Copenhagen Trip
Day 3: Tuesday 24th June
By day three, things started to go a bit better. We got our act together fairly early (well, by holiday standards, anyhow) and caught a train to Roskilde. Dodging between the early arrivals for the Roskilde Festival (some of them trying to carry bags bigger than they were) we made our way down to the harbour, and the Viking Ship Museum. (Cautionary note to the browser-choosers amongst you: at the time of writing, the Viking Ship Museum's website explodes in spectacular (but different) ways in both Opera and Mozilla Firebird, due to poor browser-detection code. Grr.)
The main exhibits are the remains of five ships, which were deliberately scuttled in the 11th century to protect Roskilde (then the Danish capital and a major port) from seaborne assault, by blocking a major channel in the fjord near Skuldelev. They were recovered in a major archeological excavation in 1962, and have since been re-assembled in the main hall of the museum.
The museum also undertakes experimental archeology, building reconstructions of Viking ships and conducting sea trials, and works to preserve more modern (but now little-used) Scandanavian ship and boat-building techniques.
Being a sad engineering geek, I was refreshed to see the more techie bits of the museum's displays using words like "strength" "toughness" and "stiffness" with their correct engineering meanings1 (I don't care if they were using authentic 11th-century-style axes to build a replica of a 960-year-old longship, it's still "techie")
After a relaxed late lunch in the museum cafe, we walked back up the hill to Roskilde Domkirke (Sorry, this site's in Danish, I couldn't find an English version) This is a magnificent brick Cathedral, originally built around 1100 but extensively rebuilt and modified several times since then. Inside; well, it's an old european church - fabulous stonework, wood carvings, et cetera, and fascinating historical notes about them. We had to rush to try and see everything in the hour and a half we had before they threw us out.
Roskilde Domkirke has been used for centuries as the final resting place of Danish Monarchs. In addition to being the oldest royal family in Europe (going all the way back to Gorm The Old in the 10th century) the Danish royal family managed a rather impressive (if unimaginative) sequence of Kings. It began in 1513 with Christian II, who was followed by Frederik I, who was followed by Christian, Frederik, Christian, Frederik, Christian, Frederik, Christian, Frederik, Christian, Frederik, Christian, Frederik, Christian, Frederik, Christian and, finally, Frederik IX, who was succeeded in 1972 by his daughter, Margethe II, breaking the cycle. All but the first two of them now reside in or around Roskilde Domkirke.
Many comparisons can be made between the various architectural styles of the extensions to the main church building, and the various royal tombs, sarcophagi and coffins. In particular, the most recent Danish King, Frederik IX, has a comparatively simple tombstone in a small walled garden just outside, a striking contrast to the imposing neo-classical Mausoleum of his three immediate predecessors.
Suitably awe-struck, we returned to Copenhagen, and Tivoli gardens, for dinner. This time, the weather was more co-operative, and we enjoyed the atmosphere, taking in the big band and the traditional Pantomime Theatre before retiring for the evening.
1The Compulsory Techie Footnote:
- Strength
- A measure of the force required to break something.
- Toughness
- A measure of how resistant a material is to the propagation of cracks. If cracks propagate easily, the material is brittle. If not, the material is tough.
- Stiffness
- A measure of how much force is required to deform (i.e. stretch or squash) a material by a given amount. Stiff materials take lots of force to deform, flexible materials take less force.
I have fun from time to time by informing people that, in the strict engineering definition, jelly is brittle. Don't believe me? Consider what happens when you hit it: it shatters into a zillion pieces, with smooth, sharply-defined edges.
The main hall in the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. In the immediate foreground is
Skuldelev 1, an ocean-going cargo ship dating from about 1030.
The larger of the two ships behind it is Skuldelev 2, a 30-metre warship, which was built near Dublin (yes, in Ireland - there was a Viking colony there) in about 1042.
On the right is Skuldelev 6, a small cargo and fishing boat, and on the left, Skuldelev 5, a smaller warship, can be seen behind one of the roof supports.
Out in the shipyard, work is well underway on a replica of Skuldelev 2. Once
it's finished (sometime in 2004) and they've finished some seaworthiness trials, they
plan to sail to Dublin, home port of the original.
As well as the Viking ships, the museum is home to more modern examples of the
Scandanavian and Faeroese clinker-built boat tradition.
These boats, moored in a quiet corner of the museum's harbour, seemed rather lonely, compared to the more glamorous "Viking" vessels. They mostly date from around 1900, though some are more modern replicas of boats from that era.
Side-by-side with the real and replica Viking vessels, the similarities in their construction are obvious...
...as can be seen here.
"Oselven," while looking a lot like a viking ship, is actually a modern replica of a type of Norwegian fishing boat used until about 1900. It's used to take groups of schoolchildren sailing on Roskilde Fjord. We watched this group push off and row out of the harbour.
(Boat pushes off from one jetty, and drifts slowly towards the jetty on the other side of the small harbour)
- Ship's captain (Danish accent)
- Row.
- Crew
- (do nothing)
- Ship's captain
- Row!
- Crew
- (do nothing)
- Ship's captain
- Pull the oars!
- Crew
- (do nothing)
- Ship's captain
- (steps down from rudder and starts working an oar himself)
Row! - Crew
- (get the idea and start to row, with much hesitation and clashing of oars)
Despite the appearance of having no previous experience, this crew of 10 rowers, mostly children with a few adults, managed to get up a rather impressive turn of speed in no time.