The kids woke us up about 7:30 this morning. We lazed around a bit till we left the house about 9am. Fun fact, there are still some very cool keys to be found in Europe.
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Cute kids ready for breakfast.
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We saw lots of good looking bakery’s and cafes around our house. So we were excited to find something good. What we didn’t expect was that not many places would be open. Ty spotted a woman placing her menu boards outside so we went to her cafe. The signs all pointed to a good meal, pancakes, Belgian waffles, hot coffee, and chai! But what we found was decidedly less. She didn’t have any pancakes. She hadn’t made the coffee yet. She could really only offer us the Belgian waffles. So we ordered two for the kids only after seeing the prices! We ordered two waffles and three drinks, it was $40! These weren’t homemade waffles either. She pulled premade waffles out of individual plastic bags and heated them in the microwave. 🙄 The adults couldn’t believe it. So Ty walked to the 7-11 down the street and found us large yogurts with granola, and fresh yummy rolls for like $15. The kids even got some Pez candy for free!
We’re so glad we came here but we can’t figure out why the cost is so high. Is it the area we are in? Is this just the prices of the region? We’re from Alaska. Nothing is cheap there. We haven’t really been thrown by prices anywhere else in Europe. So we’re also glad we’re only here for three days.
So after our expensive lesson in breakfast foods we walked down to the ferry terminal to go over to the Vasa Museum.
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Ty had read that the Vasa Museum was THE museum to go to in Sweden. All we knew what we were going to see a Viking ship. This was so much more! It was incredible! This warship sank in 1628 on its maiden voyage. It never actually got out of the harbor because it was poorly designed. It tipped right over! It stayed buried in the harbor for 333 years until they located it in the 50s. It took two years to raise it from the ocean floor. The statistic that got me was they sprayed it polyethylene glycol for 17 years! To preserve the wood. Can you believe that?! This ship is incredible and the museum presentations were wonderful. Excessive number of pictures to follow
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The kids finally dragged us away and Ty had read a good review about the cafe at the Nordic Museum and they mentioned a kid play area right next door to the cafe. Perfect!
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However, upon arriving there we find out we have to pay full admission to enter the museum. We had understood the kid area was separate, but adults must be present in the kid area so they charge them full admission. Sneaky! The kids and I went right to the play area while Ty and Papa went to scope out the food situation. Unfortunately again, the food wasn’t as reviewed, much more limited selection and very expensive!
But the bright note is that the kids LOVED the play area. It was set up like a farm house, with chickens, pigs, cows, and a horse hitched up to a wagon. There was a stream they could pull themselves across on a ferry boat thing. There was also a store where you could your necessary items. The details were amazing and the kids played here for hours. It was like stepping into the Little House on the Prairie books. The kids even pretended to load up the wagon, with everything that wasn’t nailed down, as Papa put it. They were going on a journey, ‘across all the states in every country’ according to L. 😆
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They also had a giant Christmas tree and clothes so you could dress up like Santa.
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The rest of the museum was so-so. It was a history of the people of Sweden. But an entire floor was focused on the fashion of the people. The furniture and house exhibits were interesting to see but the displays on lighting were a bit dull.
We dragged the kids out of there about 4:30 and decided to walk the mile and a half back to the apartment. The adults needed to stretch their legs. The air was crisp but not freezing.
Oh, R thought it was hilarious to take my hat and have me wear hers.
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There was this tree full of gnomes right outside the museum. Some of them even moved!
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A few photos of the harbor from our evening walk.
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L totally passed out. The carrier gets him every time!
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We were hoping for another yummy Indian dinner but the restaurants Ty had found weren’t actually there. Weird. So we ended up at a burger joint again. But the food was delicious and for once not quite as expensive.
We got the kids Home and threw them in the tub.
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Papa wanted to do bedtime since we’re all going our separate ways home tomorrow. He spoils them by reading the whole entire long book we got on the Vasa ship. We finally get everyone settled for bed when Ty yells, We’ve got puke! Ugh no words you ever want to hear.
L is usually so good about when he’s going to be sick. He gets up and goes right to the bathroom. But this time I guess he couldn’t. All over the bed, himself, his jammies, his foxy, and his blanket. Poor kid and poor us.
I strip him and the bed. Then thankful for spare beds, we settle him into a clean bed. I try and get as many sheets, blankets and towels as I can into the tiny European wash machine. Since every load takes an hour and a half on the fastest setting and every dry cycle is at least two hours. Why?!? We have to be out by 10am tomorrow so seriously hoping not to leave puke laundry.
About 9pm I hear the familiar sound of retching again. Poor lil man, but thank goodness this time he made it into the trash can by his bed this time. No extra laundry!
No idea why he’s puking. Fingers crossed, prayers said this is just a random ordeal and he is fine tomorrow. Since of course we fly out in the afternoon and are basically homeless as of 10am. Nothing to stress about right?!
Wish us luck!
