3pm in Stockholm and it stays very low in the sky. I was really pleased to capture some of the golden glow from the afternoon sun hitting the buildings of Riddarholmen.

View of Riddarholmen from City Hall

From Riddarholmen looking across towards Sodermalm

From Riddarholmen, we walked across the bridge to Stockholm City Hall and the continued down the water front, down Norr Malastrand past more historic building, to the Radhuest Train Station. The Radhuest train station is a destination in itself. It’s carved out of the bedrock and still resemble a cavern with red, rocky exposed interior walls. Actually Braino loved checking out all the underground train stations in all the destinations that we have visited thanks to his work in underground civil construction. His camera rolls is mainly photos and videos of all the different trains and stations. I don’t have any photos of the Radhuest train station but many of the underground stations were very impressive.

Stockholm City Hall

Clock tower of Storkyrkan in Gamla Stan

Overall, we really enjoyed the beautiful architecture and historic buildings of Stockholm. On a sunny afternoon, it was so enjoyable to wander around the central area and soak in the atmosphere. The Christmas markets were a very special highlight! It’s amazing how a blue sky can immediate lift your moods. I think us Australians take for granted how often we have lovely blue skies and sunshine.

Buildings along Norr Malarstrand

SWEDEN - Kiki's Delivery Service Movie Locations of Stockholm

One of our highlights from Stockholm, Sweden was the Kiki’s Delivery Service Walking Tour with Aya from Kiki’s Tour. 

Kiki’s Delivery Service is a beautiful film about a young witch, Kiki, who must leave her hometown for a year when she turns 13 to develop her special witch skills. She flys on her broom to the port city of Koriko with her cat Jiji where she starts a flying courier service.

I first came across the work of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli back in film school with Spirited Away but it wasn’t until the last year when both our friends and my niece and nephew introduced the girls to My Neighbour Totoro that the girls fell in love with the films from Studio Ghibli. We love Totoro, Ponyo, Arietty and Kiki’s Delivery Service. ( Ironically not Spirited Away as it seems to scary for now ) 

I love the films because they are so gentle, artistic and beautiful. Not overstimulating like many of the movies that are made for kids these days. The girls also love the How To Train Your Dragon movies but they can be so loud and dramatic and violent. 

If your looking for a calm movie for your kids to watch in the evening while you’re cooking dinner - Studio Ghibli movies are perfect (they’re all on Netflix ).

When I first saw Kiki’s Delivery Service I thought that the city of Koriko that Kiki travels to looked very European but I didn’t recognise any one specific city. 

However, when I was researching things to do in Stockholm, I came across a Kiki’s Delivery Service inspired walking tour. Turns out that the city Kiki travels to in the movie is based on both Stockholm and the town of Visby, on the Island of Gotland.

The tour is run by Aya a fascinating lady who was born in Japan but has lived all over the world. She came prepared with coloured print outs of images from the movie, her big witches broom, a toy version of Jiji the cat and red ribbons for the girls. 

We haven’t done many walking tours of cities because that would be a lot to expect from kids but this one was really special because we could see locations that appear in the film or have inspired the scenery in the film. Many locations are actually a mix of a few places around Stockholm. For example; a fountain in the film is actually inspired by three different fountains and statues around the old town area. 

My inner film nerd found it so fascinating and the girls were very engaged. We had watched Kiki’s Delivery Service the night before we arrived in Stockholm but they wanted to watch it again as soon as we got home. It was a great introduction to Stockholm and we got very lucky with the beautiful clear skies. We’re very grateful to Aya for coming out in the cold to meet us and show us around.