We began our day with a scrumptious smorgasborg of cereal, breads, meats, and cheese provided by our hotel. Filled up and ready to see some sights, we headed out trying to decide if we wanted to make the trip to see Vasa, the Swedish warship museum. Having already visited a Viking ship in Norway, it was a toss up, but we heard so many accolades about the prized 17th century discovery that we concluded it was a must see spot in Stockholm.
The construction of Vasa began in 1626 and took two years to complete with four hundred men artfully crafting over a thousand oak trees into the most heavily armored ship of it's day. Unfortunately, Vasa also ended up being a predecessor to the Titanic. However, unlike the Titanic, Vasa never even made it out of the Stockholm harbour. Thousands of locals came to watch the ship depart on it's maiden voyage and sadly within twenty minutes of leaving shore a gust of wind blew her over causing the ship to take in water and quickly sink to the floor of the Baltic Sea.
Multiple failed attempts were made to rescue the boat in the months following its catastrophic voyage, but the naval powers of the time could not lift such a heavy vessel from the ocean floor. Even more valuable than the ship itself were her 64 bronze cannons, of which 62 were retrieved in the 1630's leaving only two for the eventual archaeological find years later.
Over the following 333 years, Vasa sat on the floor of the Baltic Sea. It wasn't until the 1950's that a Swedish man set out looking for the ship. In the early 1960's, with the help of the Swedish Navy, he successfully retrieved the vessel from the bottom of the sea. Had the Vasa sunk in any other part of the world, bacteria would have deteriorated the ship's wood so badly that little would have remained so many years later. However, the Baltic Sea is unique in that it has a low salt content and is so cold that a common wood eating "ocean worm" found nearly everywhere else could not survive in this environment. So although it is unfortunate that the ship sank so long ago, it would not be here for all to view had such a blunder not occured with Vasa's maiden voyage.
The Vasa went through an extensive preservation process since it was lifted from the Baltic Sea and is now a sight to see with the vessel being 98% original. During the preservation process, a great deal of research was done in regards to the ship. In addition to finding out much about life in the 17th century, scientists concluded that the ship was engineered in a manner that made it destined to sink. Not only was the ship top heavy, but it was also too narrow and lacked an adequate quantity of stones in the ballast hull for such a massive ship.
We were quite impressed by the size and preservation of the Vasa and found the video and tour very informative. The sight is definitely a must see on any trip to Stockholm and was a great way to start our 2nd day of touring Sweden.
Once we finished visiting the Vasa Museum, we stopped for some kebab pitas and continued strolling along the island of Djurgarden. The island of Djurgarden varies greatly from the surrounding islands in that it is a national park. Besides housing the Vasa and other Stockholm museums, it is mostly covered in greenery and waterways. We walked the island's entire waterfront and enjoyed the beautiful weather that we have been so lucky to have during our trip.
The stroll ended up being a little longer than expected, but with little else on our agenda for the day, we took our time and admired the beauty along the way. The only stop we made was half-way through our walk when we found a cafe in the harbor for cappuccino and cheesecake.
Feeling tired from yet another day logging miles on our feet, we headed back to our hotel to find a good spot for dinner. The remainder of our night was pretty mellow with a little walk to an Asian cafe where we quickly devoured our tasty meal.
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