Our summer vacation started on Tuesday. We’ve been to the movies to see Alfons, gone shopping for underpants for Adrian and inline skates for Ingrid. Today we went to Old Town to visit the Royal Armoury and the Royal Coin Cabinet.

Old Town is a sight in and of itself. It may feel over-touristy and “been there, done that” to me but it was pretty interesting for the kids. We pass through one edge of it on our way to our Estonian playgroup every other Sunday but haven’t really visited the rest of it. “Oh look, an alleyway! Can we go inside?” and lots of fun little shop windows and the royal castle and all.

Ingrid was just the right age for a visit to the Royal Armoury, with all the dresses and swords and suits of armour (and for horses, too!) – and especially the child-sized versions. She liked the stories of kings dying in battle and being shot to death at masquerade balls, and royal weddings, and so on. We also talked about how modern-day princesses might live, and that it’s not quite like in the fairy tales any more.

There’s also a dress-up area for the kids which both Ingrid and Adrian enjoyed. Ingrid was a warrior princess, so Adrian wanted to be one, too.

I did not dress up but I did try out the replica Iron Throne that they had in the lobby. The current temporary exhibition is titled Maktspel (Power game) and explores themes of power, war and love in 16th century Europe in fact and fiction. On display are costumes from A Game of Thrones and two movies about Queen Elizabeth I, as well as actual clothing and armour that belonged to Sweden’s king Eric XIV who was contemporary with Elizabeth.

Pippi Longstocking is Adrian’s favourite character, and Ingrid loves many of Astrid Lindgren’s stories, too. So yesterday we went to Astrid Lindgren’s World, a Lindgren theme park, together with another family.

Most of the park consisted of recreations of environments from the books. There was Pippi’s house of course (and a pirate ship next to it), as well as copies of Bullerby, Mattis’s fort, Thorn Rose Valley, and so on. Most things were scaled down to child size, with small houses, narrow streets, even scaled-down cobblestones.

I found the park itself a bit underwhelming. Many of the environments were just façades: the doors and windows couldn’t be opened. In others you could go inside but there was hardly anything there, just bare walls and a bare floor. Cute to look at from afar but there wasn’t much to actually do there.

Mattis’s fort was at least large enough so we could walk around on the walls and climb up and down in the towers, and Karlsson’s roof had some slides. There were also some other bits and pieces where the kids could climb, including a large “don’t touch the ground” trail that Ingrid enjoyed a lot.

There were performances throughout the day, and we saw two of them: one Pippi show, and one sing-along show. The actors also sang and performed between the main shows. I think Pippi and her crew were out and interacting with the crowd almost all day.

Ingrid loved hanging out around the Pippi house with Pippi and her sailors and pirates. She’s now independent enough that we could just sit at a café nearby while she wandered around. Apart from the shows, her favourite attraction was a little knee-deep pond with two cable ferries. She kept going back and forth across the pond, on her own, with Adrian, with random other kids, for around half an hour I think, and only quit after she accidentally stepped into the pond and got rather wet.

Adrian just enjoyed hanging around the park with Ingrid and his friend Hanna, and looking at stuff.

The park was extremely family-friendly. There were picnic tables, toilets, cafés and restaurants everywhere. At times it felt like there were more cafés than attractions there. But it was very convenient, with almost no queueing anywhere. The restaurants served locally sourced food, and it was real food, with no hot dogs or hamburgers in sight. But expensive… 75 kr for a kids’ portion of meatballs and two potatoes is a bit extreme.

We were lucky to be at ALV on a Friday during the off season. The park wasn’t empty but not too crowded either. As we drove past this morning we saw many more people heading that way so avoiding the weekend was a good thing. I can imagine that it could get awfully busy there during the main season which starts in early June. On the other hand it is probably also more fun then, with many more shows during the day, and more characters from the books just walking around in the park.

I don’t think we’ll be going back there next year. Maybe in a few years’ time, when Adrian is as old as Ingrid is now. And in that case probably at the very beginning or end of the high season, so we catch more of the action but (hopefully) not much more of the crowds.

Cirkus Cirkör is Sweden’s one and only major contemporary circus company. We last saw a show by them in 2010. Yesterday it was time for another one.

I quite liked Wear it like a crown, the 2010 show, except for one thing: the theme. It was about daring to be yourself, and daring to make mistakes. Which is not a bad theme in itself, but it was presented way too loudly and in-your-face and unsubtly in the show. Feelgood pop philosophy aimed at teenagers. But otherwise it was a nice show.

Their show for this year is titled Knitting Peace. I expected something similar to last time, but came away much more impressed. This show is noticeably more mature: quieter, subtler, leaving more to the imagination.

The dim lighting and the simple monochrome visual design, and the music (partly performed live on stage), all came together into one contemplative whole.

Knitting suffuses everything. The scene decorations are made out of rope, knitted or tangled. The props are rope tangles, or balls of yarn (ranging from palm-sized to one metre), or knitted dolls, capes, nets, or just plain ropes. And because they are so simple, they can speak of many things at once.

A man struggling with a tangle of rope: a tangled relationship? or a tricky problem? or Man’s struggle in general?

Self-inflicted or externally caused?

But the yarns and ropes were not just props: not just for decoration, or for the theatrical aspect of the show. Most of the circus numbers were also built around ropes and knitting. Rope-walking, of course, is an obvious one (but you’d be surprised at the number of variations possible). But ropes can also be used for climbing, hanging, tying… Rope can be knit (live on stage); rope ladders can be unravelled. One can balance on balls of rope, and tumble over and around them, or why not climb into one. The variety was amazing.

Technically the show doesn’t reach the same level as, for example, Cirque du Soleil. But in this show the theatrical aspect was so much stronger that the technical skills didn’t really matter as much. The two shows are so different that they cannot really be compared – they are two different genres.

So there is a lot of knitting in the show, but not much of an overt peace theme. Instead, if I were to try and pinpoint one master theme, it would be “struggle”. So, lack of peace? Or perhaps the struggle to find your peace – not peace as not-war, but inner peace.

There are more nice photos at MyNewsDesk.

I went to the circus yesterday! Cirque du Soleil is in town and I had booked tickets already in September, for myself, my mother and Ingrid.

Contemporary circus is my favourite form of entertainment, well ahead of theatre, movies and concerts. And Cirque du Soleil consistently delivers great shows. We have seen several – Quidam, Dralion, Varekai and Alegria, and maybe more. Basically I think we went to every one of their shows that visited London during our stay there.

Each of their shows has a theme. I think of Quidam as the French show about a childish sense of wonder; Dralion is the Chinese show; Varekai is the show with the weird creatures. I thought I had seen Saltimbanco as well but now that I try to remember its theme, I cannot, so maybe I haven’t seen it after all.

Yesterday we saw Alegria. Again… but it was well worth seeing again. Alegria is about joy and power – I think of this show as the court of the King of Light. It is courtly, airy, elegant, full of light. A spectacular show, as they all are, with fabulous costumes, great music, and impressively skilled circus acts.

To me the most impressive and most interesting acts are the ones that combine acrobatic skill with dynamism. People flying and tumbling through the air – Russian bars, trapeze, trampoline, etc. This show had them all, and it was as dazzling as ever.

Ingrid’s favourite part was the clowns, and the rest was too long and too grown-up for her. The clown acts in this show tell a story of their own, about travel and longing. And even though all the other acts were very impressive, the clowns were also the part that I had strongest memories of from the last time I saw them.

Amazingly, Svenska Dagbladet was disappointed and found the show soulless compared to Cirkus Cirkör, the main contemporary circus group in Sweden. Yes, Cirkör is more intimate, and their themes are more idealist (like “world peace” and “it’s OK to be yourself”) but they are also simplistic and naïve, almost childish. And while Cirkör are entertaining enough, compared to Cirque du Soleil they are like a country cousin.

Against all common sense, I have allowed Melodifestivalen into our house. Now that I have understood the scope of this thing, I almost regret that I ever mentioned it to Ingrid. It appears that I have effectively committed to 90 minutes of rather boring schlager music show, every weekend from now to mid-March.

It used to be just one show on one night. I vaguely knew that it’s now a bit more than that, but had no idea how much it has grown. Turns out it’s ballooned into four semifinals, one “second chance” semifinal, and a final round, with various complicated rounds of voting. It’s been turned into a docudrama, as Eric put it.

At least we watch it on the Internet and not on TV, so we can take breaks when we want, and fit it around the kids’ bedtimes. (If you’re fast, you can still catch yesterday’s semifinals on SVT Play.)

Ingrid’s favourite did not go on to the finals; the one she liked 2nd best was Yohio.

Yesterday we had a fabulous day at Kolmården Wildlife Park. I’d been putting it off until Adrian is older, but after glowing recommendations from friend R, we decided to give it a go this year after all. I’m very glad we did!

The main part of Kolmården is the animals of course. What makes it nice is that it is a wildlife park, not a zoo: the animals move around in large areas, and in many of them several kinds of animals share the enclosure. For example, the savanna enclosure covers 18,000 sq m and contains rhinos, zebras, and 6 kinds of antilopes. And most of the areas are not surrounded by fences, but ditches, or the entire area is sunken a few metres into the ground and the visitors’ path around it is above the animals’ level. It is not quite like being on a real safari in Africa but it is a great improvement over city zoos.

What I didn’t expect was all the other, non-zoo-related activities. There was a large playground with a jungle gym, a Bamse-themed playground with an activity trail, a roller coaster… great ways to let the kids rest their legs in between all the walking.

The two highlights for us adults were the cableway safari and the dolphin show. (The safari replaces their previous car-based safari, which I vaguely recall from my previous visit about 20 years ago). Now you glide in an airy gondola over a large area of rugged terrain, both above the treetops and down close, while watching everything from lions and bears to giraffes and ostriches.

The dolphin show was astounding. I had sort of expected them to do a few jumps, but they did synchronized backflips, precision jumps, threw and caught balls, swam on their backs, balanced their trainers on their noses, stood on their tails in the water (truly)… A video can’t do it justice of course but you can get a taste of the show on YouTube. A wonderful show, and very impressive animals. (Top tip: do pre-book your seats; the queue can be massive.)

Ingrid’s favourite part was the roller coaster. It really hit the sweet spot: not too scary for Ingrid, and still not dull for the adults. And best of all, by the time we were at the roller coaster, it was late afternoon and somewhat rainy, so there were hardly any queues. Get off, run around to the entrance, and get right back on again!

I am not sure what Adrian’s favourite part was – maybe the elephants – but he was clearly happy with the whole experience.

The park was very visitor-friendly. Good signage, seats and picnic areas where needed; everything clean and tidy and friendly. I cannot think of a single thing they could have done better.

Even though we got there almost as soon as the park opened and stayed until closing time, we didn’t have time to see and do everything. I can now totally understand why they sell two-day tickets and have a hotel next to the park. We will absolutely be going back to Kolmården in the years to come.

Today we actually managed to visit a museum. Yay!

The exhibition I wanted to see was 100 Years of Swedish Handicraft. I had a very vague idea about the actual contents of the exhibition – modern takes on traditional crafts was what I thought it was about. Which was technically correct but really didn’t describe the reality very well.

The exhibition turned out to have two distinct parts. Part one was a number of thematic rooms with crafts that mostly combined modern design and ideas with traditional techniques. Woodworking, basket weaving, knitting, embroidery etc. This part was sort of nice but not amazing.

The amazing part was the other one. The other half of the exhibition was called Leaves, and consisted of 2000 wooden leaf-shaped frames that had been decorated by members in various crafts clubs and societies all over Sweden. Each leaf was different, and the variety was incredible. The leaves were arranged in vaguely tree-shaped stands in random order, with no effort to group like with like, which emphasized their variety even more. There were leaves worked in embroidery, knitting, wire, glass, metal, painting… leaves made by young children and by professional designers and craftsmen, leaves made quickly and leaves that must have taken months and months of work, leaves that fit within the organizers’ frames and leaves that broke the rules.

Many craftsters got their ideas from the leaves themselves. Some leaves were simply left to be leaves, beautifully wrought or decorated. Others depicted/were covered with/contained designs of trees, flowers, leaves, etc.

One interesting theme arose from the shape of the frame: its curved shape had led a number of craftsters to interpret it as a womb, and to fill it with a fetus/baby. Another recurring theme was probably born from the fact that the leaf frames were frames: there was a bunch of spiderweb and other web/net designs.

I only wish I could have spent more time and attention on each leaf. With two impatient kids in tow, this was difficult. But there is still more than a month left of the exhibition (until September 2nd) so I am thinking of going back there on my own. And if I do I will make sure to bring my SLR instead of the compact camera I had today.

And to top it all off, all the leaves will be auctioned off on Tradera (the Swedish Ebay equivalent), with proceeds going to charity. I am sorely tempted to buy one, even though (a) I have no idea which one, and (b) I have no idea where I would put it. But there were so many so beautiful things there that I may make the effort to make up my mind.

TodayYesterday we saw Cirkus Orion at the Orion theatre: a fusion of theatre and circus, with horses and dogs outnumbering the humans on the scene.

The story:
A man and his daughter come to the circus. The daughter longs to leave her seat in the audience and join the crew on and behind the stage. At first she approaches cautiously, then becomes a bit bolder, steps into the arena and dances with the horses, shyly imitates the juggler and longingly tries to insert herself in the hula hoop routine.

The father is more reserved and fearful of the unknown. Inclined to keep his distance, it takes a while before he dares to approach a pony or pet a dog. But he cannot resist the lure of the circus, either.

The whole show is more sweet and charming than dazzling or impressive. It’s tasteful, poetic and low-key, with simple costumes (no spandex, no sequins) and simple music. The circus part of it was decent but not very impressive technically. Pleasant family entertainment for an afternoon.

Perhaps you’ve heard the assertion that you need to put in 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert at any field. Well, here is an amazing and inspiring example I found today. Jonathan Hardesty decided that he would learn to draw and paint. He totally became an expert. And what’s even more cool – he documented his progress in a forum thread spanning 7 years of work, so you can follow him on his way. Makes me wonder – what might I achieve with the same kind of dedication?

September 2002 (© Jonathan Hardesty)

February 2009 (© Jonathan Hardesty)

Saturday: The planetarium at Ahhaa, somewhat disappointing. A lecture rather than a show, dry-ish and uninspiring. Presented by a guy picked for his knowledge rather than his presentation skills. Since he only gives a scripted talk his knowledge of astronomy is no use; I would have preferred someone with better diction and more charisma, or even a recording by a professional actor.

Sunday: drove to Tallinn. Got stuck in a massive traffic jam at Ülemiste due to some bicycle race that we didn’t know about. We could have taken an alternative route but the traffic authorities didn’t have the sense to inform drivers of the road blocks in advance. After half an hour we finally got to a place where we could escape the jam and zig-zag through Lasnamäe to Pirita where my friend V lives. Spent a most relaxing afternoon with V and family – the kids entertained each other, Adrian picked through their toy box, and we adults just lounged on the deck and ate and talked.

Monday: in Tallinn’s Old Town. The town was overrun with large guided tourist groups; they were everywhere. Both kids were in a bad mood, tired, didn’t want to eat at mealtimes and then complained of hunger a short while later, and generally complained about stuff all day long. We hardly enjoyed any of the stuff we saw.

Tallinn Flower Festival: small scale, low-key, pretty and fun.

Finally saw the much-discussed Victory Column with my own eyes.

Lunch at Olde Hansa: menu unchanged over the past 10 years, food still good, portions smaller than they used to be.

Climbed to the top of the tower of the old City Hall: good views but very windy; had to go down almost as soon as we got up because Ingrid wouldn’t keep still and got in everyone’s way, while Adrian squirmed all the time.

NUKU muuseum, the museum of Tallinn’s puppet theatre: far larger and more interesting than I had expected. But it was a total labyrinth, a tangle of rooms with confusing signs.

Kultuurikilomeeter, a kilometer of culture: “a lot of kilometer and not a lot of culture”. Instead of one kilometer the path is 2.2 km long but the culture along it is very, very sparse. From its name I had expected it to be lined with sculptures, installations, outdoor art… all we found was an “eco-island” (a cheap-looking café on some sort of floating island), a stage and some graffiti and another café in the old Patarei prison, a construction site which will at some point become a museum for sea planes, and a couple of historic ships. A lot of urban decay – hip and edgy, I know, I know, and quite nice-looking in places, but depressing in others – but very little of what I would actually term “culture”. We gave up about halfway through since Ingrid and Adrian were both bored as there was nothing at all to hold their attention.