The Best Laid Plans: Vasa Museum

The Swedish Archipelago provides a scenic approach to Stockholm. Still a bit jet lagged, we were thankfully awakened by Gina, for when I opened the curtains, my sleepy eyes were rewarded with a beautiful horizon.

It was cold and drizzly, plus we wanted to see what was on the other side of the ship, so eventually we meandered up to Skywalkers. On the way, I grabbed some coffee and a bran muffin at the buffet, where I later returned for Eggs Benedict, bacon and fruit.

Like Alaska's Inside Passage, the Swedish Archipelago is a wonderful place to simply sit and watch a beautiful world float by. Suffice it to say we enjoyed it so much, we returned to Skywalkers for the scenic sailaway.

On past cruises, it hasn't been unusual for Julie and me to be among the first ones off the ship when we arrive in port, but in Stockholm a conscious consensus was reached among our group to wait out the first wave of passengers going ashore. While this definitely avoided any frustration of standing in line waiting for clearance, I feel it was a mistake, but we repeated it throughout the trip despite seeing our folly in Stockholm.

If we are among the first group off the ship, we can often beat the hordes to the main attractions, especially if we know exactly where we are going and how we intend to get there. In this case, our plan was to follow the painted blue line on the port to the beginning of the hop on, hop off boat tour. My sister and brother-in-law had a clear plan to go directly to the Vasa Museum, as did my oldest daughter and her husband. On the boat ride, Amy decided the museum sounded fascinating to her too, so she would join them.

I must confess that my only plan was to ride the boat and get off at each stop to see what was obvious, although I knew Julie and Jay probably had some other plans that would supplement that skeleton.

The ship arrived in port at 10:00 AM, and at 10:30, we were off like a flock of turtles, following the blue line past the gate where others crowded onto buses for the $11 roundtrip shuttle to town. Sure enough, we found the meeting point for the floating day-long tours and bought our tickets for the Green Line for $14 per person (a break from $15 because of buying 8 tickets). The hop on, hop off boat tour costs less if you buy it in town, but then you have to either walk or pay for transportation to get to town. There is more than one company using the same dock, so it's the luck of the draw if your boat shows up next. Passengers crowd the waiting area and stand in each other's way, blocking those trying to get to their boat. Had we been among the first off, I have a feeling several boats might have been in queue waiting for passengers.

In any case, we vied for position on the right side of the small tour dock only to find it was a Yellow Line boat. The next one coming was an express boat to the Vasa Museum. Perfect! Except that it was coming into the left side of the dock. We pushed our way back through the crowd, holding our arms up to wave to the boat crew, and we made it onto the attractive little boat. It turned out to be quite comfortable, with blue pads on the benches positioned next to little wooden tables, like a restaurant.

Unfortunately, we were about the last ones on, so I ended up sitting aft in a section covered by a convertible top with opaque windows. It was like looking out the rear window of my Fiat Spyder in 1973, when the top was a couple of years old and weather had wrecked the plastic. As we approached the Vasa Museum, I walked up to the table where the others sat and learned of Amy's plan to join the Vasa visitors. In support of her decision, she gave me a quick history of the Vasa.

Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus commissioned in Stockholm the greatest warship ever built. It would have 64 mighty guns on two gun decks, striking fear into enemies and hopefully helping decide the Thirty Years War favorably for Sweden. Some saw structural problems in this massive government program. Having that many guns would make the ship top heavy and imperiled by rough seas as much as by enemy fire. Like in Hans Christian Andersen's story, “The Emperor's New Clothes,” no one wanted to be the one to tell the arrogant king of the design problems.

In 1628 with great fanfare, Vasa embarked from Stockholm Harbor with 64 mighty guns on two gun decks and 150 people on board. Dignitaries including foreign diplomats joined the throngs of spectators on the beaches cheering the Vasa as she set off on her maiden voyage. As she sailed off, the Vasa lurched dangerously to one side, but to a collective sigh of relief, the sailors began righting her. But then she tilted dangerously again, and water rushed in the gunports. To everyone's disbelief, the mightiest war ship in the world sank before leaving her home port.

Over 300 years later, they salvaged the Vasa, and the side that had been buried in sand was extremely well preserved. They built a museum to showcase the ship and her artifacts. Amy said it sounded really cool. It sounded very interesting to me, too.

All of us walked off the boat briefly, but then Jay, Julie and I hopped right back on to see other parts of Stockholm instead of the museum.

As it turns out, Darlene and Brooks saw the line outside the Vasa Museum and decided to go back to the hop on, hop off boat dock. They enjoyed a couple of laps around Stockholm by boat instead. Gina, Laszlo and Amy said the line to the museum took only about 20 minutes, which is nothing compared to Space Mountain or the Matterhorn for Disney kids. After they toured the museum, they got back on the boat, and there they found Darlene and Brooks on their second lap. The Vasa trio headed into downtown where they enjoyed walking around and a break at a coffee place.

Darlene and Brooks headed back to the ship, where they could enjoy the Emerald Princess free of any crowds.