Vasa is almost a must-see recommendation for folks working in an engineering/project background. It was such a spectacular failure and for reasons that will likely feel all too familiar for anyone working in enterprise.

Wait, is Vasa the Ship or the Museum? Was the ship or the museum the failure?

Edit: Thank you all!

The Vasa Museum is all about the ship named Vasa - the ship was a fantastical failure, the museum is doing quite well as far as I know. :)

(The museum spends a lot of time documenting "how could this have gone so wrong?")

The ship was a gigantic failure due to serious design flaws.

The project to build it was a gigantic failure and caused the Wasa's eventual demise.

The ship sank during its maiden voyage.

right in the harbor!

One of the Titanic-era trans-atlantic luxury ships added so much marble to the first class deck and cabins that the ship was in danger of capsizing. Don't recall what happened to it.

Trivia: The Vasa served as role-model for "The Flying Dutchman" in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies — also a ship that sunk and was risen again.

The ships in the movies were inspired by real-world ships, and the team was helped by an expert on tall ships. When given the plans for one ship, the expert exclaimed: "This design does not look seaworthy. Is it really based on a real ship?". "Yes, it is called the Vasa".

Think it's one of my favorite museums ever. I thought I was "just quickly gonna watch some old boat". Ended up staying there for hours, so much interesting. I recommend tagging along on the (free) guides. Gives much background and points out so many interesting details on the ship.

I saw it last August, it's pretty amazing. It was the most heavily armed ship in the world when it set sail, sadly it was so imbalanced it sunk within an hour.

Definitly have to go there one day. Also a huge, and well worth it, time sink is Oslo's museum island.

I think it is a very good recommendation. But it is worth adding that Sweden is a big country.

Edit: spelling

Eh, it's half the size of British Columbia. If you're visiting for more than a few days, it seems reasonable to travel across the country to see something interesting.

The size of the Equator is zero. But getting around the earth requires a lot of time!

Point taken, but Malmo to Karesuando is only a three day drive (assuming a modest pace, one driver, and good weather.)

And that is reasonable if you think a country should be seen through car windows. If I have, say, a week to visit a country, I will definitely not use three of those days driving.

> but Malmo to Karesuando is only a three day drive

Which is a lot in Europe (e.g. driving from Warsaw to Barcelona would take about the same)

That makes it seem big, I don't think people realize just how far out places like Dease Lake, Dawson Creek and Terrace are.

And then going beyond, for days, outside of BC. My son and his girlfriend went to work for a few months in Eagle Plains, YT. I had thought of northern BC as a long ways away, but then plotted out their route that just kept going, and going...

It's just about the size of California.

But almost every international traveller will arrive in Stockholm, so it's not crazy to assume they'll be within range of Vasa.

And the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark [1]

[1] https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/

Thanks, going to Sweden next summer and this sounds amazing!

Vasa was awesome. I also recommend some of the ferry tours out of Stockholm.

I spent three weeks in Stockholm and built a four day trip to Odda (Norway) as well, where I flew from Stockholm to Bergen and took a bus/ferry to Odda. Awesome chance to get submerged in the fjords, and the Trolltunga[1] is only a few miles north of Odda.

[1] https://www.visitnorway.com/places-to-go/fjord-norway/the-ha...

When I was visiting Sweden a friend of mine took me here and it was indeed a super awesome and surreal experience.