Vikings, vikings, vikings

Today we travelled a little out of Copenhagen to Roskilde which until 1450 was the home of the Royal family. It is today better known as the home of the Viking ship museum. In 1969 they found the wrecks of five Viking vessels from 1100 which had purposely been sunk in a fjord close to Roskilde to block it from potential attackers. Although the wrecks which consisted of planks of wood mounted on metal frames of between 30-70% completeness weren't that exciting, they gave a very good tour in English explaining all about the history of the boats and of the Viking era. They had also established a Viking ship building shop where they had recreated all of the ships using original techniques. These ships were fully functional and they allowed one to get on them although we didn't go for a sail. They had also been building replicas of other ancient ships so there were a lot of ships. The boys and I had a go with axes to shave down a 1/8 size split log. There were also opportunities to make jewellery, a little boat, practise basket weaving and make rope. All of the trades workers were very friendly and engaging. We were exhausted after a few hours so we decided to take a miss on the Roskilde cathedral where many of the Royalty from Denmark are buried. We took the train back to Copenhagen and I realized the cost of the round trip 16k on the train was $80 which is more than the cost of our one way trip to Stockholm. How can that be?Read more