A Visit from Family: Junibacken and More

After we ate lunch, we headed over to Junibacken, a children's museum based largely on the books of Astrid Lindgren. When we walked in, it was pure chaos. There were kids running around everywhere, and it was over-crowded. Jaime, Richard, and Ellie decided to leave to go to the Nordic Museum, and Edith braved the insanity with us.  

Jaime, H, and K provide familiar faces to long-loved characters.



Edith, AJ, and Ellie complete the picture




H in the musical train




A side view




K peeking out from the sideways house.

  There was a big drum the kids could walk in to make it turn. AJ and K took their turns, but AJ needed some help. K managed to get it to turn, but it was tough.


AJ in the drum



K in the drum

 There was also a train that they could climb on, and AJ enjoyed perching by the smokestack

AJ on the train

 Part of the downstairs held a little village filled with stores with mis-marked names.


H playing with the scale used for weighing cheese



H in a boat

H playing with an old cash register

 We finally decided to go upstairs, and it turned out to be a good decision. There were fewer kids up there, and we also discovered Pippi's house.

Pippi's house

AJ on Pippi's horse



H on Pippi's horse

After a while, they closed up the house and used it as a backdrop for a little song samling. K and AJ knew many of the songs, but Edith needed translation. It was a good cultural experience for her.

At 2:30pm, we had our time booked to ride the storybook train. The play area nearby was almost empty, and the kids enjoyed playing for the limited time they had. I tried to get some cute pictures of AJ on a motorcycle and in the plane, but he climbed out as soon as he saw the camera.



H in a tall building.

 The "train" took us through many of Astrid Lindgren's stories, but I was not familiar with most of them. The didn't address the Pippi stories at all, which was a disappointment to Edith. Perhaps they thought she was taken care of upstairs. I did enjoy the little scenes that they had created, though, and I thought most of it was done well.



This is from the story of Emil.




Emil sleeping in the cupboard




Emil's room




A huge rat. This rat was as big as a person, and it moved. They even had it's nose twitching.






We were "flying" over this house at this point.

After the storybook train, we found ourselves upstairs again just in time for their (rather hilarious) rendition of Snow White. Again, we translated for Edith, but she was familiar with the story, so she could follow a lot of it without translation.

After the play was over, we left the museum to head back to the hotel to meet with the rest of our gang.



The Vasa Museum from the outside.




Edith in front of the Nordic Museum

 Once in the hotel, we found that Jaime, Richard, and Ellie were still at the museum, so we took advantage of some down time, and I discovered this fun staircase.

The downtime allowed H to get a nap, and it gave the rest of us time to gear up for a fun-filled evening.