Weekend In Reverse

Rich came back from Germany this past Friday - and along with him came Uncle Dave. After a weekend of can't-complain weather, Dave took off this morning to Copenhagen to sight see on his own for a couple of days.

Yesterday we decided to tour a bit of the Kerteminde area, including the Viking Museum at Ladby. This is the only viking ship burial that has been discovered; and it has been preserved within a mound as it would have been originally. What's also interesting is that no part of the wooden boat remains - only its imprint and any remaining metal things (like some ship decorations, bolts & rings). Also found were animal bones (horses and dogs because the chiefs were buried with their favorite animals), and a few "treasures" (although not so very many because the grave had been plundered).




We also got lucky, because on the day of our visit a real viking woman had set up camp outside the museum entrance and was cooking real viking food over an open fire. Porridge, cheese dip, just-made-butter, flat bread, and condiments like honey, nuts, jam, and coriander.

Staying in character... she said - So you are from the U.S.? Some of 'our people' have traveled there before.
Trying out the porridge... she said - This type of food has become a very popular breakfast in the year 2009.
Washing up our wooden dishes and spoons.

While in Kerteminde we showed Uncle Dave what DK 'soft is' (is = ice cream) is all about. Dems were real chocolate sprinkles - so good!


On Saturday we headed on over to Ribe located on the west coast of Jutland. This town is often noted as the first and oldest known viking town in Denmark. Some nice photos can be found here. The town has an impressive church that you can tour, and also a very high bell tower that lets you get a good view of the area - which includes the ocean, an old fort, some canals, and streams.



Then it was off to the coast - because Jutland coast is far different from Fyn coast. In place of Rømø to the south (which we visited last year), we decided to head north towards Esbjerg, and then west to the coast. Our method seems to be just drive until you can't go any further. So, we eventually ended up in Blåvand. We parked at the lighthouse, and then walked through the vegetated dunes down to the beach. There were old German bunkers, and shells galore - big ones like I've never found before. I say it all the time - every beach is different.



These shells were buried in the beach sand, you'd just see bits of them poking through the surface. At one point Peter just started digging down with his hands, and it was just amazing how much stuff was just under the surface, and even further down.