Day 8 - Skansen & Vasa Musem

The weather our first full day in Stockholm wasn't pretty- slushy snow falling, gray skies and FREEZING, biting winds that seemed to blow right through all my layers of protection. But because Joey only had a few days there before he had to fly home and count more beans at his desk, we wanted to hit the two main sights before he left.

As you may know, I am a huge lover of open air museums. Stockholm's version was called 'Skansen.' Our first open air museum experience was in Reykjavik when Ryan was three. then Vietnam, a small one in the United Arab Emirates, Hokkaido had a phenomenal one last year, and now, Stockholm. (We had plans to see the one in Denmark as well, but it wasn't going to open for another week or two after we'd left.) 

Skansen did not disappoint. There were period homes from a variety of different regions/centuries, and although the cold meant we had to sip on hot chocolate and tea whilestamping our feet to try and get some feeling back into our toes- we had a good time overall. My dad even raved about their serving up the best meal he'd had in years.

A few of the homes had staff in period costumes, knitting or baking and sharing information about that particular home, the owners, or the time period. There were also 'farms' with Nordic animals (we saw lynx tear apart a rabbit), a few older windmills and even an ice rink that had closed a few days prior (that broke Ryan's heart). 

We caught a tram there from the central train station area even though it was maybe only 2 miles away ($4.50 each again), as we didn't want to tire my mother out. And because we got there so quickly, we had some time to kill before the gates opened...so Ry got his daily scooter fix in.

It was as cold as it looks- that's snow to the right covering the ground, surrounding the ice skating rink. The damp and the cold winds were what made the temps seem much colder than it was (32).

Reindeer! (Reindeer who were impervious to every enthusiastic attempt to get their attention, I might add. I thought since we never get to see Nordic reindeer, and they never get to see tanned Hawaiians...we might, you know...make a connection? Nope. These guys were a tough crowd. We will not be exchanging Christmas cards.

The Swedes have an ethnic minority still in limited existence. Just as Alaskans have their many different eskimoes, or Hokkaido has their Ainu, the Swedes have their Lapp/Sami population. The next two homes were dwellings once used by them.

This one reminds me of bird's feet. Disturbing.

We bought pastries made the 'old way' from one of the shops.

This was in the glass shop, made by artists on site. In addition to the glass and bakery, there were a few other 'shops' such as furniture making, engineering, etc.

Ry is standing on the beautiful, upcycled discarded glass from the shop.

Around 2 pm, the sun started to peek through...and blue skies emerged!

After leaving Skansen shortly before it closed, we walked a few minutes over to the Vasa Musuem. On the way, we passed a few fascinating buildings:

This wonder was the Nordic Museum, which we did not visit, but was absolutely a sight to see.

The Vasa is a pretty interesting building in and of itself. Although its size pales in comparison to the Nordic Musem across the street, it is still quite large, as it was built to accommodate the Viking ship.

Image Credits Creator:Anders Blomqvist Credit:Getty Images

I'd never heard of the Vasa Museum until I started researching for this trip, but it's quite a story. Here's the abbreviated Wiki verson- the ship was built on orders from the King between 1626-28 as part of his war expansion. At that time, it was one of the most powerful warships, however, she didn't exactly sail through (pun intended) preliminary seaworthiness tests...which for whatever reason (a mystery to this day), were ignored. Likely, the subordinates were too nervous to tell the King he had a dud...and so off she sailed on her maiden voyage, despite being extremely top heavy and narrow. A few minutes into the voyage, once the wind picked up a bit...she pitched over and sank.

The ship sat at the bottom of the sea for many years (333 to be exact), but was rediscovered in the late 1950s. She was pulled out of the water, surprisingly intact due to a number of lucky coincidences. The ship was built in oakwood (one that does better in water over time), and sat in mud/silt that was both brackish/cold, which better preserved the condition of the ship. This allowed the vast majority of the ship (98%) to be largely reconstructed with all of her original parts, which has provided incredible insight into the time period.

Although the Vasa was, for many years, a bit of an embarrassment to Sweden, it is now a great source of pride...as well over 35 million visitors have gone to see her since her reconstruction. She's been at her current location since 1988, and it is something to see. Any museum that essentially has only ONE main exhibit has to be pretty riveting, as you'd imagine! You can walk to see her at a variety of levels, as well as displays focusing on scarily accurate physical reconstructions of the skeletal remains found on the ship, artifacts, etc.

And as you can see from the first picture of the museum, it's so large that they couldn't even fit the masts in the museum (so they stick out of the roof). We watched a 20-minute film about her, then we also took a tour in English that covered slightly different material. I think you can easily spend a half day in the museum learning about the history of this ship and the period in which she was built.

A model size of the original ship, with her original paint colors/artwork.

You can get a much better idea of how large the ship/building are if you opt to climb up to the very highest viewing platform of the ship.

I think this museum was one of the more enjoyable ones I've been too, as it appealed to my interest in history and civilization, but not in an overwhelming way. Most museums tend to have hundreds, if not thousands of things to see/take in, leaving you feeling like you have to scurry around, absorbing  just a fraction of what you're seeing.

I believe this day was my favorite day of the entire trip, as we saw two of top sights of the city, which just happened to be a few hundred yards away from each other. There were a few other viking ship museum opportunities in the two countries, but this one was overwhelmingly rated the best/most authentic, so I'm so glad we opted for this experience.