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A Canadian expatriate living and exploring first France now Germany, then BACK to FRANCE (!!!) with her family; former fashion designer, turned unexpected UNLIKELY NOMAD, raising two children, writing, photographing, painting, playing piano (who knew!!) and blogging - and now... full time student at ART SCHOOL!! (I MUST be crazy!!)

Sunday, July 1, 2007

VIKINGS!!!!

We made our way off the Ferry after a very relaxing 5 hours and found a great campsite right on the beach to spend the night. The moon was full and the breeze warm, it was great.
The next day…


Viking Festival….weew hoo!!

The village is called Skanor, with those two funny little dots above the O making it sound like I am not sure what, and then to the Foteviking Village where local enthusiasts have completely reconstructed and ancient Viking settlement.

A family enjoying the June sunshine…





A person can join this community of Vikings and come to live in the village for a week and learn all about the ways and lives of the Vikings. This last week was a Viking convention of sorts gathering Vikings enthusiasts from all over the Baltic area. Their festivities extended into the weekend with a Viking market attended by all sorts of very colorful, bearded, tressed and decorated folk. There was no shortage of interesting things to look at.

We even saw kid Vikings…

The market took place in the village, in amongst the huts of the settlement looking southward towards the sea off a cliff and the distant coast of Germany, with the villagers and visitors mingling together gossiping and bartering over their wares, very much I would imagine, the way it would have been a millennia ago. The market folk were all dressed in authentic costume made of homespun naturally dyed cloth with felted pointed hats, hand woven brightly colored woolen trim and dirty bare feet or laced up thongs. We saw metal workers who had forged intricate replicas of cloak pins in silver and bronze, chain mail, helmets, swords and daggers of every description, seamstresses, potters and wood workers hawking their wares.


An armorer repairing his suit of armor before donning it and inviting archers to shower him with arrows at virtually point blank range…


A sword fighting demonstration at which very real and seemingly dangerous blows were exchanged…

(*Authors note; The big guy in the white probably stood twice the size of the young lady in the red and yellow, but she whupped him by being lighter and smarter on her feet…l!!!)

Then we wandered over to a battle re-enactment and were most impressed with the warriors preparing for battle…
TBG-“Gee I think I have “Viking-envy“!!

Ready…Charge!!!
Amidst much carnal bellowing and thumping of swords on shields they did charge, much to the consternation of the children who just were not quite sure what EXACTLY was happening…
What a fun day!!!


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow! What a great start to your trip.
Can't wait to see where you go next.

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