Day #8 in Sweden: Google Office & Junibacken
[Photos from Monday 18 July 2016, posted online 7 August 2016. House finally painted and woodwork stained. Phew!]
Finnur had some business to attend to at the Stockholm Google office, so we all went there, and ate lunch.
Afterwards we decided to visit the Junibacken, a unique place where locales and characters from Swedish children’s books (many of which we’ve read) have been made real. It’s not big, but packed with stuff. (50 images total, some taken by Finnur)
We parked underneath the Google building, and had a little trouble finding the way out and up and back into it!
Eating lunch at the Google cafeteria. Good stuff as always!
Siblings in the Google cafeteria.
Emma extremely excited after discovering the candy section. Chewing gum!!!
Official guests! And yes, that’s Emma fiddling with her newly acquired chewing gum.
Sisters. We had to wait for a fairly long time before Finnur’s errand was brought to a close.
Our next stop was the museum island (yes, we landed right next to the Vasa ship museum again)! Bjarki was very intrigued by the water bottle all of a sudden, as the other three walked on ahead.
Cute outside.
There were four distinct play/show areas: this crowded room of houses, the story train, Pippi Longstocking‘s house, and the Moomin‘s room. I never took an overview photo of this room, but crammed all around inside it were the rebuilt houses from multiple famous children’s books. This is Einar Áskel’s (Alfie Atkins) house!
Emma playing.
Lots of the houses had slides coming out of them. The houses were all “kid sized”, and playable.
Queen Anna.
Back in Einar Áskel’s house.
Sitting on a cow.
A couple of crows.
Anna checks out the monkey slide.
An attempt at an overview photo. There’s a nook in the back there, and the left side is missing entirely. But it’s not really a huge room at all. It’s just crammed with stuff!
See Einar Áskell flying up there?
All houses should have slides out of a window!
Bjarki running inside a wheel.
Emma in a plane.
By the scene for the resourceful princess.
Yup, that one.
Bjarki being framed.
Where does this scary wolf come from?
According to our entry receipt, it was then time to line up for the Story Train ride.
The Story Train was really quite special! You sit in a “train-cart” for four people, open to the side. It starts out innocently enough as it rolls through some story scenes (with audio) but then the carts start lifting and flying, and it’s all quite unexpected. For somebody raised on stories by Astrid Lindgren, the whole ride tugs quite firmly on the heart strings.
On the other side, we found Pippi’s horse, and…
… her house! There was of course a slide from the top floor to the bottom!
Resting is good. Outside, it had just started pouring with rain.
Never a dull moment!
Inside the house.
Big kids also resting, but inside Pippi’s house. I loved all the awesome details. See the back of that chair, for example!
In the kitchen.
The house vs. the tired adults.
Our last stop was the Moomin room. After taking a quick look around, Anna decided to hang out in that shell while we were there.
So many neat things! The boat, the merry go round, the lighthouse, …
Emma on the boat.
Spot the four family members!
Bjarki and Emma on the hand-spun merry go round.
A little fake forest, good for tired adults.
Of course, you exited through the large bookstore.
Small detour to the outside.
Nice view! (And Bjarki throwing a water bottle into the air!)
Finnur taking photos while a couple un-parks their boat from the boat-parking lot!
The cheerful family!
Back inside, the house band had moved inside (due to rain) and were jazzing out songs on request. Yes, the piano player is Anna Gréta, who Anna and I had seen play jazz with Stina a few nights before.
Properly outside, and the Nordic Museum visible a little further away.
Maybe we’ll go visit that museum when the kids are bigger?
Action shot! Taken as we walked/jumped to the parking lot.
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