Today is the big midsummer celebration in Stockholm. It is at Skansen on Djurgarden Island. Skansen is another open-air museum. We took the ferry (with about a million other people) to the island and we immediately went to the Vasa Ship museum. It is really remarkable. A ship from the 1600's, mostly intact, that was brought up from the ocean floor in 1961. It is 98% original. The ship is HUGE, about four stories high. The Vasa sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 and wasn't found and raised until 333 years later.
There are elaborate carvings all over the ship.
There are two decks of gun ports.
This is just the lowest part of the mast, the two upper portions did not survive.
Crazy amount of carving on the back of the ship.
Look at the size of this ship! That is the longboat down there.
The ship wasn't just a uniform color. It was very brightly painted. Here is a rendering of some of the ship carvings in color.
There are seven floors for viewing the ship and its artifacts.
See what looks like a square waste can on the deck? That is a latrine for the crew, there was another across from it, they're on the bowsprit. It could be dangerous to be sitting there during rough seas.
The capstan on deck was manned by 16 crew members and was used to haul the ropes for the sails. There was another one below deck for the anchor.
If there was close up fighting with another ship, men with muskets would be placed in here.
Really, I just geeked out over this whole museum. I was so happy. A real, honest to goodness, sailing ship from the 1600's!
There were scraps of sail recovered from the wreck.
Carvings of musicians over the door to the captain's cabin.
Clay pipes and board games.
How the ship would have looked with all of the wood painted.
About 15 complete skeletons from the ship were recovered.
There was a short film about the raising of the Vasa in 1961. I recommend looking up the information about the raising and restoring of the Vasa, it is extremely interesting but too much for me to go into here. There are still many artifacts from the ship being analyzed and restored. We saw clothing, dishes, wood carvings, coins, so many things were on the Vasa.
After we were done in the museum we had a short lunch and then stood in line to get into Skansen, an open-air museum about life in olden Stockholm. The lines were really long because Midsommer is a special time at Skansen with the raising of the Maypole, dancing around the Maypole, lots of bands playing, people wearing garlands of flowers they braided themselves, people with picnic lunches (you can bring your own food and drink into Skansen and we saw some pretty elaborate picnic set-ups), people just sitting or lounging all over the place, having a good time.
The Nordic Museum.
Shakespeare in the park. In English.
Long lines to get into Skansen. There were six ticket booths and we were in line for 20 minutes.
Braiding flower wreathes for the hair. 
The Maypole.
A band.
The funicular. Skansen is hilly!
I have to tell you that by this time I was sick to death of cobblestone streets and hills. Just not a good combination.
One thing that I noticed was that it was almost always the male who was pushing the stroller and tending to the kids while the female was usually walking in front and enjoying herself. As it should be, Sweden is a civilized country IMHO.
A small summer residence.
More dancing around the Maypole. This time to a Swedish band playing bluegrass.
A manhole cover on the walk home. Goodbye Stockholm!
