Skansen and Vasa

 

1830 Farmer

This morning, we explored the Skansen open air museum. Established in 1891, over 150 structures from throughout Sweden were moved here to celebrate Swedish culture and tradition. First up was a 11^th century Rune stone. Next was an 1830 farmhouse. The farmer explained that the cows, pigs, and chickens spent 7 months of the year in the barns, but all their feed for the winter must be grown in 3 months. They grow primarily barley and potatoes. The women take care of the animals, while the men do everything else. We continued to a 19^th century town, Several different other farms, windmills, churches, schools, and tradesman. Further on were the typical farm animals of Sweden, and then a zoo of Nordic animals like moose, caribou, and brown bears.

14th Century Storehouse

The Vasa is a unique find, a 17th-century century ship where 98% of the ship is original. This warship was designed to be the most powerful ship in existence: 64 cannon arranged on two decks. 

Two decks of cannon

At the time, Sweden was at war with Denmark, Poland, and Russia. King Gustavus Adolphus wanted a new flagship for his navy. The ship set sail on August 10, 1628, sailed 1300 meters, a gust of wind came up, the ship was top-heavy, foundered on its side, took on water through the cannon ports, and sank. The ship was 53 meters high, 69 meters long and only 11 meters wide. In the museum the masts are only half the original height, the full height extends outside the building. The ballast of the ship was too light compared to what was above the waterline. During testing for stability, they learned that the ship was unstable, but who was going to tell the king that he couldn’t have a second deck of guns? This ship was meant to impress with over 600 carvings, originally in very bright colors. 

Model of ship in original colors

Stockholm, the Royal Palace

 

Old Town of Stockholm 

Sweden is the size of California, but with only 10 million people. 900,000 live in Stockholm on 14 islands connected by 57 bridges. Our day started with a walking tour of the Old Town, just across the bridge from the Hotel Sheraton Stockholm. Our primary visit was the Royal Palace with 1430 rooms, the official residence of the King. Next door is the much more ornate Parliament Building. The treasury stored the Royal Crowns and other regalia. Above are the Royal rooms. At first the rooms, were under inspiring until we reached the third floor where the wall, ceilings, painting, and furnishing were more typical of a Palace. 

Victoria Drawing Room

We had lunch of perch in old town. Then quite a few of us took a boat tour around Djurgården island. At first there were numerous monumental buildings, many of them hotels or museums, but as we went along more of the sights were parks, a third of Stockholm is park land. 

Start of Djurgården Cruise

In the evening, a few of us joined Stephen, our program director, for a Thai restaurant in a ship anchored on the lake. Afterwards, we took an adventurous path up the cliff face to catch the views of the Old Town and a scene from "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".

Scene from "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"