Vikingskiphuset

Today has been the first rainy - I mean proper, Manchester style rainy - day of the trip. So, we thought it would be a good idea to visit some museums. The only problem was that thousands of other visitors had the same idea.  Never mind. The museum of Viking Ships was really interesting, with two intact 1200 year old examples, found in burial mounds. This picture shows the Gokstad ship - said to be a robust, ocean-going vessel.  The Goseborg ship, with its ornamental prow, was described as a ceremonial craft.

We then visited the nearby Kon-Tiki Museum, which displays the balsa wood raft of the same name, used by Thor Heyerdahl to sail from Peru to Polynesia, to prove that it could be done. It also has his totora-reed boat Ra II, used to do a similar journey from Morocco to Barbados.  An earlier attempt failed when the first Ra sank.

Both museums were extremely well-presented, with ample explanatory info.