| | Aug 9, 2009 - Roskilde | (click to enlarge)
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 | | show all 9 | | market square, Roskilde | | remains of Viking ship | | inside of the ship | | |
| Today I visited the Viking Ship museum in Roskilde, a twenty minute train ride west of Copenhagen. It's a cute little town where all the Danish Royalty is buried and was once the ancient capital of Denmark. Some remains of Viking ships were found sunk in the fjord there, so they built a museum complete with workshop where they recreate ships using the same methods and materials the Vikings did. They were also having a big Viking fest, with people dressed in traditional costumes, roasting boar on spits, making cheese, weaving and other typical chores. Well, almost everything. There wasn't any raping and pillaging going on, and least none that I saw. They also had sword fighting and archery, and about lunchtime a reproduction of a famous viking ship sailed into the harbor and they had a big party.
The highlight for me was being able to go out rowing on the fjord in a reproduction of a small viking boat. The oar handles were carved with viking runes, each oar with a unique name. It was a short row, but pretty fun. They broke us into into 2 groups of 12. The English speaking group was larger, so they put a few of us in the Danish boat. This was ok, except when the instructor started telling us what to do, which was all in Danish. A girl translated for me and an Australian couple who was in the boat, while I translated into Spanish for a couple from Sevilla sitting behind me. Luckily we didn't have to do much, other than follow the stroke oarsmen, which was pretty sloppy. It was obvious none of these people had rowed before, but we eventually got the hang of it and rowed out into the fjord and back. It made me feel like running off into the woods with a leg of mutton in one hand and a screaming maiden over my shoulder, well not really, but it would be fitting giving the circumstances.
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