A pleasant day enjoying Stockholm

Aaric was up in the early morning Sweden time ... talking via Facebook to special friend Becca, who is in Great Britain!  By the time we got up, he was really ready to experience the breakfast banquet we enjoy every morning.  I'm down to fruit, vegetables and half an egg (too many calories in a super-size breakfast everyday) but  Aaric got to dig in.  Breakfast of pancakes, cold cuts, eggs, yogurt, and multiple glasses of juice.  It took about an hour and a half of eating and visiting to get through breakfast.  We are reconnected!


We took a drive out in the country, enjoying the mountainous scenery that reminds us so much of home.  This is complete with signs of 'moose crossing' and 'deer on road' like the highway to Banff!  We stopped back at Skokloster Castle to have lunch again.  A nice walk by a scenic lake - but a little chilly and windy to stroll for long.


Then the big event - we finally made it to Vasa Museum!  Absolutely everyone has recommended it and they were so right - this is a mind-boggling overview of the building, sinking and restoration of a Swedish War Ship!  See the whole story at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_%28ship%29 or http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/.  Here is a photo of this famous ship - restored after 330 years in the ocean!

We walked around this monumental artifact of human error (which caused the ship to sink) and human expertise (that found it, got it off the ocean floor and pieced it back together).  12 cables, each 6 inches in diameter, were pushed under the ship after tunnels were blown out under the wreck.  It was raised over 150 feet.  14,000 pieces of the ship were recovered from the ocean floor around the ship.  These pieces, plus all the artifacts on the ship, were cleaned, repaired and restored!


I wanted to know about the human experience, who died and who got back to shore.  There are no accurate records of this part of the event:  135-200 are estimated to have been on the ship.  The skeletal remains of approximately 30 humans were found on the ship. Otherwise, this no record of who lived to tell the story of the ship's short and only voyage.


Here is Aaric by an anchor outside, and he and his dad in front of the ship.

Across from the Vasa Museum - the Noridska Museum (Swedish cultural archives) is across the road.  The building is awestriking: 

Guess what my guys are doing now?  Napping .... Then it will be off to pizza for dinner - Aaric's pick!


Blessings,
TTP