Stockholm Part 3: What to do on a rainy day in Stockholm?

It rained on and off our first week in Sweden, which isn't super uncommon for a Swedish summer. But one day (and thankfully only one day) it rained pretty hard and heavy the entire day. We had planned on a park/picnic day that day, but after looking outside at the sky and checking the weather we just switched some things around and decided it was the perfect museum day.

After yet another amazing brunch at the J Hotel we took the ferry into djurgarden, one of the islands that make the city of Stockholm. This island has several amazing museums, an open air museum/zoo (skansen that I already blogged about) and even an amusement park. We got off the boat, in the rain of course, and walked down to Junibacken, probably the worlds most amazing Children's museum. It's only a 5-7 min walk along the water from the boat, and on a nice day it's such a gorgeous little walk. In the rain we walked quickly and didn't stop and stare at the views too much! 

We spent about 2 hrs there and we could have easily spent even longer there but the kiddos were getting hungry (okay we all were) and we didn't have cash for the diner there, so if you go make sure you bring cash! The food looked amazing. Backing up, when you first get into the play area, you are in a little village. Theres a movie theater to play in, a bakery, a church, hill with a slide, a boat, castle and so much more. Drew and I split up, and each took a kid to watch/play with. It was busy in there and so many little rooms to slip into and they were each going at different speeds so this is what worked best for us! 

When you get into the museum you are assigned a train time, and the time on your ticket is when you go get in line to get on the train that takes you through the rest of the museum. I wish I would have known before going in line that we could have gone into that second area earlier because the 'waiting' room for the train was really amazing also. There were little houses with slides, a plane to fly, and again so much more. It made waiting in line a complete blast for the kids! I stood in line, and Drew walked around and let them play. When it was our turn for the train, we climbed into a little cart and picked a language to listen to the narrator. The train was by far my favorite part of the time. It took us through different Astrid Lindgren stories that I and every other Swede grew up watching. Emil, Pippi Longstocking etc. Even if you didn't know these characters growing up (like Drew) its still so much fun. It felt like a Disney World ride. 

At the end of the train you end up at Pippi's house to play in. The kids could have spent hours alone here! I have all the old Pippi movies in Swedish so my kids absolutely loved playing in her 'real house'. And of course, there was a slide that took you down the two story house that Jasper couldn't get enough of. 

After we left Junibacken, in the rain again of course we needed to find food Stat. Drew wanted more hot dogs from the hot dog stand, and the kids and I grabbed shelter at an outdoor bar that is normally packed in the summer that had awning and ordered Swedish meatballs and cheese sandwiches. It doesn't get much more 'Swedish' that meatballs and cheese sandwiches. 

After lunch we headed next door the Vasa Musem. If you have any boat lovers, this is definitely the place to be. Even if you aren't a boat lover, you should still go, it's pretty amazing. Its an old ship that sank on it's maiden voyage out of the harbor, and then hundreds of years later, (in the 60's I think?) it was brought up, whole and restored. It's so crazy something was under water for so long and in such amazing condition. 

I was hoping Tindra would sleep in there because it's dark in there and, it was her nap time. She was out within minutes of getting in there, so Drew offered to push her around on the first floor (theres 7-8 floors I think?) so he could slowly read all the sings under there and I could take Jasper around to all the different floors since he doesn't have the patience for hrs of sign reading. Understandably so! Jasper and I had a lot of fun exploring the different levels and he loved having a little bit of 'freedom' with mom letting him walk a little ahead at times. 

*All of these pictures are from our iPhones, we did take pictures with my actual camera, and I think that's where my Vasa pictures are. But those are on a different computer so these will have to do for now!