Day 17 – 26 July 2023 – Copenhagen, Denmark

As we docked in Copenhagen a very large cruise ship docked in front of us, then not long after another large cruise ship docked behind us.  Today is changeover day with thousands of passengers leaving the ships & thousands more joining the ships, it is busy. Our bus departs at 10am for the drive through the Copenhagen suburbs & out into the countryside to the former Danish capital of Roskilde. More green pastures, fields of wheat & scattered farm buildings. The Danish road network is very good & we are driving on a dual carriageway with a 110 km/hr speed limit & before long we are on the waterfront at Roskilde at a little before 11 am.

The word Viking means pirate. The Viking ship museum is first on our agenda, these ships were recovered from the floor of the fjord of Roskilde in 1962, apparently deliberately sunk to block a main shipping channel. There are six ships on display, all built around 1040 A.D. in various parts of Norway, Denmark & also Dublin in Ireland. The Vikings had established a settlement in Ireland at Dublin around 800 A.D.

The Viking ships are an assortment of different sizes & shapes, some short fishing boats, others larger cargo boats, a mid-size & a very large warship, capable of carrying 65-70 warriors. The keel of the large warship is made from an oak tree felled in May-June 1042 near Dublin, Ireland. They have been reconstructed with what timbers have been found & recovered, over a steel frame to support the weight. The displays are well labelled with even the year the various timbers were felled & where from, amazing technology. Additional displays provide information on the extensive trading routes the Vikings used & the extent of the Viking influence on the world, extremely interesting.

Each of the recovered ships has also been re-constructed at full scale using traditional techniques with the large warship being sailed from Roskilde to Dublin & back to prove how seaworthy these boats were. Outside is a marina full of re-constructed wooden Viking ships plus various other small traditionally built wooden boats. There is a live display with men using traditional techniques to split logs & shape timber to provide the components for the boats using traditional tools. I could easily have spent a full day here.

Our next stop is the nearby Roskilde Cathedral, on the UNESCO Heritage List, a massive brick structure built around 1200 A.D. The Kings & Queens of Denmark are all buried here along with various notables plus the rich & famous. The church is littered with coffins, sarcophagus & marble tombstones carved with motifs & words depicting who is underneath. A lot of the tombstones are very worn from countless years of footsteps on them. This is a very large & an impressive church inside, the vaulted ceilings are very high. We are taken on a tour of some of the various crypts with Danish royalty on display, some of the sarcophagus have striking carvings, others are simple. The last crypt we visited is the new one for the current Queen of Denmark, Margaret II. She will be interred here when she dies, she is currently 83 years old & in good health.  A model of her sarcophagus is on display next to her real sarcophagus that is covered by cladding until ready for use.

The drive back to Copenhagen is pleasant, the bus is very comfortable & we enjoy the countryside farms once again. As we are having dinner the Carnival cruise ship in front of us departs, then our ship, then the cruise ship behind us. All very civilised.  We watch the Swedish coastline nearby as we sail back out to sea through the narrow straights of the Baltic Sea. Another great day.