Day 5: Vasa Museum

Vasa Museum is one of the most fascinating museums I ever visited. It has the original ship, which is gigantic, and a large and varied exhibition that explains its history and background as well as its construction, something about nautics, the planning process and so on. It tells about life on the construction site and on board, and about the individual people who were on board, as far as details are known about them. It also explains why the ship sank due to mistakes in the construction. Video shows and multimedia presentations are included.

We quickly agreed to extend our planned timeframe there and take the tram back into the city instead of doing the walk along Strandvägen.
The royal warship „Vasa“ sank in the port of Stockholm in 1628. The Titanic of the 17th century only managed a maiden voyage of 1,300 metres until she heeled over.

333 years later the wreck was lifted from the water bottom in one piece, secured and set on display in its own museum.

In 1995 the new Vasa Museum has opened on the museum island of Skleppsholmen. It presents the original ship as well as various exhibitions about its construction, the sinking, the salvage, life on board, archaeological research, the people on board, the restoration etcetera etcetera. These are very well done, informative and interesting. Take your time.

The multimedia presentations and videos, alternating in Swedish and English language, are a worthwhile supplement.

Free guided tours are also available at regular intervals.

Practical Hints:
The excellent museum website http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/ tells you all further details about the ship, the reasons for its sinking, the historical background and the exhibitions. This saves me further descriptions. The website also contains all up-to-date information like opening hours and entrance fees.

A museum with „Wow!“ factor. Not to be missed.
Since most Stockholm visitors follow this advice, expect it to be crowded. Coming rather early in the morning turned out to be a wise move. The lines at the cash desks were short when we arrived – two hours later people were queueing far, far outside the doors.
Getting there: From the city centre, take the tram 7 to „Nordiska museet“.

Sculptures on the rear of the ship around the royal coat of arms

Carved and painted sculptures from ship, reconstructions


View from the top gallery


A sail of the ship


Model showing activities on board


Reconstruction of the faces of some people on board, done by analysing the skeletons of the victims

Strandvägen - Stockholm's most elegant boulevard

Strandvägen is probably the city's most elegant boulevard. It leads along the southern bank of Östermalm and overlooks part of the harbour (Nybroviken). The land side is occupied by belle epoque buildings, many of which contain upscale hotels and restaurants and posh shops.

The street is good for shopping if you have money to blow - there are for example shops with top Swedish design articles. If you don't have money to blow, visit the shops like you'd visit a museum, just to look at these many pretty things. For everyone the street is fine for window-shopping and people-watching.

We had lunch in a restaurant along Strandvägen and then got the rest of the afternoon off. What do ladies do on a free afternoon? Shopping, certainly, if budget permits.

I slowly meandered towards the hotel, checking out a record shop or two because I wanted some new additions to my CD collection, sung in Swedish. I was not too successful, though. In Swedish language, there seems to be hardly anything between folk on the one hand and heavy metal on the other. Rock and pop singers from Sweden all sing in English, not Swedish...

A rest at the hotel and the last dinner in the city, and it was almost time to say farewell to Stockholm.