Sunday, May 09, 2010

Gröna Lund in the Rain

We planned a special day for the kids - a day at Gröna Lund (the local amusement park) with a friend each. Yes, we're about old enough to make that feasible, without undue stress on the parents. So Annika invited Astrid, Benjamin invited Rickard, and Christopher invited Hugo - and the day was planned.

But... seems Mother Nature was not consulted, and the forecast rain became a reality as we got in the car to drive there. And yes, it was a very, very rainy day, and very chilly, but we were good Swedes and were prepared with all-weather clothing, myself and David included.

In general, we had a great time, and I can highly recommend Gröna Lund on a rainy, cold and gray day. The kids did ride after ride, with almost no waiting. We didn't have to queue for ice cream, and even "Insane" - the new vertical roller coaster - only had a 10 minute wait. The kids often finished one ride, ran out the exit and straight on in again, without a single line.
A couple of points to remember for the future...
  • Benjamin is 140 cm exactly, the minimum requirement for the most challenging rides. Rickard, unfortunately, was 139 cm, so there were quite a few that they couldn't do together. So I had to step in and do Insane with Benj, and JetLine... once. But the other four times, he had to go alone.
  • Astrid and Hugo were less adventurous than Annika and Christopher, so there was a little extra waiting at times... but it all worked out in the end.
  • We have no pictures of Annika and Astrid because they disappeared at the beginning and we only saw them when they needed money for food.
  • We finally broke down and gave the kids 30 kr for carnival games (at some point, with entrance fees for 8, ride "bands" for 6 and food, the expenses just keep mounting...) with mixed success. Benjamin really, really wanted to spin the wheel for a giant chocolate bar, and put his whole 30 kr on one spin, 5 numbers (out of 100 - so the odds were clearly not in his favor). And no, luck did not smile on him, and his smile disappeared for a few minutes, but he eventually recovered.
And my new camera was pretty impressive - the old one didn't survive it's second fall...

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