Stockholm Day 2

Today we took the train again to Stockholm and visited the Vasa Museum which houses a ship built in 1628. The king at the time wanted to build the most impressive ship around and was pretty envious of those big Danish ships. They had a war with Poland going on so he had the excuse. It took 400 guys 2 1/2 years to build it and it had to be the most beautiful ship with colorful statues all over. The story goes that the king himself helped the designer and when they tested it for stability by having 30 seamen run back and forth on the upper deck (ASTM standard?), it was determined, but not exactly reported that the ship needed some work. It was way too top heavy and did not have enough ballast in the hold. It also had upper and lower cannon decks with 64 cannons on board. So nobody happened to mention this to the king (job security) and when they launched it with hundreds of people on board, it floated about 20 minutes and then tipped over and sank. So needless to say, the king called for whoever was responsible to have bad things done to them, and as it turned out, nobody got in trouble implying that he knew who was at fault. The good news was, it sank in the harbor in brackish water which means it did not rot. Everyone sort of forgot where it was for 300 years and some guy in 1954 looked for it and found it, talked the current king into paying to have it recovered and they did, restored it (98% original), built a building around it and charged tourists to see it. It is a wonderful story and wonderful to look at. Very nice museum.

We tried getting into the Vasa in the morning but it was packed with tour bus folks, so we went to the Nordic Museum, which was important historically, but not too exciting. The takeaway from the Nordic Museum is that being from America, I see the 1700s as the rustic, dirt floor, rough furniture and household goods, but here in Europe, they were, and had been, very established with modern households and comforts right back into the 1500's. Reminds me that America was the wild frontier then, and now maybe.

We walked to the Folk Museum and Technical Museum but they were pretty hard to figure out as there was very little English and the exhibits were a little sleepy. So back into Stockholm on the tram (flying by all the cars of course) and into the modern new part of the city where you could tell it was Friday after work and everyone was on the street.

We decided to catch the train back to Uppsala and find dinner there. We found a Greek restaurant near the canal and had a leisurely dinner. After we walked (strolled) along the canal and watched people relaxing after another week at work. There is a lot of night activity with people walking and riding bikes all around town into the wee hours. The sun sets so late and even after the sun is gone, the sky is bright with plenty of light. A pleasant night in a nice little town. Tomorrow we drive into he countryside and see how people live in more rural areas.