Baltic Cruise Day 3, Stockholm

This morning we arose at a more normal time, around 5:30, and took our time with getting ready and eating breakfast. By 9:30 we were on the boat to Djurgårten, to see the Vasa Museet, a museum that houses the royal ship that sank in 1628 and was raised from the sea floor in 1961. It has been restored, and still has 95% of the original wood intact. This thing is HUGE. It is almost a football field long, and about 20 meters wide. Turns out, it was one meter too narrow. The Vasa sank on its maiden voyage, lasting about 20 minutes and 1000 yards, at which point a brisk wind arose and heeled it over, whereupon it took on water through the gun turrets, and sank. Amazingly, for the time, only about 30 men lost their lives, including the captain and the man who controlled the rudder. There were a lot of boats in the water around the ship, and they picked up the ones who could get out. Oh, and two cats died, which we know because two cat skeletons were in the ship when it was salvaged. No rat skeletons were found, meaning either that the cats were very efficient, or that rats can swim. It turns out that the king of Sweden was at war with his cousin, the king of Poland, and he wanted to impress the Poles with his prowess at sea. He ran short of money, so could only build one of the four ships he planned, and that was the Vasa. When the builders of the ship did a stability test, they knew immediately that the ship was not seaworthy. The test consisted of having 30 men run back and forth across the deck 10 times to simulate a storm. The ship master stopped the test after 3 circuits, afraid that the ship would sink at the dock. No one had the courage to tell the king about the screwup, and in classic bureaucratic fashion, the ship designer, who had died before the ship was finished, was blamed for the disaster. A sister ship was already under contruction when the Vasa sank, and the builders widened it by 1 meter. It sailed successfully for 30 years. What a difference 33 inches and change makes! From today's viewpoint, however, we don't have even a spinter from the second ship, while we have the entire Vasa, in a museum, with a truly delicious story of regal arrogance and government incompetence. But I digress. After the Vasa museum, we went to the tiny islands of Skepps-Holmen and Kastell-Holmen. They were once the home of the Swedish navy, and trust me, that meant the Swedish navy was not very large at all. After walking all over the islands, we headed back for our hotel, stopping along the way at a Barcelona-style tapas restaurant. I don't know how Catallonian the restaurant was, but the steak I had was pretty good, and we watched the downpour outside from a dry vantage point. The restaurant had blankets available, and Denise availed herself of one for a while. When the rain died down, we shopped in a store that reminded us of Bloomingdale's, in that there were several floors of over-priced items for sale. Back in the hotel, we napped while the rest of the storm passed, then went out again to shop some more, ending up at a hotel near ours that promised authentic Swedish food, "like 1904." Why 1904, I don't know, unless that was when the hotel was built. It was telling that the sign was all in English, leading us to think it was just for us tourist types. Denise had a hamburger that looked suspiciously American for authentic Swedish cuisine, and I had steak tips that were luscious. We're headed for bed, having tried to watch the Olympics with Swedish commentary. Most unsatisfying. In the morning, we'll putz around and then head for our ship, the Marina. We are supposed to embark at 1:00 PM. Bon Voyage, and all that! Good night.