Travels thru Life: 6/9 -- Explore Vasa and Skansen Museums

After a leisurely morning, we ambled just over a mile away to an island with several museums and an amusement park. The unidentified towers from yesterday were tall rides at the park.

Very fancy light post

Statue at a pocket park entrance

Fancy old buildings along the waterfront

This is the Stockholm area. Lots of water, islands, and bridges.

The lights report current air quality. Other
environmental measures are on the other sides.

The trees here are trimmed like those in Paris.

A swan pair with 2 cygnets were digging up eats in shallow
waters so the kids could eat more independently.

Map of the entertainment island. Vasa is the brown building
on the left with the 3 masts. Skansen is the large area in the
middle of a ring road.

Our first stop was the Vasa Museum, home of a ship (The Vasa) that sank shortly after it was launched in 1628. The technology to raise it again didn't come until 1961 with a major effort just to bring it to the surface, then many years of effort to restore it. Today, 98% of the ship is original material. It was thought that only 30 people died and 15 skeletons were found, some still with clothing and shoes. and these were analyzed to create a look at life in the 1600s.

Seven hundred statues adorned the ship, with two levels of cannon. banks. Unfortunately, it was not stable -- too tall, too skinny, and not room for adequate ballast. In the first 1400 yards of sailing, a couple gusts of wind caused it to heel over and start taking on water through the open cannon ports. An inquiry was held to determine responsibility, and while three people were implicated, including the king, no charges were ever brought. The museum included a wonderful movie of the sinking and the eventual raising of the ship. It was well worth the cost of entry!

Our first glimpse of the Vasa

Ship's figurehead

A model of the ship with guesses about how
it was painted -- lots of color and gold.

Above and below: bringing the ship up. They had to string
6 cables under it and then lift it between 2 pontoon boats
and siphon off the water and mud inside.

Model of placing the cables. Divers had to
dig a one-meter wide hole and swim under
the ship thru the hole to get the cable to
the other side. Scary!!

A 1663 theory on diving to the wreck. The diver
stands where the lady is sitting, hanging on
to a stave with an iron hook. Depending on
the water temperature, he could stay down
for 15 to 60 minutes.

The graphic shows how the early diving
bell worked.

Some of the 700 figures on the ship

All the iron bolts had to be replaced
with stainless steel to better preserve
the ship. It took 7 years and was done
after the exhibit opened in 1990.

The ship is braced with steel under her keel and side braces.
Because ships are designed to be supported evenly all around
by water, this is actually damaging the Vasa, and plans are
being made now for a better solution.

Two levels of gun ports.

After a quick lunch, we moved on to Skansen, an outdoor historical museum with costumed docents and a number of attractions for children along with the history lesson spanning several centuries. It was the kind of place you could spend all day if you were going to explore all of it, but we started to crater after 2 hours of exploration there, knowing we had another 20-30 minutes to walk back to the hotel too. This was also an interesting experience, but the vast expanses of space made it significantly less intense than the Vasa Museum. The old buildings mostly had signs we could read telling where and when they originally came from.


Summerhouse from the mid 1700s. The second story was added in 1800. Originally located in the gardens of nobility, presumably to escape the elements

There were 2 of these small cottages, for poor people. One
is from 1920, and the other 1940.

1940 interior

Above/Below: 1920 interior

Much older goslings than we have seen so far.

Above/Below: interiors of a two family farm worker cottage.
Workers were hired for a year, given housing, some food,
and room for a garden plot.The women milked the estate
cows and children were expected to help too. This system
was abolished in 1945.

Typical house for a poor landless family who survived
by selling crafts. The last owner was fishernan and
a shoemaker.

Interior of home above

The entry door was very short.

Mile marker

Steeple was saved when the church was not.

Horse barn. Skansen features ancient breeds
that were hardier, and hopes that they can
be of use if climate change makes habitats
unsuitable for more modern species. They
also saved a type of sheep that sheds their
wool each spring. They started with a few
rams and 20 ewes and now have many more
without evidence of inbreeding problems.