Stockholm museums

At breakfast this morning we were graced with a choir sing acapella songs celebrating Saint Lucy’s Day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy%27s_Day

The lead singer had seven actual lit candles on her head.

After that we headed for the Vasa Museum, which had an actual viking ship which had been recovered from the harbour here, pretty-much intact.
https://www.vasamuseet.se/en

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship) :

“Vasa is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship sank after sailing roughly 1,300 m into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. She fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannons were salvaged in the 17th century, until she was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping area in Stockholm harbor. The ship was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961.”

The ship sank on its maiden voyage, apparently about 20 minutes into its trip, when a light wind caused it to list, then water entered the gun doors, filling it with water, causing it to sink. It was not wide enough to carry enough ballast to make it stable.
It sunk into thick mud, which lacked oxygen, so that it was largely preserved for centuries. Roughly 30 people died, the ones who could swim, and were not too far below deck, escaped and swam to shore.
Below are some of the coins recovered from the wreck.

Then we visited the nearby Viking Museum. Below was what a typical breakfast looked like, porridge, butter, barley bread, and maybe some nuts.

On special occasions a more elaborate meal was served:

Below is a model of what they imagine a viking house looked like. Sleeping, cooking, eating, storage. To the right was a sheltered place for their animals to live.

Finally we took an “amusement park” style ride which took about 20 minutes to tell a tale. We were in a carriage for four people (just the two of us however) which slowly moved through the exhibit, stopping every few seconds, while a video played and a voice narrated what was happening.
The gist of the story was that the wife commanded her husband to get on with it, and bring back three barrels of silver, because a family without money was nothing. In fact, things were coming to such a dire situation that the (only) daughter would have to be married off for money, if he was unsuccessful.
They sailed off, attacking other ships, making money, until they themselves fell prey to pirates. After a number of years the husband found honest work, and eventually, as we recall, found his fortune fighting as a paid fighter. He eventually returned with six barrels of silver, to the delight of his wife, and I dare say his daughter was also pleased she wasn’t going to be auctioned off.