When visiting Gothenburg's rainforest, bring patience

The city of Gothenburg doesn't have a zoo. It has something better: a science metropolis that combines a zoo with an aquarium, a space center and a rainforest. Yes, a rainforest.

This impressive, seven-story attraction is called Universeum and is located in the middle of the city. Because it's all indoors, we decided to visit during a day when it was raining earlier in the week.

About ten thousand other visitors had the same idea. At least it felt like ten thousand others.

We decided to visit Universeum, Gothenburg's indoors science capital, on a day when it was raining.

Because of the magnitude of this place and the wealth of offerings — all designed to be interactive and kid-friendly — we set aside three to four hours for the visit to give us a chance to take it all in.

After less than an hour, Zee and I felt like we'd had enough science to last the rest of the trip.

Things started out really well. We decided to start with the aquarium part, because our oldest daughter really wanted to see the sharks, especially the great white shark.

Unverseum has a glassed-off, indoors rainforest that takes up four full stories. Once you enter, it's so hot and humid you feel like you're in a, well, a rainforest.

We took the glass elevator up to the fourth floor and enjoyed the view of the rainforest on our way up before stepping into the dark aquarium with its giant glass walls, which must have been about 20 feet by 15 feet and allowed for a spectacular view of the ocean life on display.

Our daughters were mesmerized by the aquarium area and shouted out everything they saw.

Our daughters were so excited to see all the fish they were screaming and pointing.

"Look! Look, Pappa, look! The fish, it's so big! Look, it's swimming over here! Look, the stingray, it's flying! LOOK!"

Before our visit to Universeum, our oldest daughter told us she really, really wanted to see sharks. She got to see sharks.

They got to see sharks, they got to stick their hands down an open tank with stingrays, they got to run from one glass wall to another, and they got to see clownfish.

"Look, it's 'Finding Nemo'! Look, there's two 'Finding Nemos'! And look at all his friends, they're so colorful!"

I'm not quite sure why, but between the giant glass walls in the aquarium was a giant toad that caught the interest of our girls.

Our daughters must have burnt off most of their energy reserves, because when we moved on to the rainforest, things got sticky.

The area mimics a rainforest in terms of heat and humidity. The stone pathway is narrow and the stairs are tricky to navigate with a strollers. Our girls were grumpy. It was crowded. The animals were loud but hard to see. Everyone was getting hungry.

We left the rainforest for another day and continued on to the science center. There were space station replicas, crime labs, kaleidoscopes, weather studio simulators, planetory exhibits and lots of hands-on, interactive displays where kids could go crazy.

One of the science displays allowed kids to use hoses to create bubbly landscapes in a big, soapy tub.

For our family, it was a bit too much.

We decided to call it a day and went downstairs to the restaurant for an early dinner. By then, the girls were so exhausted they didn't even touch their pancakes with raspberries and whipped cream.

I don't mean to sound like we didn't have a great time. We did. We just bit off a bit more than we could chew.

If you only have time for one area of Universeum, I highly recommend the aquarium.

When I think about the joy in our daughters' voices when they shouted out all the fish they saw in the aquarium, I must say it was all worth it.