Visiting Scandinavia’s largest science center with kids
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side·track (sīd´trăk): n. 1. A diversion from the main course. 2. A detour taken with children that you would never, ever take without them.
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Who and What:
My husband, two daughters and I were in Gothenburg, Sweden for a long weekend when we visited Scandinavia’s largest science center, Universeum. It is a unique combination of a children’s museum, aquarium, science center, and (if that wasn’t enough for you) a three-story rainforest you can walk through where monkeys, frogs and butterfly freely roam. There are museum staff members stationed throughout to help explain exhibits.

Why:
My friend from high school who lives in Gothenburg highly recommended this outing for our family. We purchased the two-day Gothenburg pass, which included free admissions to Universeum.

The High Point:
It is always very cool to pet sting rays at aquariums, but the aquarium section of Universeum takes sting ray petting to the next level by adding a rope bridge over the tank that the kids can climb across. There was even one mom who was so impressed with this that she pretended to ‘help’ her perfectly capable child cross the bridge so she could experience it too. Okay, fine, that was me.

The Low Point:
My inner child was screaming to go play the whole time! We approached Universeum as a great outing for our kids but were completely unprepared for how many exhibits were interesting for adults as well. For example, there is an entire section of the museum dedicated to forensic science were you can do activities such as watch a video of a crime, then test your reliability giving eyewitness testimony. Hubby and I ended up taking turns checking these parts of the museum out, as these did not hold the interest of my little ones.

The Kids’ Take:
My 2-year-old’s favorites were the real police car she could climb in and push buttons and the bubble table, where a steady flow of air helped her create huge bubbles and a very kind museum employee made her a flower out of bubbles. My 4-year-old’s favorites were looking for frogs in the rainforest, dressing up like an Eskimo so she could build an igloo in the climate zone area, and checking out how astronauts go potty in space. Fascinating.

The Bottom Line:
Really wonderful place to take kids or kids at heart. It is a safe bet that this place will have several exhibits of interest for each member of your family. Occupying 7,000 square meters, this place is huge, so allow yourself plenty of time to enjoy all it has to offer, or consult the map so you make sure you see all of your favorites.

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November 22nd, 2010 | by Julie Breitigan 1 comment