Stockholm – Feb 28th

We started the day off at the Vasa Museum; the Vasa is a 64 gun war ship built in the 17th century that sank on its maiden voyage. Actually, it only made it about 1,300 meters and sank just outside the harbor (kind of embarrassing!).  The king Gustavus Adolphus had pushed for the top heavy design (having two gun decks) and the ship builder, Captain, and Admiral didn’t have the guts to tell the King of the structural problems or to postpone the maiden voyage. The King was really pushing for the boat to be finished to be delivered to him  – Did I mention that the Captain did a stability test for the Admiral and they had 30 men run back and forth on the deck 3 times and then stopped them.. the boat rocked so much they were afraid it was going to capsize!  Between the structural problems and an unlucky circumstance (they had shot off the cannons to mark the beginning of the voyage and still had the gun ports open) a gust of wind was enough to sink the boat (it tipped the boat over a bit and then water rushed in the open gun ports).  It is really interesting that another boat was being built with almost the same specifications at the same time- the Äpplet (Swedish for apple) – but that one went on to sail for a long time (I want to say something like 30 years).  It was only 1.5 meters wider.

We watched the 20 minute film about the Vasa and did the 30 minute guided tour – both were really interesting and are included in the cost of the ticket. Our tour guide mentioned that there were over a hundred crewmen were on board, as well as women and children. The crew had permission to take family and guests along for the first part of the passage through the Archipelago. The superstition of women being bad luck on ships wasn’t around yet. Thirty people died when the ship sank.  Because the water where the ship sank is brackish, it was really well preserved (considering it was under water for 333 years before being pulled up).  The ship is 98% original and they have lots of artifacts (clothing, guns/cannons, cooking utensils, sails, etc) that are interesting to see. One thing I thought was interesting- on this boat there was no sleeping on hammocks below decks – the crew and soldiers slept on the deck.

When we left the Vasa museum we headed over to Skansen – the first open air museum in the world. They have a collection of historical buildings/ architecture types from all around Sweden, they showcase native crafts/skills (glass blowing, pottery, baking, etc), and they have a zoo. They have employees dressed in period clothing in the houses who you can ask questions and in the stores (ie. Glass blowing) you can observe the owners actually doing their trade. Morgan bought me a pretty bud vase that thankfully made it back to Germany in one piece!  I enjoyed the old houses and stores; I think Morgan’s favorite part was the zoo.  They had Scandinavian animals such as wolves, brown bears, lynx, wolverines, seals, etc.

We left Skansen and hurried to make it to the boat tour I had booked. Unfortunately we got off one tram stop early and then had to jog pretty far to make it before the boat left! Thankfully we did make it, but it was kinda foggy so it turned out to not have been the ideal day to do it. But, the information for the tour guide provided was interesting and they sold some yummy glögg on board (Swedish version of Glühwein). I probably shouldn’t say this, but I think I like the Swedish version better! One fact that guide told us totally shocked me- she had us guess how many islands the Stockholm archipelago is made of. Morgan and the two other ladies on the boat weren’t guessing (and I felt bad for the guide) so I guessed 300 (I had no clue but the way she said it I thought it would be a lot). Well there are a lot, but wayyy more than I guessed.. nearly 30,000!  She also told us that 60% of the people that live in Stockholm own a boat- which was pretty surprising as well. Since it was rather chilly out on the water and the fog made it damp, we sat inside for the first half of the tour, but then moved to the top deck (outside) for the way back in. They put out reindeer blankets for us -yeah, felt kinda bad using them- but they really made a difference. There were only 4 guests on board (including us) so we had the whole top deck to ourselves.  I guess Stockholm isn’t exactly a vacation destination in February/March….

When the boat tour finished up we walked back to our rental apartment to drop off our cameras (absolutely no cameras allowed at the concert – per the venue website and our tickets terms and conditions).  Which I think is silly since everyone had a smart phone and just took pictures with those (including us), but anyway we followed the rules. We did see one girl in front of us be denied entrance since she had a camera on her (and she started crying), hopefully they had a locker she could rent to store it during the concert or something. On the way to the concert we ate dinner at a doner place on the corner near where we were staying. I guess Germans aren’t the only ones who are a fan of the doner!  While we were eating a man came in wanting to order but was getting a little testy with the guy taking his order because the employee only spoke English, Swedish and Spanish and the guy ordering only spoke 3 or 4 other languages. The guy was about to walk out annoyed when Morgan stopped him and asked if he spoke German – which he did so we were able to translate between the two guys. Morgan to the rescue!

We took the subway to get to the concert (along with thousands of other people) and just followed the crowed to the stadium. We had hoped to buy a poster so we could get a collection going for concerts we’ve gone to here in Europe (we saw the Avett Brothers in Hamburg last year), but they were only selling one and it was really generic- didn’t say anything about it being in Stockholm or even a European tour- so we opted for a t-shirt that listed all the Eurpoean tour dates. The concert was so much fun! We had seats in the stands so we had a good view of everything, but the real party was on the floor. Floor tickets were four times as much as ours and it looked like the floor was sold out. I couldn’t believe so many people would pay that much for a ticket and then have to stand the entire time packed in like sardines – but they seemed to be having fun dancing, jumping up and down, etc. Considering the Swedish on average seemed to be just as tall if not taller than Germans and the Dutch, I think it’s for the best we were in the stands.. I wouldn’t have seen a thing on the floor! The music was great and the light show was really impressive – though at points it was a bit too much for me and I had to look away. After the show we jammed into the train (literally… not sure how it was able to move with so many people on it) and got off at the central station (near our apartment). We ended the day with a late night stop at McDonalds – along with the rest of Stockholm.. or at least that was how it seemed!