Museum Day

It wasn’t the thrill of theme parks today, but the three museums we visited were still pretty fun.

The day started out at the Vasa Museum.  Kory’s ex-boss (a Swede) told us to be sure to visit that museum when we are in town.  He said the Norwegians really love it because it’s all about a huge war ship that was built – the biggest in it’s day (1627), and when it was launched, it capsized within a kilometer of the dock and sank to the bottom of the harbor.  Norwegians get a big kick out of that one.

The ship stayed there for 333 years until 1959 when a local guy “discovered” it and with the help of the King and the Navy – brought it back up to the surface.  It took 30 years to preserve and put the pieces back together and now it’s a sight to behold.

The guide at the museum wanted to be sure we knew it was the “oldest, largest and most complete ship” in the world.  The oldest boat would be a Viking boat in Oslo, but that is just a shell of it’s former self.  The largest would be the Mary Rose in England but that had many parts not original.  What makes the Vasa Ship special is that it’s 98% original – and it is pretty impressive to see. (The model below shows what it was like originally - compared to what it is now - above.)

Kaleb couldn’t stop laughing over the fact that Sweden would build a museum highlighting one of their worst failures.  But as we found out, it was a Dutch shipbuilder that was partly to blame.  There were no blueprints.  The King of Sweden ordered a ship 40 meters long, with two levels of cannons, so the Dutch guy just built what the king wanted, in the way he’d always built ships before - forget the fact that math and science need to play a part in it all.

The two levels of cannons were something new in that time, but no consideration was made for the extra ballast that was needed to keep the thing upright, so when it was launched, it just plopped over on its side and sank right then and there.  They figure 30-50 men died of the hundreds on board.

As museums go, it was pretty spiffy and we could have stayed much longer, but we had places to go and other museums to see.  Our Stockholm Pass got us into all of them for free, so we wanted to use them as much as we could.

Fortunately for us, all three museums were right across the street from each other.  Sadly for Kaleb, they were also right next to the amusement park where we were yesterday, so all day he was trying to figure out a way to convince us to go back there for a few more hours.  He’s persistent, that boy.

The Nordisk Museum is all about the history of Sweden with every kind of display a person would need to understand life in the past – from the food, customs, clothes, furniture, handworks and even how they set the tables.  We didn’t spend much time in there – except in the “craft room” (above) where they have a lot of supplies and they let people be as creative as they want.  Kaleb made some kind of weapon and Kory made a cross. I practiced my croqueting skills, which I haven’t done in maybe 40 years.

In the “traditions” section of the museum, which I found most interesting, all the information plaques were just in Swedish – and braille – but no English.  I can’t read Swedish well enough to get all that they were saying, so that was a bummer, but they did have little “updates” about the contrasts in modern life now – with English subtitles.  For example, in the case where they showed the events surrounding the life of the church (baptism, marriage, confirmation), they mentioned the ringing of the church bells.  The “update” was that there is now one area of Sweden where there are so many Muslims living that it became forbidden to ring the church bells during Ramadan, but now it’s forbidden at all times because a Mosque was built nearby.

Other updates include statistics like 44% of children born in Sweden today are “legitimate,” and that over half the 9^th grade kids have reported being drunk at least once (with their first time getting drunk at around age 14).  So much for progress.

Our last stop of the day was at Skansen, an open-air living history museum that also included a small aquarium and zoo.  They had it all – on nearly 100 acres – so there was more to see than we could fit in within six hours or so we were there.  Fortunately, they stayed open late, and it was a gorgeous sunny day so we were happy to be outside walking around.

Oslo has a similar type museum where they have assembled many old buildings from around the country in one convenient location.  Skansen has taken entire farms and small towns from different time periods, so it was cool to walk down “main street” and be able to go into the old bakery and buy fresh rolls, or watch the glass blower working his craft. 

Several of the buildings were open so we got to see tradespeople at work, shop in the stores or visit farms and watch a woman work the loom.  Teachers were in classrooms and pastors were in churches.  It was all very cool as everyone had on their period costumes and would answer any questions.

Later in the day, I saw a dark cloud approaching, so we were sure to stay near a place we could duck into when the rain started.  Good planning, as rain it did.  We were entertained by the otters while we waited out the worst of it.  Most people left the park at that point, but we carried on, once the rain let up a little.

As we were getting ready to leave, we saw many people in bunads (traditional formal attire) approaching a community hall building, so we went over to see what was going on, and we were invited in.  It was all part of the museum’s programs - a Friday night wedding party – so we saw how it would have been a hundred or so years ago – the traditional dances and customs that would have happened back in the day.  What a thrill that was, as the fiddle music was lively and the swirl of colors from all the bunads going by was a great way to finish off the day.

When we came out of the building, the sun was setting, the rain was gone, and we headed back to our hotel.  It was a full day and even Kaleb said it was pretty good - so that’s something.  His favorite part was watching the glass blowers at work.

Tomorrow we head north, as we came to see what we wanted to see in Stockholm.  I actually love the feel of this city, especially the efficiency of the mass transit system.  I’m not much for big city living, but I might be able to live here for a while and not complain too loudly.