18/8 Stockholm

Saturday 18^th Stockholm

Early departure today because there is a lengthy cruise out through shallow and narrow waters so we made an early start, aided by an extra hour sleep last night. We were ashore by 9 and by 10 we had reached the Vasa museum. Only 500m away across the bay but we had to walk a lot further round the edge. We took in the Palace, narrow streets of the old city and the Nobel Museum on the way.

Nobel Museum

Palace courtyard

The Vasa was the largest and most magnificently decorated 2 decked warship built during a period of endless wars around the Baltic. It carried 64 guns and was crewed by 150 sailors and 300 soldiers. It set off on its maiden voyage in 1648 and barely made it into the bay before a squall of wind blew it over sideways, the gunports went under water and it sank. The problem was that there was insufficient ballast in the keel to compensate for the second tier of guns that the king insisted on having added after the initial design.

The ship was rediscovered in 1962 and refloated a few years later. The present museum was built to house it in 1979, shortly after I saw it. It has been extensively renovated and the elaborate carvings and wood sculptures have been repainted. Luckily, the low salinity of the Baltic does not support timber worms, which would otherwise have eaten all the wood.

Model of the Vasa

Nasty looking canonballs

Model of ship and crew decks

Detailed carving on the back section

We detoured on the way back and caught a glimpse of the City Hall and walked through the tourist precinct and back to the boat.

Covered in wood/moss...hmmmm strange

Mounted guard crossing a bridge

Here's this trick again. Seemingly sitting in mid air supported by a stick.  We saw this on the stage last night with the illusionist.  She floated upwards. The support seems to be from the bottom seat, through the right arm to the stick, then through the right arm above and perhaps a suspended seat?  Trick visually looks amazing 

Lots of narrow alleys in the old city.

 We watched the Tin Tin movie, had afternoon tea with scones on the back terrace, finished second in the trivia with another American couple and then came 2^nd in the TV theme music quiz with the family from yesterday.

We had lobster for dinner and then went to the show, featuring the Duo Balskatt, a balancing/acrobatic couple from Cirque du Soleil. They were very good. The crew poured onto the stage afterwards and sang the Norwegian song, which was all very touching. We had been expecting Ricky our gay Phillipino waiter to be there - he wasn’t there but Katut our room steward  turned up.