Roskilde

This morning we got down to the station reasonably early, bought a couple of all day tickets, and caught the train to Roskilde, site if the World Heritage listed Domkirke, and of the Viking ship museum. We got there before 10, and it was lovely to be somewhere a bit quieter. We enjoyed the stroll down the main Street, looking in the shop windows, without the feeling that you were getting in the way of a crowd of pedestrians behind.

In the pavement outside the church was the familiar Camino St

Ymbol  a of the shell. A long walk to Santiago de Compostela from here. I wonder if people actually do it.

The Domkirke itself is built of brick, with details picked out in colourful paint, and as the burial place of royalty and of the rich and powerful, it is packed with over the top marble monuments. Some of the tombstones on the floor were both creepy and incomprehensible.

But there was also some great woodcarving, in the stalls lining the main altar. I really liked this lecture, representing Luke the evangelist.

After a while, someone started up the organ, playing churchy music, which drove us out soon after. We walked down the hill to the museum through a solid rain shower, and got there in time to find out that the boat tours were all booked up till 2.30. I had rather fancied the idea of rowing a Viking boat, but it was not to be. My advice for visiting Roskilde is get down to the museum early and first, and visit Domkirke second.

Notwithstanding, the Viking museum was fantastic. The whole enterprise of raising, documenting, preserving and presenting what is left of the five Skuldelev Viking boats is impressive, and is vividly recorded through videos, photos, the boats themselves and models, replicas, and the ongoing activity of boat building. The way they have made building replicas of the boats part of the museum, and the effort they go to get school kids to engage with this part of their heritage is really fantastic. There were groups of teenagers rowing and sailing, clearly having a great time.

While we were having lunch we watched two teachers with a group of tiny kids, maybe 5 or 6 Years old. With one of the people from the museum, the teachers and the kids all donned mediaeval looking hoods, then set off carrying swords, barrels and fur hides in a procession round to one of the boats. The kids were totally serious about it, as if they were loading up for a raiding party. I can't think of another museum I have seen that engaged kids so much.

By the time we were leaving it started to rain again and we had a long wet stump back up the hill. One can see why the Vikings chose this place for a fortified town - any attacking force would be totally stuffed by the time they got up the hill. We were anyway. We caught the train back to town, and headed home for a nice cup of tea and a lie down.

We are going to Aero tomorrow, which I am sure will be nice, but we are feeling a bit weary of packing. Anne is on strike packing wise. But I guess the adrenaline will kick in and that will get us out the door.