Getting There - Stockholm & Helsinki

Stockholm waterfront, with "Vasa Shipyard" to right

After a day or so of sightseeing in Stockholm (and adjusting to the six-hour time change from New York), we boarded a ferry for the overnight trip across the Baltic Sea to Helsinki, Finland. Our ferry cruised through the islands of the Stockholm archipelago and into the Baltic Sea.


Stockholm archipelago - Sweden

Baltic Sea sunset

 The weather was beautiful and the sea was smooth that afternoon and evening - really lovely.

During the night the wind came up and the cruise became rough, with predictable consequences. A lot of the folks in our group skipped breakfast.

The large building on the water, right of center, in the first photo above is the Wasavarvet (the "Vasa Shipyard"). It housed the partially restored wreck of the Vasa, a 17th century warship that capsized and sank in Stockholm harbor at the start of its maiden voyage. The Vasa was raised in the early 1960's, and restoration work extended over several decades. The story of raising the Vasa was featured in the January 1962 National Geographic magazine. It intrigued me, although I was not quite 10 years old at the time. Even now I can see in my mind's eye the dramatic illustrations depicting the sinking and the photos of the wreck as it was raised to the surface. So, I was disappointed that we did not have time to visit the Wasavarvet. The ship and artifacts were moved to a permanent museum in 1990. For more on the Vasa, see:  http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/