Had another late morning, sitting around the community area of our "pension" (hey, if he wants to call 10 rooms on the 6th floor of a building a pension, who am I to argue), drinking tea and making a high level itinerary for the rest of our trip. We leave for Oslo tomorrow morning; have our top 3 list. We leave for the fjords on Thursday, and get 4 1/2 days in the fjords (yea!).
Spent the afternoon in the Vasa museum. The Vasa is a ship built in 1628. It took 3 yrs to build and 20 min to sink (<1 mile from shore). Luckily for us, it sank intact and in waters that are not as salty as the ocean. In 1957 the ship was found and after 5 years of effort, raised out of the water (talk about patience). Then they spent 29 years restoring it (it is 95% original material). The cause of the sinking was the extravagant top (which made it top-heavy), that was not offset by adequate ballasting. The blame is a combination of:
* poor decisions in order to show off (firing cannons as leaving, which meant sailing with the gun holes open and letting water in),
* poor management (it failed the stability test so they knew it was not sea-worthy, but everyone was afraid to tell the king, who was insistent it sail for...), and
* lastly poor know-how of the period (dimensions were typically based on previous ships, but this ship was unlike any built at that time (an experiment that failed).
Not only the ship was intact, but much that was in it. They found butter casks with 333 year old butter (I assume they didn't eat it), pottery with the glaze still brightly colored, personal items, etc. The skeletons of the few that died and the belongings found with them were used to show what the people looked like and how they lived (they had busts that looked eerily real). Lastly, there was a section on how the people lived in that era, mostly relative to those on the ship (most were conscripted into the army, most were commoners with a poor upbringing (the rich paid someone else to take there place), poor 4 orphaned were put into forced labor), justice was determined by townsmen (no lawyers), etc
Ate dinner outside at the main square in Gabla Stan (old town). A well was built here, which is what attracted people to this square. I was attracted by the pretty buildings and winding roads. After a great meal, we listened to musicians who had set up in front of the Nobel building to play classical music. The waiters brought us blankets to wrap around ourselves since the tall buildings put us in the shade. Made it back home just in time for a gorgeous sunset.
That's all for now, better go get ready to leave early tomorrow (we catch an 8:30 bus downtown).
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