Page 49 - washington state wine

Photo courtesy of Vimmerby Tourist office

ie dough on the kitchen floor (where Lindgren's books (including Karlsson- "There are no rides here, no long lines,"
there's more room, of course), and has on-the-Roof; The Children of Noisy Vil- pointed out Nils-Magnus Angantyr,
crazy adventures with Tommy and An- lage; Ronia, the Robber's Daughter) that spokesman for Astrid Lindgren's World.
nika, the perfect children who live next are depicted by 60 different characters "People can see chapters of her books be-
door. And her motto--whether it's cre- amidst story backdrops and recreations ing performed, can meet the characters
atively dealing with school authorities, of this area's rural towns. But Pippi is and play with them; there's a lot of im-
policemen, or bumbling burglars--is, "I'll the most well known, especially in the provisation between performances." In
always come out on top!" U.S., where it has sold over five million 2014, nearly a half million visited the
copies. popular attraction, named The Nordic
Vimmerby (pop. 15,000)--one of Swe- Region's Best Theme Park. Some 30 per-
den's oldest towns, dating to the 12th Although my husband and I didn't under- cent of visitors are from other countries,
century—is in the Småland region about stand the Swedish spoken by the actors, mostly Denmark, Germany, Norway,
four hours south of Stockholm. It's we got caught up in the exciting drama- Holland and Finland.
where Lindgren grew up—and where the tization of the stories, musical perfor-
story of zany Pippi comes alive during mances and puppet shows. (We had ear-
the summer months at Astrid Lindgren's lier visited Junibacken--the Children's Top: Pippi and friends on stage. Opposite bot-
World, Sweden's largest open-air theme Museum--in Stockholm, which also has tom: Children play at Villa Villekulla at Astrid
park set on 180,000 square metres. a replica of Pippi's house, the Vimmerby Lindgren’s World--the house where Pippi lived
train station, and brings stories by Lind- with her monkey, Mr. Nilsson--and her horse on
Founded in 1981, Sweden's version gren and other Scandinavian authors the front porch!
of a literary Disneyland features 12 of alive for kids of all ages.)

Wine Dine & Travel Summer/Fall 2015 49