Sweden Was Pretty Swede Posted on January 18th, 2017 by John Lundquist

Stockholm is pretty swede!

Alex Eichner and John Lundquist

Wednesday, January 18th

       After a long two days travel with a total of 10+ hours being on the bus, we finally made it to Stockholm and we would have to say it’s pretty swed (sweet)! Even professor Banks brought out his spiffiest shirt of the trip!

       We got a little extra sleep today having to get up around 830 which was well needed for the group. We were well rested and rejuvenated for the long day ahead of us! After breakfast we got right back onto the bus, except this time it wasn’t going to be a long boring ride. We had an exciting tour of Stockholm, Sweden! Our tour guide named Brigitta was full of energy and very enthusiastic about showing us around the beautiful city.

    A little background of Stockholm, it is known as the royal capital of Sweden. Stockholm is a very nature oriented city and consists of 1/3 water, 1/3 buildings, and 1/3 parks. The city is built on a total of 14 islands with the central island being the biggest. All of the islands are connected by 57 bridges, with a mixture of salt and fresh water rivers and lakes surrounding the islands. Greater Stockholm has a population of around 2 million people and around 16 percent of its inhabitants are immigrants. Stockholm is very famous for its museums and has over 70 in total, covering an eclectic mix of topics and attractions, and showcasing the cities heritage in all its glory. We luckily had the opportunity to see the most popular museum in Scandinavia, the Vasa museum.

       The Vasa museum is a maritime museum in Stockholm. Located on one of the 14 islands named Djurgarden, the museum displays the only, almost fully intact, 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged. This museum was extra special for our group because it was built by one of the family members that founded our school, Gustavus Adolphus College. The Vasa ship was a battleship over 50 meters tall created by the great king Gustavus Adolphus the second. On the head of the ship lies a sculpted lion because he was known as the “lion of the north”. Fun fact: that is why the golden gusties mascot is a lion! At that time in the 17th century, Gustavus Adolphus the second was known to be the most intimidating and powerful leaders of that time in all of Europe, and he chose the lion to alert people that he was coming. The ship flashed gold and bright colors which was the fashion back in the 1600’s. It was very detailed and had more than 700 wood sculptures carved into the ship. It’s truly amazing how well the craftsmen shift was back in the 17th century.  The ship took about 2.5 years to build and was finally finished in 1628. The ship had over 64 guns on two different decks, while the average ship at that time had only 30. The ship was designed to be very powerful to destroy enemies, but in the end it was actually very poorly designed since it sunk on its first journey. It set sail on August 10^th, 1628 and sank in the Stockholm harbor only 1.3 km into its first voyage into water that was only 30m deep. Due to the poor design, the ships weight was too top heavy, narrow, and tall. A big gust of wind caused the ship to tip over and capsize, leading to the death of half of the passengers on board. Almost all of which were women and children because the ship was in route to pick up 300 soldiers at a nearby island. 

        Over 300 years later, the ship was discovered by an archeologist named Anders Franzin in 1956. There were over 40,000 finds by the end of the salvation. Today the ship consists of 98 percent of the original parts and only 2 percent being copies. The total salvation took a total of 5 years. If the ship would have sank anywhere else during the journey, we would not have had the chance to see this amazing artifact today.

        After the Vasa museum, we headed back to the bus and went to the city hall for lunch. The group was looking a little tired, but the lunch woke us up and prepared us for our next stop at the home of the 1912 Olympics. The sports that took part during the 1912 Olympics included track field events, wrestling, and swimming. The stadium held up to 14000 people and included a VIP section for the royal family. During the 1912 Olympics, only 30-40 females competed in diving and tennis events. Today the stadium is used for other events such as concerts, soccer matches, and recreation. Some famous groups/people that have performed at the stadium in the past were U2, Michael Jackson, Rolling Stones, and Metallica.

      Due to being away from home for a while, not all of us have been keeping up with our exercise, which made the 172 step staircase to the top of the clock tower a little bit of a workout. After catching our breath for about 5 minutes the view of the stadium on one side and the city of Stockholm on the other was impeccable.

J

        To cap off the day, we were given time to shop and explore the city center. We are excited to get back for a good night of sleep and prepare for our departure on a ferry to Helsinki Finland tomorrow.