Back to the Motherland...Day 5&6

So begins the "touristy" part of our adventure...sans pictures. They are coming.

When we arrived in Stockholm, we purchased a fabulous card called the "Stockholm Card". This little piece of plastic can be purchased for 1, 2 or 3 days and allows you all the rides on the bus, train, and subway as your heart desires as well as entrance to over 75 attractions. It has been great! We woke up Monday morning to a snow storm...but we refused to be intimidated so we bundled up, put on our snow boots, and set out with our new umbrellas. At the end of the day when we asked the kids what their favorite part was, they replied "riding the train and subway". We came thousands of miles so they could happily play in puddles and mud and ride public transit. Anyway...

We took the train into Stockholm and took a charming walk through the city down to the Nordiska Museum. I love wandering through cities...I love the sights, sounds, smells and people watching. While I love seeing the highlights, I'm also content just walking around and being lost. I really did love the walk...it is such an amazing, beautiful city. Stockholm is comprised of lots of islands...it is sometimes called the Venice of the north. There are stone bridges and exquisite parks and buildings in charming colors...cobblestone streets and amazing shop windows and every day life that is so unordinary for me. (The best part has to be that there is not a Wal-Mart to be seen!)

We spent a delightful hour at the Nordiska museum...Mo and Papa took the kids to a fabulous "hands-on" play area and Chris and I had an hour to ourselves to walk through the museum. Swedes do fabulous museums...every single one has been been incredible. They really try and cater to all ages...children through adults...so there is always lots to see and do and touch. And I love how many families we have seen! The Nordiska museum focuses on Swedish culture...everything from toys to clothes to homes to textiles to folk art. I thought it was fascinating. The best find was the dollhouse I had when I was younger and living in Sweden. It was my EXACT dollhouse with all the furniture and accessories!

After the first museum, we wandered over to a polse vogn (hot dog wagon) for amazing concotions of hot dogs. Some had the plain polse, some had it with ketchup & mustard, some had a polse in a piece of french bread with cheese but Mo and I opted for the polse with 2 scoops of mashed potatoes, ketchup & mustard rolled in flat pita bread. I'm not kidding. My hips are not kidding. My taste buds think we have hit gold!

After our polsers, we went to the Vasa Museum. Words cannot describe how incredible this museum is. The Vasa was an ENORMOUS Swedish war ship built in 1628 that was intended to send a message to the world about how fierce and domineering the Swedish Navy was. Instead, it sailed out into the harbor on its maiden voyage and sank.  No one could get it off the bottom of the ocean until the late 1950's when they finally had the technology to haul this huge ship up. It is unbelievable. I truly could have stayed at that museum all day long marvelling at this boat and its history. We only had about 90 minutes and it wasn't long enough. Downstairs they have skeletons from some of the men/women who lost their lives in the ship wreck. The details they are able to put together from these bones is astounding. Besides the ship, it was my favorite part.

After the Vasa, we started making our way home. The kids are doing so fantastic! They are walking their little hearts out without very much complaining or whining. I am so proud of them! We came home to eat dinner and massage our tired feet. Later that night, Mo and I wandered out to the local grocery store to "gather some information". (Mo's term for window shopping and a teeny bit of splurging!) They have a great store here that is HUGE and is a little bit like Target...Mo bought a beautiful, spring cake plate and I bought a new sweater...and we got groceries. It was a fabulous day.

Today there was no snow and lots of sun! When the sun comes out in Sweden, people head outside. All over Stockholm there were people sitting on park benches with their eyes closed and their faces turned toward the sun. When you have endured a Swedish winter, you don't waste a moment of sun!

Today we spent the day at a huge outdoor park called Skansen and at the most fun children's museum I have ever laid eyes on called Junibacken. Skansen is an enormous outdoor park that is similar to the Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City...although much larger and more extensive. You wander around the park that has homes and businesses from different eras of Swedish history. We watched them blow glass, ate pastry from the old-fashioned bakery, the kids rode ponies through the Swedish forest, and I had the opportunity to see an actual home from the time period and area of Sweden that my great-grandparents are from. It was so humbling! They were bond laborers on a Swedish manor. Essentially they were given one very small, drafty room in a 2 room house that they shared with another family. They were expected to work on the estate doing anything and everything and they were paid very minimally. It was a cruel type of slavery...they were never given enough money to save and have any hope of being able to afford their own land or home. The lord of the manor determined year to year who stayed and who went...if you were turned out, you had nothing. It was unbelievable to see first hand the life of my ancestors.

The park also had a little zoo and the kids were enthralled with a wolverine, moose, reindeer, and seals. We tried to find the gray wolf in his habitat but all we were able to find was the basket with remnants of raw meat from whoever fed him his lunch. I even took a picture...please...it seemed so primitive!

The best moment at Skansen had to have been when I took Hannah to the bathroom. I walked in, chose a stall and we did our thing. As we came out to wash our hands, I started looking around. I noticed a row of urinals down one wall but there were lots of children...both boys and girls. Then I started looking at the faces of the adults...I grabbed Hannah's hand and yanked her out the door...we were in the men's bathroom. Guess I missed the little picture of the man with pants on the door. When the 5 year old says she has to go, you just go. I've become an expert on Swedish bathrooms now.

Junibacken, the kid's museum, was the most unbelieveable place I've ever been. I don't even know how to describe it. Every type of house/treehouse/shop/etc. that a child could imagine playing in. We rode a story train that took us up and down and all around as we looked at scenes and listened to stories written by the famous Swedish author Astrid Lindgren. We played on Pippi Longstocking's horse and in her house and played dress up with her crazy clothes. We played in a giant cupcake maze and drove a pirate ship and had tea in a lovely parlor. It was a child's dream come true! The kids ran and played and had a splendid time!!!

It has been such a fun day! There is so much to do and see and experience. We haven't had any meltdowns or tantrums but I will say the kids sleep good at night. We are enjoying our movie parties at night in Mo and Papa's little TV room (Finding Nemo, Princess & the Frog) and tonight Mo and I made pendants.

Stay tuned...we have one day left on our Stockholm card!