UK & Europe '24 Day 14 - Paradox Museum, ABBA Museum and Grona Lund

Still feeling a little heavy from last night's meal (and increasingly heavier in general) we started the day with coffee while we sorted out the app-based public transport ticket. Throwing a language you're not familiar with into the mix when navigating a public transport system you're unfamiliar with puts an interesting spin on things, but we did pretty well today, all told. It did start with hopping on a train in the wrong direction, though, but once we ironed out that little wrinkle from our journey, we were surprised to see how close our first destination was. One stop away, in fact.

The Paradox museum is a bit of fun to add to a visit to Stockholm. Infinity rooms, infinity windows and a host of optical illusions blend with sets you hop right into for some unique photo opportunities.

Playing around with perspective was fun, and there was a room early on that really played havoc with our sense of balance. It involved walking through a room on a perspex bridge, but the room was cylindrical and rotating as you move through it, the spots really playing havoc your perception, making it appear like the room was tipping and he doorways were wobbling about. Then there was the moment I got legless and Chris lost his head...

The tickets we purchased for the transport system covers busses, trains, trams and ferries, so we hopped onto the tram to cut across to our next activity for the day: ABBA The Museum.

This was always going to be a highlight for me. From the moment before you enter the building, the interactivity starts as you pass a life size line up of the four band members. Frida looked a bit off today.

The first installation is ABBA Voyage, and it was cool to see not only one of the suits ABBA wore for the motion capture sessions for concert, but some of the costumes that were designed and made especially for the concert. Everything you see on stage at Voyage is a digitised version of ABBA, intricately capturing their movements and gestures, as well as the costuming and instruments. Seeing the artefacts and hearing the stories from the band was a nice way to immerse into the ABBA story.

There were photo ops here too, as the museum trail retells the story of ABBA, starting right back with how each of the four members' careers stated. 

If I'm pressed to name a favourite album from ABBA, it's Arrival, and today I finally to sit in that helicopter! (read: prop of the helicopter)

It's very snug.

The tableaus created by museum staff give a real sense of being in the locations they are recreating. Stig Andersson's office, the island hut where Benny and Bjorn composed most of the hits we're familiar with, the recording studio and a backstage dressing room are amongst the many sets.

Aside from the sets, there's a whole array of artefacts including all (most? a decent number?) of their record releases and awards including gold and platinum records to celebrate their consistently high record sales.

And rows of original costumes from their tours and television appearances. I was finally in the same room as those cat costumes!

And the story continues with costumes and sets based on Mama Mia! Chess and music from their post-ABBA careers.

At the end of it all, there's the gift shop because, of course there is, and I simultaneously cringed and told myself "you only get to do this once" as I said "just take my krona!"

Back outside, we noticed Grona Lund, the fun park by the water, was open. Intrigued, we decided to have a wander. I wouldn't normally describe myself as shy when it comes to fun park rides, but there were so many version of nope in this park I lost count. From the towering version of the otherwise innocuous flying chair ride to free-fall rides from a nose-bleed height, this park had it all. The roller coasters all look particularly frightening, truly frightening beyond your standard loops or corkscrew design. If you're up for backwards, forwards and upside down swinging motions, this is the place for you. Even the octopus looked a bit sinister and scary.

We made it back to base on only one bus, had a lighter meal that last night and capped it off with an ice cream. The ananas (pineapple) ice cream was five-stars good!