Gwilliam Gazette : Baltic Cruise

Our next port was Stockholm - the capital and most populous city in Sweden, with about 1.6 million in the metro area.

Stockholm is not an oceanside city, but sits 50 miles inland and is built along 14 island. The ship has to sail for about 3 hours going slowly, through an archipelago (cluster of islands), winding through 30,000 small islands, rocks and outcroppings. It made for a beautiful sight sailing in and out of the port.

The ship stayed the night in Stockholm, so we had more time here which we loved.

Every 10 minutes was a different view!

There were 2 other cruise ships following us in

We were pretty close to some of the islands!

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We spent the first day at 'Museum Island' - literally an island with over 20 different museums and historical sights. We picked two: The Vasa and Skansen.

On the way, we spotted this robot lawn mower, doing it's job.

Yes, ABBA is from Sweden and there's even a museum for them!

We went first the Vasa museum. A little history lesson first. The museum as the only almost full intact (98%) 17th century ship that was salvaged after it sank on it's maiden voyage in 1628.

The King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, ordered the ship to be built so show the power of Sweden as part of a military expansion. It was a battleship like none anyone ever saw. Built with the finest materials, imported wood, exquisite carvings, 56 huge and heavy bronze cannons, spread across 2 decks. It was way over budget and about a year delayed. It was the most powerful and dangerous warship in the world. It was the flagship of the Swedish Army.

The original plans called for less cannons, but the King wanted more. The ship builder however, made his plans for much less cannons and less weight.

You can see where this is going. The top of the ship was too heavy with the cannons and not wide enough and didn't sit low enough in the water. Some of the other ship builders said the ship wasn't built to carry that much weight...and wanted someone to tell the King, but nobody did.

The King wasn't in Stockholm at the time of the maiden voyage - he was leading an Army conquering Poland, so he was not there to see what happened, but he was tired of the delays and wanted the world to see the ship in action, so he ordered it to be launched.

The Vasa went out to see, and sailed for about 1400 yards, when a slight breeze came and hit the Vasa on the side and the ship wobbled side to side and bit, then settled down, and another breeze came and that was enough to topple the mighty ship. It was too top heavy in relation to the size of the ship.

If the ship was only three feet wider, it would have been stable enough to carry all the weight and would not have toppled over. Three feet!!

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Outside, they have the full height of the masts - way too tall to fit in the building

It was a very interesting museum and so glad we went. It's the most popular maritime museum in the world and the most visited museum in Scandinavia, with 1.5 million people visiting yearly.

You need to go.

Then we walked to another one of the museums on the island, called Skansen. Skansen is the world's oldest outdoor museum that brings together culture, history, nature and animals over 75 acres.

The area is a mixture of houses, farms, stores, animals and even the plants, trees and shrubs to showcase what living in traditional Sweden was like before the Industrial Era, so before 1850. It's the average 19th century town and organized by the different geographical regions of Sweden.

Skansen opened in 1891 after extensive work finding over 150 houses, stores, schools, farmhouses, homesteads, banks, post offices etc and each one was taken apart piece by piece, and shipped to one location - here on museum island, and then put back together again, piece by piece. These are all original buildings. Plants, trees, shrubs, even weeds and rocks and Nordic animals are all what they would have been in the different areas as well.

All the buildings are set up with almost all original furnishings

These tapestries were used on special occasions and all hand sewn. This one tell the stories of the Bible

There are a few animals.......

This house looks like you could just push it over...I think this guy is thinking about doing that

Reindeer

This is a telephone booth!

The next day we went to the city center for a guided walking tour

This is one of the narrowest alley ways

We loved spending 1 1/2 days in Stockholm and loved the city!

Steps walked :

First day - 19,336 - 9.28 miles

Second day - 12,112 - 5.81 miles (short day!)

We made it back for a yummy dinner

The show that night was interesting 'circus' acts and singing and dancing. In fact, almost every show every night was American music and songs, and red white and blue flags, pictures of Trump and very USA oriented entertainment. We were definitely the minority group on board, with about more than half of those on board were from Germany, then UK and then Spain/Portugal, and then finally Canada and USA.