Day #154 - Stockholm - Vasa Museum

The Vasa Museum

The ship recovered after 333 years on the sea floor

A small-scale replica of the ship

The IceBar

Absolut Icebar Stockholm

Sunday, August 15th

I slept long and peacefully - hoping to forget yesterday's disaster. Shake it off. I headed back into Stockholm to visit the most popular museum in town - the Vasa Museet.

On August 10, 1628, a ship named Vasa set sail on her maiden voyage. Unfortunately, the ship did not get far. It sank in Stockholm harbor - just minutes after setting sail. The wreck was salvaged in 1961 after 333 years under the sea. The reconstructed vessel, 95 per cent originial, is now on display at the Vasa Museum.

Wow - this was pretty cool to see. Just think if this was the Titanic. The museum was filled with all kinds of information on how the ship was built and how it was lifted from the sea floor years ago. It was a major process to rescue the ship. It required digging 6 tunnels under the ship, securing numerous anchors and supports, and then hoisting the massive weight to the surface.

The ship was made of wood. One of the most interesting displays to me was how they showed what kept the wood from decaying. It was the brackish waters which kept the ship in tact. In another area, worms could have attacked the wood, eliminating the possibility of recovery.

There were about 50 deaths when the ship sank. The bottom level of the museum honored those who lost their lives. They were very detailed in describing each person - with their bones and everything. Kindof strange.

After walking around the museum, I went across town to the Ice Bar. I had read about this bar made completely of ice - the bar itself, the glasses, the chairs - everything. I needed to check this out. Really, really neat. They first bring you into this small room. They give each person this large jacket and gloves. The temperature of the bar was =5 degrees Celsius and you could stay for 40 minutes.

We went inside. Wooo! It was this dark, blue-tinted little bar. I had paid for 1 drink with my entrance fee. What did they serve? Vodka. Any kind of vodka drink you could dream up. Partly because the bar was called: "The Absolut Icebar Stockholm". They fixed your drink and poured it into this ice glass - awesome. I met a couple from Germany. They were touring Sweden the last 2 weeks. We huddled over this ice bar and talked about our travels. What a cool way to end a long afternoon.

It was now about 7pm. I had spent hours walking around town and decided to call it a day. A nice recovery day in Stockholm.