Scandinavia and the Baltics - Post 4

On Thursday morning, we once again headed to shul and this time, there was a minyan, about 17 of us in total. Some of the men had heard that I had this thing about wanting to lain in every country that I visited, so they asked me to lain. 

We came back to the apartment, ate breakfast and headed over to the Vasa Museum.

The Vasa was a huge war ship built between 1626 and 1628 in Sweden on the orders of King Gustavus Adolphus as part of his military expansion in the war he initiated with Poland and Lithuania. This was meant to be his flagship and was meant to be a symbol of his power and influence over all of Europe. But the shipbuilders had never before built such a ship and while it was huge, with many decks filled with canon firepower, the ship was unbalanced and unstable. In its maiden voyage, just about 1000 metres out into the sea, a mild wind tilted the ship and it sank. Many died in this terrible accident. A message was instantly sent to the king who was fighting a war in Poland but he did not receive the message for two weeks. 

The Vasa lay on the floor of the harbour for close to three and a half centuries until it was raised in the 1960’s. It was stored in a warehouse until a suitable spot could be found to display this well preserved relic.

In 1990 the Vasa Museum was opened where the full size original Vasa stands. Since the opening of the Museum, there have been close to 40,000,000 visitors. We opted for the English tour, given a number of times daily, and it was well worth it to hear the explanation of the boat and the events surrounding its construction, its magnificence and its ultimate failure. There is also a movie that shows exactly how they raised the wreck from the ocean floor.

When we finished touring the Vasa, we walked past the kosher street food truck (Vegan Schmeegan), and caught a tram to the docks, where we caught a ferry to one of the many islands surrounding Stockholm, Vaxholm. 

The weather up to this point had been awesome but now it turned cloudy. So the ferry ride to Vaxholm was a bit of a downer. The little island Vaxholm, and the town of the same name are very quaint with brightly coloured houses, many boutiques and coffee shops, and if the weather was better, it would have been a better afternoon. So we cut our time in Vaxholm in half and took the bus back to Stockholm. 

We went back to the old city and returned to one of the stores we had seen the first day - a pop up store by a Swedish artist, where we saw some very interesting items. 

At the same time, we were told by a policeman who we met in the Old City that there was a new Jewish Museum in the Old City and that it was located near the massive German church. 

We could not find it so we went to the church and asked them where the Jewish Museum was located. Thank God they knew. The place had a very interesting history. 

It was located at Själagårdsgatan 19, in a building that was originally a shul in 1795. When the congregation vacated the premises in the 1870s, it was taken over by the Seaman’s Church, who retained the bimah and Aron Kodesh to be used in their services. 

When they vacated, it became a Police Station and the Police Commissioner, who happened to be Jewish, recognized that it was an Aron Kodesh. He arranged for it to be transferred to storage at the Nordic Museum where it remained until it was returned to this small and interesting new museum that just opened its doors this past June. The Museum shares much of the history of Swedish Jewry with many historical letters and features about its founders and significant leaders. 

And had the policeman not told us, we would have never visited this absolute little gem. 

We returned once again to Herman’s for a vegan dinner and once again it was delicious. This time we also shared a vegan dessert pie which was absolutely outstanding. 

Tomorrow is Erev Shabbat in Stockholm....more to come

All the best,

Fran and David