Day 14: Stockholm, Sweden (Vasa Museum)

Wow! It was already Day #14. We would be leaving the following morning. The time had flown. It was melancholy to thank and say goodbye to our cabin steward, Tedy. Whenever we needed anything we could always count on Tedy. Tedy is from Indonesia. He told us he was so proud that the section he took care of had NO COVID infections. It had been fun to meet Viking workers from around the world. 

We asked him one evening how the heck did he manage to fix our bedsheets every night so they looked so crisp and wrinkle free. (We didn't think he was changing the sheets every night.) He smiled and demonstrated. He took out his spray bottle with plain water from his supply basket and misted the top of the bedsheet. He then smoothed it out and like magic, the sheets were perfect. Hotels must do the same thing. 

Art and Craig were looking forward to this excursion to see the Swedish battleship, Vasa that sank during its maiden voyage.

Annette was our tour guide. Being a retired teacher, I was immediately happy to hear that she was a high school history teacher.

Vasa or Wasa is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship sank after sailing roughly 1,300 m (1,400 yd) into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. She fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannon were salvaged in the 17th century, until she was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping area in Stockholm harbour. The ship was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961.

         --Wikipedia  

The top photo is the original Vasa after it was pulled out of the seawater. Annette said that 98% of the ship is original. It was underwater for 333 years.

The bottom photo shows a model of what it once looked like.

You can see what amazing condition it is in (on the left) even after spending so many centuries underwater. The photo on the right shows what it must have looked like 333 years ago.

It was the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus who ordered the ship to be built as part of a military expansion he started in a war with Poland-Lithuania (1621-1629). It was extravagantly decorated as a symbol of the king's ambition for Sweden and himself. When it was completed, she was the most powerfully armed vessel in the world. However, it was very unstable with too much weight in the upper structure of the hull. Despite that, she was ordered out to sea and sunk within a few minutes after it encountered winds that were stronger than a breeze.

There was an inquest and they looked for someone to blame. In the end, they decided it was the ship builder's fault. However, he couldn't be punished because he'd died the year before.

It really was pretty darn impressive to look at. Sadly, 30 people did die from this calamity while crowds watched from the shore. They found the remains of 15 people in and around the hull of the ship.

OK, you might think I'm crazy but I needed to take a photo of this bathroom in Sweden. 

Each toilet has solid doors. When you shut that door, you have complete privacy. Really complete privacy. It's almost claustrophobic. 

(OH NUTS! Art just saw this and said I forgot that this was a UNISEX bathroom. That's why the doors are solid. Men and women could use the same bathroom.)

Lunch was next.

There were mashed potatoes, a roll and Swedish meatballs. It reminded me of Ikea.

The lunch was fine, BUT I have to tell you the dessert was the smoothest hunk of chocolate EVER! 

Annette gave some facts about Sweden.

* Between 1860-1920 Sweden was so poor that 1/5 of the population moved to the U.S. 

*Sweden is expecting 200,000 refugees from Ukraine.

* Sweden and Finland would like to join NATO now.

* Although once poor, Sweden is now quite wealthy. (IKEA, Volvo, etc.)

* Sweden just elected their first female prime minister.

* Sweden is the 5th largest country in Europe. They have wanted to stay neutral since 1810, but the invasion of Ukraine has changed that.

* There are 96,000 lakes in Sweden.

* Skype, Spotify, Minecraft, Candy Crush were all invented in Sweden.

After lunch, we had a boat ride of the riverway. We saw what looked like a magpie. It wasn't easy to get this shot.

Once back on the ship, we had a lovely dinner together with our travel buddies at Manfredi's and returned to our room to pack our luggage and put them out in the hallway to be ready for delivery to the airport.

The trip had been wonderful and we enjoyed seeing a part of the world we'd never thought of visiting but we were ready to go home.