ABBA THE MUSEUM!

The Silent Disco was really loud because I couldn't find the volume control on the headphones. 

Today we visited The ABBA Museum!  I don't think you should come to Sweden without learning the rich heritage of ABBA. 

I think I waited too long to take the photo. Her genuine smile turned to a grimace I think. 

You enter through a series of rooms with videos playing. It really feels like a preshow because maybe it was at one point, but now you just move on when you want. 

There is a big commercial for ABBA Voyage, which is a show running in London featuring motion captured uncanny versions of ABBA that people in the commercial seemed to love. 

They didn't hold back on the costumes. 

The real part of the museum starts with info about each band member before they were ABBA. You may notice us wearing ear buds. It isn't because we hate ABBA and are listening to Motley Crue, it's because we are listening to the audio tour part of the museum. 

There is a meet and greet part of the tour where you can sit down on a park bench with ABBA and ask very personal questions. You can see Agnetha is very uncomfortable with my question. 

After you learn how they all met and got together (in more ways than just as a band), you are led into a room all about Eurovision! This past week we were able to watch Eurovision live on our hotel TV. We learned that ABBA got their big break by winning it with their pop hit Waterloo. (Fun fact, that means Water Toilet in England). We also learned Volare was a Eurovision song. 

I already spoiled it, they won. 

I got to pose behind the actual guitar they used. 

Hello?  Is this ABBA?  Hello?  I have been trying to contact you about an extended warranty on your Volvo. 

So ABBA goes on to incredible success after Eurovision. The museum then walks you through their processes. 

We both tried to get the mix right via an interactive sound mixer. It was pretty fun. 

We did our best to practice the ancient art of Karaoke. 

They had cool displays talking about their touring and costume making. 

The most impressive part of the museum is all of the interactive elements. 

I got up and shook my moneymaker along with the rest of the uncanny band. I was able to see strangers cheering me on. Donna said they were surprised a man was doing it. What they didn't know is that I was a man that gave no f****!

It was your typical Pepper's Ghost effect as seen in Haunted Mansion and other places. It's a very old but effective illusion. 

We got to ride in the helicopter. I'm not sure what the story is behind this but The pinball machine features a helicopter too. Okay I looked it up. It's featured prominently on an album cover. We only have ABBA Gold. 

Dress Up!

Donna listened to deep cuts on the jukebox. 

Yikes!

At the end of the tour we took advantage of the fancy toilets. 

We danced out but not before exiting through the gift shop. 

There was every opportunity to spend money. 

I wanted to get this smock and wear it playing the pinball machine but an $80 photo gag is a bit too pricey for me. 

Donna got a T-shirt featuring one of the famous cats. 

It was a great museum and a lot of fun. Tons of great photo opportunities. I only wish they had a room that just played a ton of their songs, like a concert experience. That's the only thing that was missing in my opinion. 

Viking and Vasa Museums

Pinky up cause I'm fancy!

Yesterday and today we went to two Stockholm museums, The Viking museum and The Vasa Museum. 

The Viking Museum is a fun touristy museum with a dark ride at the end!  You can imagine why we went. 

The museum is filled with artifact reproductions, which means you can touch a lot of things!  We entered and ended up in an English guided tour right away.  The guide was dressed like a Viking, talked like a Viking, and gave us a history lesson on Vikings. 

He told us how Vikings spread out from Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, and Denmark) to Iceland, Greenland, many areas in mainland Europe, Scotland, and even North America. He told us that many were farmers but also there were pillaging pirate types. He also threw Viking shade at the Netflix Viking series which I wasn't aware of. 

The Big Takeaway was that you didn't necessarily have to die in battle to get into Valhalla. He said we could get into Valhalla, with the free flowing mead from a goat, by just spreading the truth about Vikings. The big truth he wanted me to share is that only a few Vikings wore helmets, and none of them had horns!  So I guess if you tell someone this we can meet in Valhalla and drink unlimited mead forever. Sounds kind of fun. 

Turns out this isn't a real Viking. 

After the guided tour we checked out the museum. There were cool video screens with actors dressed like different classes of Viking telling you about their daily lives. I felt it was really well done. 

The loom they used to weave was vertical. 

I took another opportunity to dress up. Donna got a great photo. 

I enjoyed the section devoted to Vikings in pop culture. 

The dark ride was at the end of the museum. Donna and I speculated on how we could ride the ride more than once. We love a good dark ride so this was exiting!  

This is my, "heading to the dark ride" face. 

The ride is called, 'Ragnfrids Saga'. 

This may or may not be Ragnfrid. 

This is the ride operator. 

Our Carriage Awaits 

Infogram on how to and how not to ride. 

The ride is a series of static dioramas and screens. Your trackless Multi Mover Vehicle  moves you through the story of Ragnfrid, a Viking needing to provide for his family so he doesn't have to sell his daughter off to a slob of a man. He does this by taking slaves to the big city to sell off to slobs. He gets robbed and loses everything and then his friend gets killed and then he fights in a war as a hired fighter and takes barrels of silver back to his family that almost died while he was gone and they lived happily ever after. 

Near the end of the ride we decided we didn't need to ride it again. 

We were hoping for an old dark ride. This ride was built in 2017. 

The ride lets you off in the restaurant and then you exit through the gift shop. 

It was a good museum but not great. 

The following day we went to The Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a Swedish battle ship that was launched in 1628. It immediately sank because it was top heavy. For about 24 minutes it was the most powerful battleship in the world. It quickly ended up at the bottom of the polluted brackish Stockholm Harbor where it sat preserved for 333 years. The brackish water and the heavy pollution prevented decay and in 1961 the ship was salvaged and preserved.  It's very impressive. 

Its really hard to think of it as real after working at Disneyland. 

There were also preserved artifacts like this hat in a hat box. 

Preservation continues today. They are replacing wooden shims with rubber feet that can move with the ship. They hope to keep the ship intact for another couple hundred years. 

They had many interactive elements. 

Its so huge, it's hard to capture. 

The Vasa Museum is amazing and you should go. The Viking Museum is pretty cool and you should go if you have time.