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Ship Outta Luck

Did you know that the city of Stockholm is comprised of fourteen islands all joined by bridges? It’s true, and today we passed by, over and under quite a few of those bridges.

We stumbled across the Royal Palace of Stockholm…

..and this guy showed us the way to find the Royal Apartments…

…where we snipped off a few photos of the royal crib.

Then we walked down to the edge of the water and hopped on a “Hop On – Hop Off” boat that took us to various other islands.

Past the National Museum

And the Nordic Museum.

Until we arrived at our first stop just outside the Vasa Museum.

The Vasa is a colossal nautical failure in Swedish history. Built in 1626, the Vasa war ship sank after traveling less than 1 nautical mile on her maiden voyage due to being built too top heavy with insufficient ballast! DOH!

In 1961 recovery efforts raised the ship from her murky grave after more than 1,300 dangerous dives. On the bright side, the waters of Sweden were so polluted at the time of her demise that most bacteria that normally eats away at sunken wood ships couldn’t survive! WOO HOO! So the Vasa was actually in fairly good condition despite being underwater for 333 years. If you ever make a trip to Stockholm, this is a MUST SEE sight. The enormity of the ship is mind boggling, and the various exhibits around the giant boat really give you a sense of what it must have been like back then — or for a Pirate in the Caribbean for that matter.