HEJ! HEJ!

This Swedish word is pronounced "hey" and is the delightful EVERY Swede greets you, it really is infectious and is one of those words that evokes a feeling of happiness.....and today is all about HAPPY. Don L has a panic attack thinking I've left my camera behind somewhere; the LegsyBoys have brekky whilst I fruitlessly retrace last nights steps. Returning to the shoebox, I manage to locate the eye appendage on the coat rack (underneath my coat) - hard to believe I could lose anything in that room!

We catch the tram down to Djurgarden where, much to the children's disgust, we are going to two museums. First visit is to the VASA Museum, and as soon as we enter at least Buzzy's discontent dissolves. The Vasa is the world's only preserved 17th Century ship in existence and over 80% is original. It is the largest warship ever built in Sweden but due to an unfortunate design flaw (not enough ballast), it sank to the bottom of Stockholm's Strommen on it's maiden voyage, 10th August 1628. It lay there for 333 years before being salvaged. It's truly amazing, the 700 carved sculptures make it a work of art as much as a ship. The museum is terrific, very interactive for kids, and even has on display numerous complete skeletons of those who perished with the ship (53 of 150 drowned). The Vasa is, by any measure extraordinary, and we get a thumbs up from the kids.

 

The Vasa - what a sight it must have been

 

Dulcinea and los ninos with two relics

What a beauty!

Towering over Buzzy

Sculptures

The latrine - nothing like a bit of privacy

Gunports and scuppers

Superb sculptures

We haven't told them where to next and Buzzy is dead against another museum. Finally we end up at our destination which curiously is one of Stockholm's best kept secrets - the ABBA MUSEUM. Aimee's on board but Buzzy is adamant he doesn't want to go in - 2 hours later we have to drag him out!! It's brilliantly done and very interactive; apart from static displays that tell the story of the Swedish wonder kids, as well as the history of Swedish popular music, there are some great activities - duck into a sound booth to record vocals to one of the hits, remix a hit, create dancing avatars, and best of all - audition to become the 5th member of the band. The museum website allows us to download all our performances, which remain confidential to protect the innocent (Dulcinea, Aimee and Liam) and untalented (me)! Fabulous fun, much better than the British Music Experience in London.

ABBA - The Museum

LADD - The Museum!

...couldn't forget if I wanted to, ooh oooh ooh.

Ring ring, give us a call

Aimee hitting the high notes

Las chicas duetting

The famous star guitar

Arrival

Part of the wardrobe

Part of the gold records - even some from Downunder

Album and EP sleeves

 

The LegsyBoy Stripes

 Time for dinner, so it's back to Gamla Stan and we find a suitable venue - Restaurant C&C is in a house dating back to the 17th Century. The meatballs prove popular again, Aimee shocks us all by tucking into guinea fowl and we also partake of some Australian white wine (the house wine). But Don L has spotted something super special on the Vilt-Kott (game-meat) menu; last night's serving of Rudolph was excellent, tonight it's time to have a go at some BULLWINKLE - yep, MOOSE! They may be one of the dumbest looking animals I've ever seen but they taste GREAT!

Bullwinkle......

 

....aka...Moose

Swedish meatballs

Guinea fowl

Early to bed for an early rise to catch a Norwegian Air flight to the home of Hans Christian Andersen - Copenhagen...........

MAMMA MIA - HERE WE GO AGAIN.......

Skool holidays, Dulcinea in Sweden on business, what a perfect opportunity to experience a little bit of Scandinavia. And so Don L and los chicos boarded an SAS flight bound for Stockholm. we arrived at 10:00pm and before we knew it were in the heart of the city and our hotel (for lack of a better word) by 11:00pm. (Travel Tip: Stockholm airport (Arlanda) is quite small but very efficient. Best of all is the Arlanda Express train link which travels at 207kph and drops you at Stockholm Central Station in EXACTLY 20 minutes - and kids travel for free). Our accommodation is a 7 minute walk from the station. Dulcinea is attending the annual European Urology Convention along with 14,000 other delegates and the city is booked out. We find the Omena Hotel easily enough and use our PIN code to gain access. Que? Yes caballeros, this is a first for us, we are staying in an UNMANNED hotel! There is no front desk, no staff, no nothing (they SMS your room number and PIN on the day of check-in!!), and when we enter our room there are NO WINDOWS. It's about the size of my home office but does have its own bathroom, which none of the other available hotels could offer - Don L can suffer most things but not a shared bathroom!

Omena Hotel - the shoebox from hell!

We sleep in a bit, meet Dulcinea and the adventure begins. Sustenance is called for and we try our luck at Mean Coffee (Vasagatan 38). I've heard that Swedes love their java so I kick off my eternal quest and go for the jugular - strong latte por favor, in a small glass. Putting aside the fact that Swedes (and Danes as we discover) seem to think that small equals 1/2 litre, I am served THE BEST COFFEE I HAVE HAD IN EUROPE, and the barista and Don L have a fine old time debunking the coffee credentials of Italians, French and Spaniards (pointless even mentioning English coffee).

Mean Coffee - the best in Europe

We wander along the waterfront and some things are apparent very quickly - the city is very flat and there are no tall structures to be seen. Stockholm is built on 14 islands amid an archipelago of 30,000 islands/islets, so we decide to do the Royal Canal Tour. It's a pleasant hour long trip that travels along the Djurgarden canal, and provides an insight into the Swedish mindset - they are eco-warriors, one of the 'greenest' cities on the planet. Along the route we pass the Grande Hotel (Sweden's oldest which flies all the national flags of its guests - sadly there's no Oz flag fluttering!), Nobelparken - where EVERY species of tree that grows in Sweden can be found with the exception of the birch tree, renovated C19th steamships, Diplomatstaden - where magnificent foreign embassies line the canal, the Maritime Museum, past the Kaknastornet (155 metres high) which amazingly was the tallest structure in Sweden until 2005, too many small boats to count (there are 700,000 registered leisure boats in Sweden meaning more than 7% of the population own a boat), past Agnetha Faltskog's house (you know her - the blonde one in ABBA!), and then returning to a vista of Gamla Stan the original Old Town that dates back to 1252 and has remained relatively untouched ever since.

Grand Hotel - no Australian guests

19th Century steamers

Diplomatstaden



Maritime Museum

Kaknastornet - 2nd tallest structure in Sweden

Agnetha's house - mamma mia!!

Gamla Stan, the Old Town

The Royal Palace

We walk through the narrow alleys and lanes of Gamla Stan; it's great. The Royal Palace including The Treasury, Armoury and Royal Apartments is here, completed in 1754 and one of Europe's largest. We even manage to se the tail end of the changing of the guard ceremony. We walk past Stockholm Cathedral and the Alfred Nobel Museum is here too; we discuss the irony of the foremost prize for peace being named in honour of the man who invented dynamite (and yes, we did discuss all the good elements to his invention). Apart from the cathedral, Riddarholmen Church dominates the skyline; built in 1300 it's the only abbey in the city and is the burial place of Swedish royalty.

Royalty outside the palace

Cathedral tower

Changing of the guard

Riddarholmen Church - burial place of royalty

Gamla Stan laneways

Swedes like their fishing....

....and hats!

Balance - very important for a pharmacist apparently

Dalecarlian horses - traditional Swedish toys

Nobel Museum

A quick metro ride and we're at the Ericsson Globe, the world's largest spherical building and we ride up to the top in the SkyView pods for sweeping views over the city. (Here's a travel warning: Beware the call of nature in Stockholm - you will be charged to use facilities, even in bistros etc! Pulling out the largest denomination note in your wallet doesn't help either - they're obviously used to this ploy!).

Ericsson Globe - world's largest spherical building

Inside the pod

SkyView of Stockholm

It's back to Gamla Stan for dinner and los ninos choose a restaurant called Rio de la Plata. The food is FABULOUS, thick tomato soup and Swedish meatballs go down a treat. The only red meat I eat is venison, so when the menu includes REINDEER, then Don L can't resist, even though nobody else finds my quip about eating Rudolph to be funny! And it was delicious, tasted just like venison (well, what would you expect!).

Rudolph, Swedish meatballs and salmon...mmm, mmm

Here he is.....

....and there he goes!

With full stomachs we slowly walk back to the shoebox for a good night's rest...there's some serious action on the horizon........

TWEENAGE HEAVEN IN MADRID

In April 2012, I took Aimee to her first 'real' concert at the ne Chatswood Concert Hall to see Steve Earle. Half way through, the Aimster was asleep (bless her) but, to be fair, she was only 9yo and half the audience was following suit - it won't go down as Steve's finest performance. Fast forward to the 26 Febrero 2014, and I've picked her up early from skool to stand in a massive queue outside a theatre cum nightclub called SHOKO LIVE - frankly, SHOCKER LIVE would have been more appropriate. It's a closely guarded surprise for her, as I'm taking her to see her all-time favourite singer/actor ROSS LYNCH and his boy band of the moment R5.

Rocky, Riker, ROSS YOU SPUNK, Rydel, Ratcliff

I think she's known about it and played along, but the smile on her face when I give her the tickets is priceless. What she definitely doesn't know is that dad, i.e. Don L, has arranged for her to be one of the 100 fans to enter early to MEET & GREET Ross and the band. I thought she was going to pass out with the excitement of it all.

In case you don't know, R5 is a boy band (even though one of them is a girl) consisting of 4 siblings and their best friend, and they are currently taking the world by storm , and are right up there vying with the likes of One Direction for the affection of impressionable young tween and teenage girls. (Cynical aside: you will, of course, be aware that this is not quite the musical diet Don L dines upon!)Why R5? All their names start with 'R'; there's RYDEL Lynch (she plays keyboards and sings), ROCKY Lynch on guitar/vocals, RIKER Lynch (sounds like he's been named after a prison!) on bass/vocals, and on drums is Ellington RATLIFF. The youngest member, and the undoubted star of proceedings is 18yo ROSS Lynch on vocals/guitar/blonde good looks/sleeveless tanktop showing off his 'guns'. Ross happens to also be a Disney actor (and, I suspect, where Aimee first heard of him), having recently starred in TEEN BEACH MOVIE and is the star of the TV series AUSTIN & ALLY (Cynical aside: if you're none the wiser then fear not, it's over my head too!). Anyway, we get in and Aimee gets to say hello and have her foto taken with the gang, Ross's arm around her shoulder, and her cheeks are as red as a tomato - it's a fabulous moment.

I think this is my all-time fave pic of my 'Black Pearl'

Then the group conduct a Q&A session with the select few, play an acoustic number and depart to prepare for the show. Priority entrance has got us standing 4 rows from the front in a sea of 1,000 screaming girls. Because it's a licensed venue (although not selling alcohol for this event) anyone under 18 had to have a guardian with them - the back of the room was filled with old fogies (and one in row 4!) trying to shelter from the storm!

Q&A time

Acoustic warm up for the pre-show guests

Out they come, and the chicas go berserk. For the next 80 minutes they play all their hits - I have no idea what they are, and they all sound the same. They are competent, at best, on their instruments, each song consisting of pretty simple chord structures played very loudly (volume is a sure fire way to counter a lack of ability), and the vocals are 'adequate'; the Marshall stacks are impressive. This is The Partridge Family on steroids, and I don't get it I'm afraid, but wait........

Ross rocks - sans sleeves

I look around me, and I'm alone (old enough to be the grandfather to most of them!), adrift in this seething, screaming, pogo-ing, arm waving, adoring horde of young kids, all of them singing along to every song the band roll out and performing some bizarre hand jive sign that replicates a heart. Can 1,000 kids all be wrong and just me right? Aimee is nearly delirious with happiness, like I've never seen her before, and I'm just about to tear up.

An ecstatic face in the crowd

The sea of chicas complete with crazy hands. Aimee is in the bottom right corner

My foot's started tapping to the beat, and even if they all do sound the same, it's a highly infectious sameness, and I'm remembering how my parents thought all the Beatles songs sounded the same. There is no denying that Ross, the centre of Aimee's attention, is indeed a charismatic young man, and yes, he's a good looking young boy. These 'kids' are energetic, they're clean cut, there's no potty mouths, there's no 'ink' on display, they're enjoying themselves and equally enjoying the adulation of Madrileno chicas. It's fun, it's 21st Century pop....and I love it! Can it get any better? Well, yes......when the show is over, R5 return to take their final bow and....wait for it....Ross flicks his plectrum to Aimee - OMG!!! I can't wipe the smile from her face!

THE PLECTRUM!!!

The aftermath

It's chilly outside and we've been standing up for 5 hours. It matters little as we go for a bite to eat, Aimee gripping her plectrum, poster and T-shirt as if her life depended on it. Thinking of the happiness she radiated this night brings a lump to my throat, and it's a night that I will remember with equal joy as Aimee, but for entirely different reasons. The music bug has bitten her now, and hopefully there's a few more in store for us to attend before I'm thrown on the parental chaperone scrapheap. R5 will one day be yesterday's heroes for Aimee and the posters will come down from the walls to be replaced by someone else (Word Of Caution: The Fab Four were my first musical love and still remain so today), but right now all The LegsyBoys LOVE R5. Rock on.......

The album cover - nice kids having a great time