July 10 – Viking Boat Museum

 We took a short walk this morning to the metro station where we caught a train to the central train station.  There (with help from a local who helped us find our train) we caught a train to Roskilde).  

The train station.

After getting to Roskilde we stopped for lunch and then took off through the streets of town.  It was a pretty little town, lots of flowers.  But there weren't a lot of people out and about.  

Our destination was the Viking Boat Museum.  Roskilde was a former (Viking era) capital of Denmark and the harbor here was a major hub of shipping activity.  Several old boats have been found in the last few decades and they now have a very nice museum with some of the preserved boats. 

There were interesting computer and physical models of the original boats...

and a life size one. 

Mary and Liam participated in a rowing activity.  The old Viking ships used sails but were also rowed by oarsmen…and we got to be oarsmen for this activity.  It’s a bit harder than one might think.

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Video of rowing
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The harbor and marina had a lot of boats.

On our walk back to the train station we stopped and visited the Roskilde Cathedral.  

A number of Danish kings and their queens are buried here. Their tombs were very elaborate.

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More Roskilde Cathedral
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Plaza near the cathedral.

We were back in Copenhagen at a reasonable time so decided to take a harbor cruise.  The cruise boats left from a dock on Nyhavn Street…one of the prettiest streets anywhere. 

The cruise wandered out into the harbor and along the canals.  We saw a lot of Copenhagen from the water.  

We saw the statue of the Little Mermaid (from Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale by the same name).

There was a large crane where we saw a bungy jumper.

The Our Saviors Church with it's spiral stairs on the outside of the steeple.

This was the brewery from one of the earlier Danish kings.

The waste treatment plant has a sky slope on the top and the largest climbing wall in Denmark on its side.

Nearby were these old military buildings.  

We also saw the Royal Library (it is housed in several different buildings but this very modern, boxy building is one of the newest).

Hans Christian Anderson spent time in this yellow building.

Colorful kayakers on a sunny day.