Viking Ships

 Today we went to the Viking Ship Museum. They have three ancient Viking ships there, which were discovered buried in Norway in the early 1900s. The ships were used by the Vikings, and then prominent people were buried in them at their deaths, with food, animals, and valuables.

It really surprised me how huge the ships were! I imagined them more the size of large canoes. These were massive. It was hard to get a good picture of them, but you get the idea.

This ship was used more for travel than the first one. They believe the first one was used more for pleasure trips around the lakes.

Listening to the audio guide

They have the skeleton of the man buried in the second ship. Originally, when they discovered the ship in the 1920s, they buried the bones out of respect. But later they decided they should preserve them, and dug them up. They learned all kinds of interesting things about him from his skeleton. They believe he had a pituitary tumor, which made him especially large. He had a sword wound on one of his legs, and they believe he died a violent death.

The building itself was beautiful. I'm not sure if it was used for anything before it was a museum, but it was huge and sparse and lovely.

The third ship. This one was intentionally not restored.

Items found with the second ship.

A photo of unearthing the second ship.

A reconstruction of the serpent's head one the stern of the first ship.

A battle ax found at another Viking burial site.

I thought this was an awesome museum. Checked another off my Norway bucket list! Excited for a full week ahead.

PS -- if I had my way, these last two pictures would be perfectly lovely and cherished for a lifetime. Instead, well, see for yourself. <insert laugh/crying emoji here>

A beautiful memory of Quintana's scowl

What Levi J looks like when he's seen a Viking ghost