Horn Herald: Baltic Cruise - Day 8, Stockholm

When we arrived in Stockholm it was raining, but we boarded one of the HoHo buses (hop on, hop off). Our first destination was the Vasa Ship Museum. It was a viking ship built by Gustavus Adolphus, a reformer and king of Sweden from 1611 to 1632. He led Sweden to military supremacy during the 30 Years War. The Vasa sank in 1628 on her maiden voyage after sailing barely 1300 meters in about 15 minutes. The brackish water of the Baltic kept the wood well preserved until 1961 when she was raised, after being in the sea 333 years. The Vasa Museum was one of our favorite stops on the cruise.

Model of Vasa in Stockholm Harbor

Carvings on cannon hole covers

After we toured the Vasa Museum, we hopped on a bus and went to the Swedish History Museum. We mostly toured the ancient and viking exhibits. Then we hopped on another bus to get back to the ship before we sailed, but after a the driver found out we wanted to go to the NCL ship, we were told to get off the bus, cross the street, and get on another bus. We were told that bus would not leave for 15 minutes, and would not get back to our ship before the all-aboard and lifting of the gang plank.The driver got permission to go ahead and leave to get two dozen of us back to the ship. By the way, we do NOT recommend Open Top Tours in Stockholm. We ended up making it back with about 10 minutes to spare.