Hyllie Vattenpark Malmö

As it turned out, this place was actually made for kids. Never mind, I say, we can all have fun there! And not just fun: you can learn quite a bit there too. Hyllie Vattenpark has 8 “stations” showing you different ways that water can work or how it can be used. There is a waterfall, there is a mini channel where you can put various obstacles in the water’s way and see what happens; there are pipes so you can see and hear how it is underground; there is a “water workshop” where you can observe how they used to get water from underground without any pumps, and my favourite, “a surprise fountain”. You ask your friends to stand on a circular platform, start pumping the water and see who gets wet. As far as I know, for all the installations to work, you have to book a visit (and be about 12 years old), most of them however do function in the summer so you can get your portion of refreshing splash during a hot summer’s day.

All those installations are located in the shadow if a big water tower resembling a flying saucer that was looking for a space to park (picture above). It is an actual functioning water tower, not just a weird-looking structure. It’s 62m tall, has a diameter of 52m and can hold 10,200 cubic meters of water. And together with Turning Torso and the Bridge, it has become one of the city’s symbols.