It was again forecast that there would be rain, so we planned for a Museum Day. The destination was the Vasa Museum, which holds a salvaged ship that is over 400 years old. It sank on its maiden voyage in Stockholm Harbor. They found and salvaged it in the 70's, and have been carefully drying and preserving it.
You pass through 4 airlocks entering the museum. It is a dark space, but the ship is magnificent. It is much larger than expected standing over 5 stories tall.
Evidently, the design of the ship didn't allow for enough of the ship to be below the waterline before the first row of gun ports. A slight breeze tipped the ship just enough for the water to come pouring in through the openings, and it quickly sank. Ooops. . . This folly is our gain as the ship was preserved remarkably well, and is a unique glimpse into that early era in ship building.
Originally the ship was very brightly painted. Through the miracles of science, they've been able to analyze the wood and determine the colors that the wood had been painted. There is a small display showing what it looked like at that time. Pretty amazing
25 people died in the accident, and their skeletons are on display as well. Kind of grusome, but also pretty cool.
When we came out of the museum, we were greeted by a sunny sky and a warmish afternoon. We discovered this cool restaurant not far from the museum that sits on the water, which had Swedish Meatballs. We had to have them.
And boy were they good! IKEA does do an amazingly accurate representation of this Swedish classic. Now everytime I go there, I will think of the great meatballs I had in Sweden.
It was a lovely way to spend some time floating on a canal eating meatballs and enjoying the sun and beautiful Art Neuveau buildings.
From there, we simply wandered around Stockholm, which is an attraction in itself.
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