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Rainy and cold. Sweden turned it on for Eurovision and turned it right off again the day after. Stockholm presented us with a miserable day. So we decided to go to a museum. Funny thing is, so did everyone else. But this was on Darryl's bucket list so we were off. And it was worth it.
The Vasa Museum is all about the 'Vasa'. This is a ship that cost Sweden a fortune to build, and ironically, 333 years later, is still running at a loss. Essentially the ship sank on its maiden voyage a few hundred metres from the dock. It sank into the mud in Stockholm harbour and there is rested, preserved. Then a diver found it and realised that the cold water, mud and lack of oxygen had preserved the ship in amazingly good condition so the funds were found to raise it. Hence the world has an original wooden ship from the 1600s.
69 metres long and 49 metres high, this ship is beautifully preserved. The museum has been built around it so that the viewing can happen on 5 levels looking into the boat without actually touching it.
The 3 of us walked around reading the descriptions of the parts of the boat and looking at the replicated rooms etc that can give an idea what this ship looked like. There was a video presentation of why the Vasa actually sank almost immediately. And essentially it was too top heavy. The 30 canons so out balanced the tonnes of ballast that as soon as the ship hit the first small wave, it simple rolled on its side and sank with all hands on board. It was Sweden's greatest maritime catastrophe and a huge expense so close to the fire that burnt down the palace.
The Vasa cost approximately 2% of Sweden's GDP to build. Even today with all the tourist dollars offsetting the cost to raise her, she is not even close to recouping the outlay spent on her. Imagine a ship that has been around for more than 350 years still not turning a profit over building cost.
Though we could not understand the narrative in the documentary, I am sure heads would have rolled as the King of Sweden watched his massive flag ship, pride of the fleet, demonstration of the military might of Sweden roll over and sink 100 metres into its maiden voyage. Oh well, can't win them all.
So after the Vasa we walk into central Stockholm via the other island and through the town centre past the Eurovision ball to show Darryl.
But the day just was not getting warmer or dryer and we had to concede that spending any more time out was really unpleasant. So we made our way home via the Starbucks to add to my growing coffee cup collection and cooked a Thai curry for dinner and we're all in bed by 9:30pm.
Tomorrow it's farewell to Sweden for that last time as we ride a train down the Scandinavian peninsular and over the border at Malmö into Denmark for a couple of days in Copenhagen.
Written by Rod
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