The Princess Papers, Part 4

The Princesses had a great time in Copenhagen. They saw the Little Mermaid, went on 10.000 rides (approx.) at Tivoli, saw the changing of the guard at the castle, and had a boat ride.

We caught up with them in Sweden, they were at our cabin one night before we arrived. PrincessPapa reports on them looking out the window in the morning and discovering the horses who live next door and screaming in delight before running out to see them and quickly discovering that the fence is an electric one.

They took in Malmö (including the musuem, which had a special section on torture and another one on the bubonic plague, neither of which the princesses enjoyed) and then came home for dinner. PrincessPapa wanted to reward them with a DVD for being so good. Princess #1 replied indignantly: I want to stay out and enjoy nature, Daddy!

We went to Lund with them to visit the Kulturen open-air musuem. The first thing we saw on the way in was a big poster for the special exhibit on "Lust, Dreams and Fantasies" with a guy in, um, belts. PrincessPapa remarked that Europeans have a strange sense of what is appropriate for museums which allow little kids to visit. But the museum gets extra points for the hands-on kid's exhibits. They were allowed to dress up in aprons and head scarves and pretend to live in a wooden house with wooden shoes and plates and spoons and toys. They pretended to cook and churn butter and spin wool and clean up the place - no way we could get them out of there except by threats and promises.

We whipped by the Lund Cathedral for a look around and took the princesses down to the crypt. Princess #2 got very thoughtful and asked WiseMan if he would still be her uncle if he was dead. Very philosophical.

Today we hit "Dinoland", by popular request. I had picked up a broschure at a tourist information office. It was an "amusement park" that looked like they were going broke any minute now, only about 4 people - including a sad clown - were working there. The "dinosaurs" were, as my sister-in-law put it, rather like fifth-grade paper-maché projects. The "amusements" were either broken, in the process of breaking, or making strange and threatening noises.

The Princesses had a ball.

They jumped on the trampoline and one of the working corny blown-up slides; they rode the decrepit carousell that probably violated at least 15 Swedish safety rules; they loved the creaking train through the "enchanted forest" (more fifth-grade paper-maché, this time of fairy tale figures) while PrincessPapa and I discussed how difficult it would be to fix the train, should it derail; they had hot dogs and popcorn and ice cream for lunch. As the advertising said: paradise for kids. Guess kids and adults have a marked difference in what they consider to be fun and amusing.

They decided to have Nutella for dessert tonight. I was joking that they now needed another bath, as especially Princess #3 had used Nutella rather like cold cream on her face.... we had a melt-down over my comment, must teach them to enjoy ironic comments. Or learn to keep my trap shut until they get into bed.