As we left Svolvær to drive south along a chain of islands towards the famous town of Reine, we passed the Viking Museum. Before our trip, we had written this museum off as a “tourist trap”, but now, 2 months of adventures later, we were seeking other ways to learn about our environment. This interactive museum was a fun change from learning on the internet or from books and chance experiences. These are few of the hundreds of pictures and hundreds of laughs we had pretending we were Vikings and learning about their history.
Fun playing Viking for a day. I kept laughing at these pictures all day.
More fun in costume. The iron link jacket I am wearing had to weigh 30 pounds. Little One felt like she couldn't stand up when she had it on. It is hard to imagine fighting in that thing, let along wielding that sword.
Grinding wheat into flour in costume. Part of the long house living museum which we basically had to ourselves for the afternoon.
Remembering how to spin yarn from wool.
The museum had a lot of information about the Norse Gods. It was fun to see the kids put together what they had read in the Magnus Chase Book Series and what they had learned at the Birchtree School with what they were really seeing in Norway. I know very little about Norse history, but it was interesting to see how the themes play out in modern-day stories, like the home tree in Avitar.
We were too late in the season to get to row this boat, but we still could explore it. It was surprisingly small, and the thought of getting in here and sailing to Iceland was hard to comprehend.
King of the mountain!
Fun day all around.