vasa ship

 We got tickets for a boat company to take us to all the islands in Stockholm. Elliott isn't happy about the boat-- he thought it would go fast.

 Big brother tries it...

 ... and little brothers follow suit.

 huge propeller

First we went to the Vasa museum. The Vasa is the boat that sunk 15 minutes into it's maiden voyage. Yikes! It was built in the 1600's by order of the Swedish king. He wanted it done fast and for it to be a war ship, so they had lots of cannons on board. Since it was so narrow and so heavy (from the 16 cannons), but not heavy enough on the bottom, it couldn't even take a small wind that came up and knocked it over! It sunk right in the channel. It was so embarrassing that they cut off the sails that were still sticking out of the water. But it was in the 1600's, before underwater gear, so it sat for 300 years under the water. They did get most of the cannons out somehow. 

Then in the 50's a researcher went down to see it and started bringing pieces up. Soon they started a huge excavation to bring it all up. We watched a video of them getting things covered in mud and washing the muck away to reveal some things from the boat. It was cool! 

So they've rebuilt the Vasa, using all the old parts they could find- that's the dark wood you see. If they couldn't salvage or find a part, they replaced it with new wood- that's the lighter/ clean wood.

 waiting for the tour to start

 It was a very ornate boat and really colorful. You can see that later on...

 lion

 The front had all this symbolism on it. I can't imagine the work put into all these carvings and building the ship, just to have it sink!

 Linc's porta-crib aka Daddy.

 It was a massive ship- can you see the little people looking at it near the bottom?

I forgot to get a pic outside, but the top of the sails went outside the building. This only shows about half way up...

 This is what is halfway up the poles and ropes-- a lookout-- because I don't know it's real name. It was huge!

 cannon obsession

 A glimpse of what it looked like on the inside. The sailors lived a hard life- lots of disease and missing their families. The rules were pretty scary too- lots of death consequences. We walked through what it was like for them, and what they were wearing etc. A few people died when it sunk because they got trapped, so they had their clothes, boots and bones.

At first they were using a giant bell, with no bottom, to collect stuff from the wreckage. But later they used these suits. 

They did testing and color matching from the old wood and found that the whole outside was painted in fantastically bright colors like these. 

It was a great tour! If you ever find yourself in Stockholm- I highly suggest it!