Note from Tory: More About Boats
Saturday, February 6, 2010
More about boats
I am really loving traveling on boats! I met some really interesting folks on my mini-cruise back to Stockholm. It reminds me how talking to people you would not otherwise meet makes each experiece infinitely more rich and memorable than just for the buildings and postcard views
This morning arrived in Stockholm and just had a short day to spend before I zip off to my ferry bound for Helsinki. The ferry crossing was much more gentle this time, and I awoke in the morning to the roar of our boat grinding through ice-- sounded like rumbling thunder. I dropped my bag in left luggage at the station and walked a long icy boulevard to a different island in Stockholm to visit the Vasa Museum.
I learned the Vasa was a warship built some time in the 1600s for battle against Poland (Sweden´s enemy at the time). The ship was huge, beautifully carved, and held 450 people (soldiers plus crew). With great fanfare it was launched into Stockholm harbor. And it went a short way no problem before it started to sort of list a bit to the right.... then it righted itself... and then listed to the left. Somehow it got all the way into the channel when a big gust of wind filled the sails, and the thing keeled over completely and promptly sank.
Oops!
Three hundred years later, the industrious Swedes dug it out of the mud and mire at the bottom of the channel and preserved it, hull to keel. It is now a museum, with the whole ship suspended into open space. It was really cool!
I walked by a hundred or so smorgesbord cafes before I found excellent Thai takeout for lunch -- pickled herring is simply not in my itinerary. Found it just in time too, as my poor wee fingers were popsicles by then. My cheeks are always rosy
I am off to catch the ferry, but I am thinking of you all and wishing you well!
Love T
More about boats
I am really loving traveling on boats! I met some really interesting folks on my mini-cruise back to Stockholm. It reminds me how talking to people you would not otherwise meet makes each experiece infinitely more rich and memorable than just for the buildings and postcard views
This morning arrived in Stockholm and just had a short day to spend before I zip off to my ferry bound for Helsinki. The ferry crossing was much more gentle this time, and I awoke in the morning to the roar of our boat grinding through ice-- sounded like rumbling thunder. I dropped my bag in left luggage at the station and walked a long icy boulevard to a different island in Stockholm to visit the Vasa Museum.
I learned the Vasa was a warship built some time in the 1600s for battle against Poland (Sweden´s enemy at the time). The ship was huge, beautifully carved, and held 450 people (soldiers plus crew). With great fanfare it was launched into Stockholm harbor. And it went a short way no problem before it started to sort of list a bit to the right.... then it righted itself... and then listed to the left. Somehow it got all the way into the channel when a big gust of wind filled the sails, and the thing keeled over completely and promptly sank.
Oops!
Three hundred years later, the industrious Swedes dug it out of the mud and mire at the bottom of the channel and preserved it, hull to keel. It is now a museum, with the whole ship suspended into open space. It was really cool!
I walked by a hundred or so smorgesbord cafes before I found excellent Thai takeout for lunch -- pickled herring is simply not in my itinerary. Found it just in time too, as my poor wee fingers were popsicles by then. My cheeks are always rosy
I am off to catch the ferry, but I am thinking of you all and wishing you well!
Love T
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