Viking Ship

Today finds us in Oslo, Norway's capital.  We visited three fascinating museums, all focused on things maritime.  At the first one, we saw Thor Heyerdahl's amazing balsa wood raft Kon Tiki, as well as his papyrus boat, Ra II.  At the second museum, we saw the Polar exploration ships Fram and Gjoa.  The third (and to me the most fascinating) was the Viking Ship Museum, where there are some incredibly well preserved boats dating from 800 AD to 900 AD, along with several objects that came from their hulls, including shoes, jewelry, cooking items, textiles, and skeletons.  This image shows the amazingly elegant and beautifully carved prow of one of these vessels along with its shadow twin.  Such amazing workmanship, and boat building skills -- this ship is still almost 100% intact after 1217 years!