Sweden / Paradox & Vasa Museums / To Iceland
[Photos taken 29 – 30 March 2024, posted online 18 August 2024. Last night was decidedly chilly, fall is approaching.]
Black Friday is a public holiday in Sweden so everybody was available for a trip into Stockholm. We found a fun museum to visit, and once that was done, I dragged the kids and my brother to the Vasa museum, just because it’s cool.
The following day, we cleared out of our AirBnb, drove to the airport, and flew back to Iceland.
Friday 29 March 2024
Sweden / Technology Museum / Viewing-Farm
[Photos taken 27 – 28 March 2024, posted online 17 August 2024. It’s my father-in-law’s birthday, which means the weather will be good!]
One of the staples of our city-trips, is visiting technology museums. We’d visited the same museum eight years before, but it had changed a whole lot in the intervening years. There was really just one area that I recognized!
The following day we explored a bit around where we were staying, which included visiting a “viewing-farm”.
Wednesday 27 March 2024
Sweden / Mini-Golf / Uppsala / Electric Go-Kart
[Photos taken 25 – 26 March 2024, posted online 16 August 2024. Seems like we’re in for a lovely day after heaps of rain. School starts next week.]
Our first day in Sweden was a quiet one. I hadn’t really given myself time to formally organize the trip much before we arrived, much to the consternation of some of my “we like a schedule” offspring.
Looking around, it became apparent that the Swedes are fairly “mall-oriented”. Weird entertainment things lurk in the basements of malls, so on our first day we went shopping and mini-golfing! My brother and his wife were both working while we were there, so we mostly met them in the afternoons/evenings.
Monday 25 March 2024
Grandma Turns 90 / Moving Assistance / To Sweden
[Photos taken 19 – 24 March 2024, posted online 15 August 2024. The start of this entry was written in toasty Munich, Germany, but finished in fresh-but-wet-aired Iceland.]
Life returned to normal for a short moment after returning from Brussels. The primary event that week was my grandmother turning 90 years old. It’s hard to fathom all the changes she’s seen in her long life, and even weirder to think that she’s essentially lived for double the time I’ve been alive!?!
Then it was mental and physical preparations for our upcoming Easter trip to Sweden, to visit my brother and family that moved there in 2023. Along the way, we helped another brother move into his new apartment, and I resigned from my job.
Tuesday 19 March 2024
Day #10 in Sweden: Going Back Home
[Photos from Wednesday 20 July 2016, posted online 10 August 2016. In the middle of an allergy test for antibiotics.]
After a lovely time in Sweden, it was time to head back home. Happily, the flight back was in the middle of the afternoon, so it was a relatively low-stress day… if you discount the fact that we managed to mess up getting onto the correct highway, causing a small delay… oh, and due to a misunderstanding, one of the handluggage bags got left behind in the check-in area, and had to be reclaimed from lost and found. (7 images total)
Goodbye pink house!
Day #9 in Sweden: Tom Tits Experiment
[Photos from Tuesday 19 July 2016, posted online 9 August 2016. The adults are back at work. Goodbye summer vacation!]
On our last whole day, we opted to visit something called the Tom Tits Experiment. It’s essentially a science museum, and unfortunately shared a lot of things with the other science museum we’d just visited a few days before, so it felt less special than it could have. But there were also neat new things to see, and do, so it wasn’t a total loss. (24 images total)
When we arrived, there was a show going on. As we sat down (see Finnur and the kids in the middle), he was just finishing juggling regular stuff, and then went on to swinging around things on fire. Like this huge ball!
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!
Day #7 in Sweden: Visiting Friends & Second Beach Trip
[Photos from Sunday 17 July 2016, posted online 4 August 2016. Two posts in one night? It’s really late…]
On this lovely Sunday, we went and visited our friends, Stina & Tommi. (Yes, this is the same Stina that Anna and I went to watch sing a few night earlier.)
Afterwards, we decided to try the ‘other’ beach in our town, and the kids had fun splashing around for a bit, while Finnur went grocery shopping. (23 images total)
By Stina & Tommi’s dining room table.
Day #6 in Sweden: Relaxation & Mall of Scandinavia
[Photos from Saturday 16 July 2016, posted online 4 August 2016. Sitting on the sofa around midnight, and it’s dark outside, although the sky is still dark blue rather than black.]
After so many days of ‘doing stuff’, we tried to take it easy for one day. Since it was a weekend, I in particular feared crowds in Stockholm proper, so we just hung around the house for the most part.
Towards the end of the day, me and Anna took off to check out the Mall of Scandinavia, which was a 20 minute drive away from us.
Most of the images below are screenshots from Anna going on a snapchatting-spree! (11 images total)
How’s that for luxury? Getting your cup filled with water from a water-gun?
Day #5 in Sweden: National Museum of Science and Technology (Tekniska Museet)
[Photos from Friday 15 July 2016, posted online 23 28 July 2016. At a cafe with the bestest Adda, who lets me be anti-social in peace, while our kids Pokemon! And uh, five days later, at another cafe, while the kids Pokemon.]
Bjarki really really really wanted to go back to the Tivoli, but we wanted to see something different. Evil parents!
After much searching, we found something that was not right next to the Tivoli (which is right next to the Vasa ship Museum), and off we went.
Our destination was the National Museum of Science and Technology, aka the Tekniska Museet. Unfortunately it took us too long to decide what to do, so we arrived really late. We could have stayed there for quite a bit longer, but oh well… (30 images total)
After reading tips about this place, we knew to race through the traditional exhibits in the front of the museum, and go to the back, where they had this fun obstacle course room, and various cool things in the other direction.