Quality time

Image by Afif Ramdhasuma from Pixabay

My oldest son (5yo) is a petrolhead and loves anything with an engine. That’s why I got the brilliant idea of using up a bunch of airline and hotel bonus points to book a father-son weekend in Stockholm. We would go on an airplane, buses, trams, trains, and metro. Those things that I usually couldn’t like even if I tried, but with petrolhead junior, just about any boring chore can be fun again. What a blessing it is to experience it all once again through him. We threw in a couple of museums and a zoo into the equation too.

Elis is a fun guy to travel with. Extremely extroverted and very low in neuroticism. It was fun to see how welcome he was everywhere. From the smiles during the boarding process and all the way to the welcome drink in the bar. The only challenge was that a weekend in Stockholm involves a ton of walking. And if your legs are a fraction of the length of your old man, it is no wonder that you’ll run out of steam much sooner.

I was a bit worried that the first morning would be tough, because the only tickets I could secure was for the 06:20 flight and that means we would land several hours before anything opened or before hotel check-in time. So we had like three hours to kill. We took the slow and cheap bus service from the airport, and did not stress at all, to make sure that our transfer time to the hotel would be as long as possible. Around 0900 we finally arrived at the hotel, and we hit the jackpot. Our room was ready for early check-in. Some well needed rest before heading to the zoo was much appreciated when you had got out of bed shortly after 0400 in the middle of the night.

We had our sights set on the Skansen Aquarium so we could look at all the exotic animals, those ones that bite you, poison you or possible kill you. When walking through the aquarium, I got a very strong sense of recognition. I am 99% sure that I had been there before with my parents a long time ago. Everything just felt very familiar.

Unfortunately, the weather gods in Stockholm did not smile at us, which made the open-air zoo experience rather unpleasant. We headed back towards the hotel with the tram that passes the Nordic Museum, one of the most beautiful and grand buildings I have ever seen. On our way home we grabbed some snacks, candy and drinks and went home to our hotel room, where we then proceeded to movie night. I was hoping to watch some movie, but Elis was more interested in Minecraft movies. That’s the current thing. It doesn’t matter really what you watch, we had a fantastic time and probably fell asleep a bit both of us while trying to watch the movie.

The next day was a bit more chill when we didn’t have any flights or transfers to consider. We headed off to the technical museum, which was a wise choice. Lots and lots of kid activities. And in the next building you have the maritime museum, filled to the brim with ship models of various ages. Some of those old ship models are magically good. I remember one specific model which was huge, but it also had a full interior. The had entered the ship with a fibre optic camera to document and it was rather mind-blowing to witness what was inside…

Anyway, I am extremely grateful for this opportunity to travel together. The kids are only small once, and it is very important not to miss it. It is fair to refer to this time as “peak life”. Don’t miss it.