A 17th century warship and Pippi Longstocking's house! What a day! -- 8/5/17

After a somewhat restful night with 6 people in one room on a boat (I mean, how restful can that be?), we arrived in Stockholm.  Here is the view from the deck as the ferry approached Stockholm.

After disembarking from the ship, we walked what felt like miles (but was only about 10 minutes) to get to the Metro station in order to take the subway to our hotel.  I am so glad that we packed lightly on this trip.  It has been much easier to move around with our luggage than on previous trips.  We checked into the hotel, and I began researching laundromats.  I quickly discovered that there were very few laundromats in Stockholm, and the two I could find closed in an hour and didn't reopen until Monday (which was too late for us to do laundry).  I confirmed this with the hotel concierge, who couldn't explain the phenomenon of lack of laundromats.  We refuse to pay the astronomical prices for laundry service at hotels, so we did the next best thing.  We bought a cheap laundry line, clothespins and detergent at the Coop supermarket to do laundry in the sink of the hotel room.  Drying would be another matter to be addressed later.

We set out to do some sightseeing, and stumbled across Olympic Day in the King's Garden, which was a fun day for kids to try all sorts of sports.  Spoiler alert...the next 20 pictures or so are just of our kids attempting different sports, so if that doesn't interest you, please skip ahead to the pictures of a warship.  The kids were so excited!  I think this is some of the most fun they have had on the trip, especially for Jack.  He tried almost everything.  Golf...

Boxing...

The girls spotted rowing right away.  Of course, this excited Sidney, and the other two wanted to try it, too.  The line for rowing was exceptionally long and slow moving, so they waited and waited.  You had to row for 3 minutes on a rowing machine before you were allowed to row in the fountain.

A troop of dog walkers strolled through the park while we were waiting.  I had never seen so many different dogs being walked at the same time.

While the girls were waiting, Jack moved on to cricket...

 And tennis...

And fencing...

Finally, the girls were able to take their turn at the rowing station.

The girls also took a turn at the golf station on our way out of the gardens.  Now, on to sightseeing.

The Vasa was a Swedish warship that was launched in 1628 and sank after about 20 minutes into its maiden voyage in Stockholm harbor due to design flaws.  It was salvaged in the 1960s and was in amazing shape due to sitting in the cold brackish water of the harbor for so long.  These pictures don't do it justice.  We took a fascinating tour with an English guide. 98% of the ship is original.  They only had to recreate 2% due to loss or damage over the years.  

The carvings all around the ship were so beautiful and detailed.  Again, this was constructed in the 1600s!

This was a recreation of one of the crow's nests on the top of the masts.  The kids enjoyed seeing what it would feel like to be perched on one of those.

They also had a replica of one of the gun decks.  Jack was fascinated with the cannons.

This was a scale model replica of the Vasa, as it would have been originally painted.  Could you imagine seeing that floating in the harbor?  So beautiful!

The museum also had a fascinating exhibit about the people that perished on the ship when it sank.  They recovered around 30 mostly-intact skeletons still on the wreckage in the positions they were in when it sank.  Many of them still had on clothing and were surrounded by personal effects.  Around 10 or 12 skeletons were displayed, along with an analysis of their approximate age, tasks on the ship, health history, clothing, diet and other information based on scientific evidence.  It was truly incredible to see.

Just a short walk away from the Vasa museum, we were able to visit Junibacken, which is a children's museum celebrating Astrid Lindgren.  Yes, Astrid Lindgren, the author of the Pippi Longstocking books, among many, many others.  Oh...my...goodness!  I was such a huge Pippi Longstocking fan as a child.  I even dressed up like her in 3rd grade.  Not kidding.  My mom braided my hair over a coat hanger.  Here is evidence. 

Lyndon has read the Pippi books, too, so she was super excited.  I think the only two people I know that might be more excited about visiting this place would be my mom and Mrs. Mary Skeen, both amazing elementary teachers.  Here is a picture of Hadley as Pippi and Jack as Tommy.  

We only had about 30 minutes to explore this magical place before it closed, so we had to be quick about it.  A 10 minute train ride through Astrid Lindegren's storybooks was first on the list.  This was such a magical experience.  I would describe it as the Peter Pan ride at Disney on crack.  We didn't even know the stories it was describing, but we were all enthralled.  I can't imagine how magical it would be if you did know the stories.  I bet people's heads explode.  The minutia of the displays that you "fly" through in the train were just fantastic.  I only thought about taking a picture once because I was just too engrossed in the ride, but here is that occasion.  We seriously could have ridden that ride over and over.  It is now on my list to read lots of her other books with Jack.  

Little did we know that the best was yet to come.  We were able to walk around in Villa Villekula, Pippi Longstocking's house!!!!  Notice that Mr. Nilsson, Pippi's monkey, is perched on the roof.

Pippi's bedroom...I didn't get a picture of her large shoes, which were placed at the end of the bed.

A picture of Pippi's father...just as the books described.  Can you tell I was excited?!?

Pippi's kitchen...

Pippi's trunk...

Picnic on the ceiling...

Here  are the kids riding on Pippi's horse.

The rest of the museum was just as fanciful and magical.  I wish I had taken more pictures, but we were more concerned with feverishly experiencing it before it closed.  Jack wanted to go back the next day, he enjoyed it so much.
To cap off our day, there was a rainbow over the harbor after dinner.

Tomorrow, we head to Stockholm's Old Town, Gamla Stan.