Bill and I have just had an eight-day trip to Scandinavia and have so much to tell you about our trip that I will need to write lots of Jottings!
For a man who did not have a passport until he was 30, he has certainly made up for lost time. He did all the research about our planned route and then took me on a wonderful but exhausting trip. We flew to Stockholm where we had a city hotel and from there, we walked miles, did the hop-on-and-off bus tour and even managed a fabulous boat tour of the harbour. We were very lucky with the weather as it was unseasonally warm and sunny and could even sit outside to have our meals. We had packed warm coats, hats and scarves but they stayed in the hotel.
The most exciting visit was to the Vasa Museum. It is not possible to explain the feeling when you walk into the made-to-measure museum building and see Vasa for the first time. You will be able to see from my snaps that this was a unique experience.
The Vasa was a mighty 17th-century Swedish warship that famously sank on its maiden voyage on August 10, 1628. Commissioned by King Gustavus Adolphus, it was built with two-gun decks and 64 heavy, ornate bronze cannons.
However, the ship was catastrophically top-heavy and structurally unstable. Just 1,300 meters into its journey, a sudden gust of wind heeled the vessel over, flooding the lower gunports and sending it to the bottom of Stockholm harbour. Fortunately, it sank in fairly shallow waters within a short swim to the shore, so many of the crew reached safety. Those who could not swim could climb the masts as these were above the water. It is thought that 30 members of the crew were lost and the skeletons of a number of these have been preserved in the Museum.
After 333 years on the seabed, the largely intact hull was salvaged in 1961. Today, over 98% of its original wood and decorations are preserved. There is so much information about the salvage of the ship and then research going on at the Museum, I thoroughly recommend watching the films available.
