Day trip to Birka, a Viking island museum two hours west of Stockholm
This is my first post back from vacation, which I sadly havn’t had time to process the photos from yet. In the meantime, here’s a trip I made to an archipelagian island formerly home to a major Viking trade outpost and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The journey began at Stockholm City Hall, where all the tourist ferries berth.
It wasn’t the sunniest of days, but at least it wasn’t raining (yet!)
If you noticed, I’m experimenting with a new watermark in the lower right-hand corner of my photos. Creating the batch action to do this in photoshop was a gigantic pain in the ass, and adds like three extra seconds per picture to process. I’m still unsure whether I like the design or not so I may change it in the future.
One of the many bridges connecting the patchwork of islands which makes up Stockholm.
Because it was a tourist ferry, a guide made periodic announcements about various historical things we floated by. I wasn’t paying attention so I have no idea what the backstory is on this metal hat statue, but here is a picture of a metal hat statue.
The sun peaked through the clouds to light up this beach.
Chillin like a villain.
This vacation compound caught my eye for not only being awesomely built into the side of a cliff, but because of that epic water slide.
Seriously, what a location.
Pulling into the dock at Birka.
This is the building with the museum and gift shop, a short walk down the path from the ferry dock. We had an hour or two of free time before our guided tour started, so we went inside.
There are no actual viking structures still standing on the island, because they were all made of wood a thousand years ago. However, the museum has a lot of recovered artifacts and reconstructive models.
This part was my favorite, the guy hanging off the building roof. The craftsman’s intentions here elude me, but I imagine this depicts a punishment of some sort.
I forgot to fix the chromab on the skylight in this next photo, but I’m too lazy to do it now 😛
I think these next two shots are the most beautiful I took from a nature point of view, if simply for the water’s texture.
Finally our tour started, led by Jesus.
In the background you can see a monument on the top of a rock, the highest point on the island. We walk around to it later.
At our first stop we learned that all these mounds are burial ones, and the Vikings used to bury their slaves with themselves sometimes so they could be served in the afterlife (lol). Of course in true Swedish fashion, the slaves were also well treated and able to gain their freedom through good work.
Probably the most eye-opening thing I learned was that Vikings don’t actually wear helmets adorned with horns as commonly thought; it’s just a misconception that began when the first Viking graves were discovered with horns buried near skulls. Tour Jesus said the horns were just for drinking and buried alongside other artifacts they wanted to take with them to the afterlife, but once Wagner started writing operas sung by fat horned-helmet wearing women the damage was done.
This beautiful field is where the main settlements were established, and archaeological work is ongoing. While the group gathered around Jesus to listen, I climbed up the hill a bit to get a better vantage point.
I took this panorama. Our good luck with the weather was starting to run out as rain clouds loomed overhead, but fortunately our tour was soon over.
Next we walked up the side of the hill where the cross overlooks the ocean, and I again snuck away to beat the crowd and snap some photos.
Although because I couldn’t listen, I have no idea what this thing actually represents.
Here’s a pano shot taken next to the cross and looking out over the harbor. You can see the dock in the bottom left where we started. Our tour ended with literally perfect timing, as it just started to rain lightly. We walked back towards the museum, and went to investigate some reconstructed buildings representative of the Birka settlement.
They built these using the same materials, tools and styles that the Vikings would have used.
It was actually pretty cozy and fresh smelling in here, and I could imagine how nice it would be to fall asleep on the straw padded beds with a fire going in the pit.
Here are some ship reconstructions.
Perhaps my favorite picture, taken through a tiny window in the side of a locked hut.
And then it started to rain harder, so we just waited inside the cafe for shelter and scurried aboard the boat when we could. On the journey back we had a table reserved with fish and potatoes prepared for us, and it was a delicious way to end the day and relax.
After eating, I went up to the deck and took more photos of the approach into Stockholm.
This picture was notable because of the epic castle house.
Looking at this next one reminds me of Norway.
I love how pretty and colorful the house is on this private island. How truly awesome it would be to have my own!
I guess the underbelly of this bridge is the hip place to hang out on a summer afternoon.
This shot of Kungsholmen looks so dreamy, I love it.
I pessimistically tried to make a panorama while sailing through the water, which totally surprised me when it actually worked.
The end!
I probably won’t have have another update for a while as I sort through the >10k pictures I took while on my eurotrip, but I’ll try to churn out new posts as fast as I can.
