Shipwrecked in Stockholm!

The last days of this trip were spent chilling in Stockholm from which we were to fly back to Sydney. What better way for us to chill than a “Hop on Hop off” Harbour cruise  with a stop off to the Vasa Museum.

The Vasa Museum is definitely one which exceeds expectations. After a short time queuing, we came in the entrance to see the truly astonishing sight of the Vasa sitting there in this vast dimly lit hall. It looked like a ghost ship, something, as Jane ironically noted, out of Pirates of the Caribbean. The impact is dramatic.

 

I did note a sign advising the more dim witted tourists that this indeed was the “museum ship”!

The ship speaks for itself but in the surrounding seven levels of viewpoints and galleries is a detailed explanation of the ship its construction, context and those on board. The latter was discussed in a really comprehensive discussion of skeletal remains.

 

The iconography of the Vasa is really important as the ship was dressed to impress with the elaborate carvings pronouncing on the Swedish Kingdoms superiority and place in history.

There is also a good display on the conservation work undertaken to preserve the Vasa – they literally wrote the book on preserving shipwreck  timbers.

Inspired by our 3 hours at the Vasa we hopped on the next hop on/hop off and stayed on while they visited their stops around the harbour. This was great a good end to a day which started at 5:00 am in our hot Helsinki room.

Then as we were getting ready to hop off at the quay at Nybroviken  the small ferry instead of slowing seemed to speed up. Jane and I were standing waiting to go off and we moved back from near the bow at the deckhands shouted warning. Then with a big bang we hit. Both Jane and I hit the deck. There was chaos. My first thought was to get Jane and I off the boat. Janes was for fellow passengers. 

We got off fairly quickly. Jane seemed ok but I had a very sore (bruised)bum. We were both a bit shaken but other passengers were worse off with a few being taken to hospital.

Here is the scene just after we got off with the Swedish police just arriving. I was quite shaken and sat for a while to recover and to be given the once over by the paramedics.  Jane later became quite sore in the shoulder – a form of whiplash I think and of course my bruised bum was a very sore outcome,

Two shipwrecks in one day!