Hello all!
This morning we got up and caught the 7.21am train to Frederikshavn, where we changed to a train to Aalborg. We arrived in Aalborg at 9.30am.
First impressions - the city is very quiet compared to others and is full of factories and quite ugly concrete buildings to be honest. But as it turned once you look deeper into the city, first appearances can prove deceiving!
We checked in to our hotel. The man on reception looked at us strangely as if "why are you here?". I don't think many tourists come here! We have seen only one other pair of people staying in our hotel.
Nevertheless we set out for the day! The sole reason I wanted to come here was to go to the Lindholm Høje Viking Cemetery. I had read about it in my guidebook, it sounded fascinating and we needed somewhere to spend a night along our way from Skagen to Copenhagen!
We caught the bus and then walked to the cemetery. We then found some steps over a fence into the cemetery which is free for tourists to enjoy! We started our visit in the cemetery itself and then headed to the museum. But perhaps I should explain what we learned in the museum first, as it ties in with explaining what we saw in the cemetery....
The site was used for Viking burials between 400AD and 900AD. There had always been speculation as to whether a Viking settlement had been here, and in 1901 part of it was discovered. Between 1952 and 1958 the site was excavated. Over time a layer of sand 4m thick had buried the site, but this had preserved many items and graves that otherwise may have been destroyed! The Vikings had a settlement here right next to the graveyard, as it had great access to the Limfjord (the river here) that they used to sail to England the rest of Europe. But due to this sand cover once they had left, settlements other than the Vikings occurred here later on, however the settlement in 1000-1100AD was of Christian people so they buried their dead next to a nearby church and not here.
The way the graveyard worked is that the Vikings would set up some rocks in a shape (unsure as to why but originally it was a triangle shape, then an oval, then later on in the shape of a Viking ship with larger rocks at what would be the stern and bow of the ship). They would make a sort of platform and lay the deceased on this, then burn them until they were ashes. Mum and I were a little horrified by this to say the least, imagine watching someone burn in front of you! And the smell! But the museum had found this quote to explain why this was done - "you are stupid, because you take those that you love and honour most and put them into the earth, and the earth and worms eat them. We burn them in no time so that they enter paradise at once". So there you go. Don't think those watching were in paradise though....! Once the body had burned, they would partially bury the ashes and cover them with flint. Belongings were also thrown in and anything they may need in the afterlife (food, utensils etc). All but one of the graves were this way. One man was found buried traditionally with a sword and a dog in his grave and the excavators and archaeologists believe he may have been a chief.
So we walked around the site and saw the shapes of these graves. It was incredible to think how long ago these were placed here. I just sat there for a little while and took it all in. There were quite a few sheep and goats around too! You could also see the outlines of where Viking long houses had been.
Then we went into the museum. I had read reviews online by people saying they had come here merely expecting to see some scattered rocks and that they had been pleasantly surprised by the museum. We agreed! It was so well set out with a plethora of interesting information. They even had translations in about ten different languages so everyone could learn about the Vikings. We learned all of what I've just told you above and more. The ground level was all about the Vikings themselves and had many artefacts they had found at this site including animal bones, jewellery, utensils etc. All of these allowed them to gain a picture of what life would have been like there during this time. The lower level was about the river and the area in general and included finds from other archaeological sites such as skeletons.
But as it turned out, the best was yet to come! Again thanks to research from my guidebook I had told mum that we had to have lunch at the cafe here as they serve traditional Viking food. We walked into the cafe and were greeted by the nicest Danish man. He was very enthusiastic and smiley and so excited that we wanted to try the Viking food! He recommended us some Viking stew with pork and vegetables so we gladly followed his advice and enjoyed a juice each (me cranberry and mum rhubarb) while we waited. While we waited we looked around the restaurant and noticed that in Jamie Oliver's magazine in January this year there was a write up about the cafe raving about the quality of the food! Turned out the man's name was Jesper and he and his wife love using fresh ingredients and making the food as traditional as possible. And then our meal came! It was delicious! We had three little bowls, one with pickled apple with honey, one with a kind of pickled cabbage or coleslaw in and the third with the stew including pork, veggies and an amazing gravy type thing. All together the dish was perfect. W told Jesper how much we loved the meal and got to talking to him before we left. He was amazed that people from so far away were in this part of Denmark so we told him about our family history and he was impressed!!
We caught the bus back and came across someone else very friendly - the bus driver! "Hello! Can I please have two tickets to the city?" I said. "No, my ticket machine is broken..." "Oh.." "So you'll have to ride for free!!" and he broke out into laughter! Hahaha. Saved us $10 that did - hooray! We then just spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering around town. We saw the Aalborg Castle, the Utzon Centre (designed by Utzon, the same guy who designed the Sydney Opera House), the cathedral and the wooden houses in the old town. Even did some shopping and I replaced my cardigan! Sort of...I bought a grey and black one. Then we had an ice cream and took the opportunity for the rest of the afternoon to have a rest. I've been feeling quite worn out recently so I vegged out for a little bit and caught up on one of my TV shows. Tonight we are just going to have kebabs for dinner and in the morning we set off again!
So as it turns out, Aalborg is a lovely city with even lovelier people in it! If you get past the ugly waterfront as you pull in by train over the bridge, the rest of the city is quite nice and the Viking cemetery has such rich, interesting history that was worth the trip alone!!
See you in Copenhagen tmro after stops in Aarhus and Odense!
Welcome home dad!!!!!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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