AdventureDad

The whole family had a great time this week at the amusement park Gröna Lund which is located near the center of Stockholm.  It's not as large or crowded as  Six Flags  so it's perfect for kids.  It's located right on the water with beautiful views of the Stockholm archipelago.  For half a day, my highly specialized financial market type  area of the bank had rented the whole park which was an excellent opportunity to let Daniel try all the rides and figure out just how much ice cream a toddler can fit into his body.

We put on the VIP bracelets in the morning and headed for the rides.  We were immediately greeted by staff that gave out as much free candy and ice cream as we wanted. I saw the fear in other parents eyes but fortunately Daniel handles temptations well.  I used my child whispering skills and told him he could have ice cream after lunch and he agreed without protest.  We have previously visited one other amusement park and have a good idea of what rides Daniel likes.  In August last year, when I played the Swedish Championships in team tennis in Gothenburg, we spent a day at the huge amusement park  Liseberg.  It was nice but at that time Daniel was a lot smaller and couldn't appreciate many rides.  But his preferences were already then perfectly clear.  Cars, boats, and trains are his favorites.

We headed straight for Grandpa's old cars which is exactly the same ride as kept us busy in Liseberg in August.  It's a short car ride on rails which is perfectly suited for small kids.  Thank God for the VIP bracelet.  As soon as we finished one ride we headed straight back in line for the next.  Since we had the whole place to ourselves there was virtually no lines which is a refreshing change in an amusement park.  Since Daniel is just below 100 cm. tall there are quite a few rides that are off limits.  We also tried out the Blue Train, the mini roller coaster, love tunnel (not what is sounds like unfortunately) and the small Hummer like cars where he got to ride alone.  Daniel really wanted to go on the mini roller coaster and I was surprised since he usually doesn't like noisy and fast rides.  But he handled it like a champion even though he looked scared.  It was awesome to sit right next to him and feel him squeeze the hell out of the safety bar.  I thought he might perhaps grab me but I was probably more afraid than him. Most popular was still Grandpa's car where we did ten rides. 

After lunch and a nap in the stroller we continued to explore the area.  The park has a couple of theater  stages where artists perform and today they had scheduled two performances for children.  One stage had a play about Mumin, the elephant/bear like cartoon figure from Finland, which Daniel found boring.  Instead we headed over to meet Bob The Builder, or "Byggare Bob" as he's called here in Sweden.  We recently fell in love with Bob after we borrowed a DVD with some of Bob's adventures.   Daniel has played with  Bob's toys before and the DVD has been very popular.  We had no idea of just how popular Bob is here in Sweden.  We thought we were about to watch a play with Bob on stage but instead it turned out that the children were going to build a small house together with Bob.  As soon as the kids saw him they started screaming, it was almost like a Beatles moment.  Both kids and parents went nuts.  Me and Sandra looked at each other and wondered what the hell we had missed this whole time.  Bob strolled on stage, his theme music started playing, and the kids were asked to build a house with him.  It was difficult to get things going because everyone wanted to take pictures with Bob every five seconds.    All the kids helped out nicely by fetching building blocks and Bob helped direct them to the correct position.  I wouldn't say they succeeded in building a house but they had a good time and the structure kind of looked like a house. We headed over to the mini roller coaster and as we stood there Bob suddenly walked up to us.  Daniel was sitting on my shoulders and couldn't believe his luck.  First Bob went for a ride in the coaster and then came back to us and started talking to Daniel.  He gave us a hug and tried on my Oakley's which made Daniel laugh.  We got some nice photos and fell in love with Bob.  He seems like a great role model for kids.

Before we headed home it was time for ice cream, as promised.  Daniel LOVES Ice cream.  And just like his father he prefers chocolate.  We finished off with as much as he could eat and then headed home after a lovely day filled with Bob The Builder and rides.  Just as we left the amusement park, the antique tram line which runs through the beautiful Djurgården  passed by and of course Daniel wanted to get on.  They only run in the summer as a tourist attraction and the trams looks exactly as they did 75 years ago.  Daniel loves trains so Sandra took the car into town and we rode on the train.  It was one happy toddler that got off the train and arrived exhausted at our home.

Have a great weekend!

Categories: Daniel, Family
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