Friday, we all took different roads to the town of Roskilde, which should be about 30 minutes away. This was the original capital of Denmark and has a rich viking past. There's a neat museum here because in the 1950s, five viking ships were discovered under a pile of rocks blocking Roskilde Fjord. Twenty-five years later, the ships had finally been painstakingly reconstructed inside the museum. Each ship was a different style and used for different purposes--trade, viking transport, war--
and after they'd passed their prime, they were filled with rocks and scuttled to blockade the fjord and slow enemies. Outside the museum is a village of buildings that my pop said were where they reconstruct viking ships for exhibition using traditional tools. The main path has ships dry-docked on either side. 
The path is lined with small trees, each with a plaque describing how its wood was used in viking ships and which trees typcially hold elves. It's amazing how many different kinds of ships there are. This one looked like a dragonboat to me, except it holds 60 passengers, not just 22.Inside, besides the five ships, you can watch a movie about the five ships, read about where the replicas are sailing these days, shop for viking wares like skins and swords and coloring books,
and see how the vikings may have organized a battle around Roskilde Fjord. It's interesting how much their war tactics and culture must have inspired the Lord of the Rings trilogy. They had fire beacons for when war broke out, the naming conventions are similar, they have elves (living in Alder trees, apparently) and they talk about "middle earth," too. Funky!All the same, it's difficult to view them as scary, mighty warriors when they may have looked like this:
Or this:
Ack! Never mind. That's very scary.
We shed our fur-lined cloaks and trucked up the hill to the Roskilde Cathedral.
The Danes have been burying kings and queens here for centuries, but it's weird--most are not even in sarcophoghi. They just have ornate, above-ground coffins. My father challenged me to find Harald Bluetooth's grave, and I did. It turned out he was buried in one of the church pillars. 
Economical use of space. There are also parts of the floor in this cathedral where you can't walk without stepping on a grave.
Christian IV, whose castle we visited a few days ago, Rosenborg, has his own big chapel emblazoned with the C4 logo. He and his wife as well as his heir apparent and several others have lain here since the 1600s. The whole experience was a mixture of religion, 
art, sepulchral delights and choppy music from the pipe organ (someone was taking lessons).
Suzanne and two little devils :)
