Round the World Chelle: The Sinking of a Great Ship and Other Sites in Stockholm

May 9, 2012

Stockholm, Sweden

Hello, Sweden!

It’s dangerous visiting Scandinavian cities in the spring. You get caught up in their beauty and energy and think you might want to move there, forgetting that as light and green as it is at the moment it is as dark and grey six months down the line. But the gloomy and cold Stockholm winter might be worth it for the spring and summer. People were out everywhere running, strolling, riding bikes. And everyone was extremely helpful—we were assisted in one way or another probably four times within the first two hours of our arrival. (Maybe there’s something about me that says I need help?)

We arrived in the city by ship. Our “ferry” turned out to be more of a one-night cruise, which, unfortunately, we were a bit too tired to take full advantage of, but it was still nice to be on a ship with things going on. But at least we arrived in the city refreshed and we went out to explore the city after dropping our things off at the hotel. We again decided to follow the Hop-on, Hop-Off bus route by foot to see the sights Stockholm is known for.

While getting our bearings on a bench we were approached by a man who was working on a photography project who wanted us to pose in some “spring” photos. It turns out he has a daughter living in Palo Alto—small world.

The weather really was perfect.

The Aussie sisters were very excited about the their first hockey game and we decided it would be fun to catch a game in the other host city of the Championship, and we saw Germany and Latvia face-off in the Stockholm stadium that night. We were cheering for Germany as Kat had lived there for a bit, but the stadium belonged to Latvia. In fact, I think perhaps all of Latvia was there. It was a close game, and despite holding a German flag, I was quite satisfied when Latvia scored the game-winning goal. The red-painted Latvian faces erupted in cheers and kisses, and we heard chants and satisfied cheers the whole subway ride home.

The Latvian fans sitting behind us. They couldn't contain their enthusiasm.

The following day we explored Stockholm, including a visit to the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a Swedish war ship that sunk on its maiden voyage in 1628. Much effort and attention had gone into its building and ornamentation, but evidently not enough into its design. It was top-heavy and lacked enough ballast. Once built but before its fateful first journey, the ship’s captain actually cut some its initial stability testing short because he was worried he was going to sink the ship. But, evidently, no one had the courage to let the eager king who had ordered it know about these doubts. So it set sail and sank within a nautical mile while hundreds of ordinary citizens watched. Most passengers made if off the ship, but when the Vasa was found in 1950s, there were remains of at least 15 people onboard. The salt water into which it sank did a great job preserving the ship, and archeologists have learned much about warships of the time from its recovery. I have to say, it was pretty impressive.