Reunion in Stockholm

Stockholm in September - some pretty decent weather, and incredible location too

Our latest adventure in Europe wasn't just another visit to a capital of Europe (although it was that too). This time we managed to combine some meetings for me in Helsinki and Stockholm with a great visit and introduction of Alice, Kate, and Abby to my host parents from, well, long ago during my semester abroad in Sweden. Borje and Marsaili (pictured below slaving away in the kitchen) hosted all of us and one of their children with her family too for a fantastisk dinner on Friday night.
Kate and Abby made some very nice new friends here in Alastair (5 yrs) and Jeremy (2 yrs), and they all played very nicely together as demonstrated by the fact that we managed at least 30-40 minutes of real adult conversation as we lingered over dessert.
The rest of the weekend was taken up with sightseeing, as we Griswalded all around central Stockholm including a tour of the Vasa Museum, which exhibits an enormous warship from the 17th century that was built to be the pride (and terror) of the seas but sadly capsized and sank about a half hour into its maiden sail. Preserved in the mud for 3+ centuries, it's now been restored and enclosed in the not-small hall here:
We really did walk everywhere, something pretty easy in this pedestrian-friendly a city, and Kate and Abby proceeded at their own pace as always - imagine variations of this scene for about two days and you've got a good picture of the weekend. (We were so wiped out Saturday night that everyone was in bed before 9 and asleep almost immediately.)
Right after the Vasa, we toured Junibacken, a museum dedicated to the world of Astrid Lindgren stories. She's most well-known in the US for Pippi Longstocking. Riding on the story train took us through dioramas of many of her worlds, most of which I'd never heard of (and some of which were amazingly dark for kid fiction), and of course the girls loved playing in a lifesize replica of Pippi's Villa Villekulla.
There was also a temporary exhibit of celebrated children's illustrations - one guess which book is pictured here behind our own wild things...
We really did get around, and thankfully the weather cooperated - it was sunny if cool throughout the weekend, and we wandered around Gamla Stan (the old town) and the central city on Saturday and Sunday.
Before we had to leave Sunday afternoon, we managed to meet up with Marsaili and grandson Alastair again for a visit to the Moderna Museet. Timing was right for the children's workshop, which included a short lecture (in Swedish - doh!) about some particular sculpture outdoors after which the group went right to the workshop inside to create their own sculptures.
All in all, it was an incredible weekend, and one that I think all of us would like to repeat. This was made painfully clear when Abby asked when we could go back "to the museum" but that "we might not do sculpture next time - maybe painting..." I asked when she'd like to do that, and the reply, after a few seconds thought, was "Six days?"