It has indeed been 3 years since we have been to IKEA last time, and it was exciting to see that it still looks the same, no matter where in the world you are.
The 66 Bus brought us straight to the shopping area that also houses Le Gru and we arrived 10 minutes before opening. But they actually served some coffee and cookies for the waiting masses.
Main reason we went to IKEA was that we really liked one of the apartments we had seen, but it seems the current tenant has a weird idea how much money he can ask for his 8 year old kitchen, so we wanted to see what we can get for that amount of money. (And it seems we can get more, for less and brand new). Dito with the handcrafted wardrobe in the bedroom that they sell for cheap 5500 EU. We figured we can replace that with 3 wardrobes at each 75 EU from IKEA
Julius had a fun time and we got some stuff for him. A wooden cart with building blocks, a pillow owl, some cheap cups and bowls in funky neon colors. For us we got a very big (220cm x 240cm) comforter with matching duvet cover (Down from 44.90 EU to 12.90 … we just had to buy that).
And the swedish lunch after shopping was done was a treat … a generous portion of swedish meatballs, a hering tasting platter, smoked salmon and some strawberry cake.
Shall we get that egg shaped chair for Julius???

One afterthought: There was one IKEA employee who really spoiled the fun by coming over to me and tell me a lot in italian, then when I said I do not understand, he told me in bad english “it is not possible to take picture” … well .. it is very possible .. i guess he meant it was not allowed … but that really puzzles me … what is it with that recent ‘no taking pictures’ policy ??? If great companies like IKEA are so afraid about having their company secrets revealed … then they should put lots of stickers up “no picture taking” and become the laughing stock of those tech savvy people who simply snap a pic with their mobile phone and send it to a loved one asking “how do you like that?”. Seriously … what is the damage in taking pictures of things that are in the catalogue anyway? Don’t they realize that people these days use their cams and phones as notepads?
It would be a great step forward if they invite pic taking .. maybe some rental device with online uplink … nothing impossible by today’s standards … like look at that pic with Julius and the owl .. I could have sent that to Ritsu and say “should we buy that?”
No, instead some over eager sales person leaves his over run work station to tell me not to take pictures … hey .. if you are ever tired of lining up at those IKEA counters .. start taking pictures .. that makes them come over to you