Brom meets the Vikings

Coocoo

Here I am again to tell you of our day today. And to start with: everybody was feeling good! Which is very important of course. Especially since today we would visit the Vikings. In their own home. Because wouldn't you know it, Mara actually lives quite close to the Home of the first King of Norway! I think. 

He had nice hair and wanted to marry, but the girl said he needed to be as rich and powerful as some Viking who lived in Denmark and then Harald (that was his name you see: Harald Hårfagre or Fairhair) went off and conquered a lot of other people in Norway, not cutting his hair once and then he went back and they got married. I don't think it was true love, but it's a nice story.

Now, the place where he used to live is an island just off the coast of the island of Karmøy (where Mara used to live before as well) called Bukkøy. They have found lots of things in the area: bracelets and tools and ships and all sorts. And they rebuilt a sort of Viking village there again, which was where the festival was held. 

There were people selling wooden swords and shields, leather shoes, felt mice, raven claws and fox furs (yes, real ones), mugs, jugs and a lot of other things. We could listen to stories (in Norwegian though and Gera doesn't understand), fight (really) and eat. We saw a show of three idiots (they were professional idiots, they told us so themselves) which was really funny, we walked through mud and we enjoyed the nice day. 

The three professional idiots from Sweden

When we were finished there, we went to the Viking museum which was really nice as well. There we learned a bit more about the history of the Vikings and even a bit of what happened after. It turns out that Avaldsnes not only was the Home of the Vikings, it was also the first place the Hansa established a base in Norway! 

I was only a tiny bit scared. Really...

We all had a lovely day and I really enjoyed seeing all those Vikings...