The Vikings are here!

Well what a day we had. Something that was planned with such short notice turned out great.
We went to the Dvblinia experience at Christchurch. It wasnt as expensive as some tours it cost 17euro. For all four of us, we stayed until closing. We took lots of pics.

For the very few that dont know this is Christchurch in Dublin. It also has tours and there are some ruins in the grounds.

I dont think Frank couldnt get his

WHOLE head through hes gagging....
These medieval cutouts are just

outside on the way in to Dvblinia

the girls loved this.

This is a typical bed! and below is the loo! Moss was used as toilet paper. In viking age Dublin local trade with the rural area around the town was important to obtain crucial supplies....the raw material moss was theViking equivalent of toilet paper!

you wouldnt guess what these are used for...for the fashion concious Viking, in muddy weather they could protect their leather shoes by wearing these high wooden heels!

Because they didnt have zips or buttons the Vikings made these loops that had a little gap that would allow a long type of pin to go through and then they would turn the loop to lock the pin in place.. its true necessity is the mother of invention.

These are samples of viking weapons and mail. Viking weapons are easy to find as they are always buried with them.

they buried their dead with their swords. their graves were pretty shallow.

this is the skeleton of a woman. the girls had lots of questions

these are of a male viking

and these are of a wolf and cat

This is the runes. We tried to get the

best picture we could. We had great

fun making up messages with the runes.

Caoimhe is still leaving messages around

the place. She will soon be fluent in Viking!

Caoimhes runes

Guess who??

ye olde spice shoppe and fresh too! plus they would have had entertainment. They also had displays of a stock with some poor guy stuck in it, he took some white bread! and the medicine stall had lots of cures including teeth extractions!

this man was fantastic. He showed the girls how money was made. He also had made beautiful silver chains and bracelets. He gave a great history lesson on silver. The vikings would wear silver and it meant they could spend it if they needed to! They would also cut the coins in quarters (a halpenny).

He was asked how long he was there his reply was since c800s!

He actually makes coins here and here is a picture of the tools he uses.

Girls thought he was cool.

a satchal of coins

A Viking, did you know they didnt have horns on their helmets.

these are pictures that we thougt were worth taking because the girls read them it encouraged them to find out more.

Sadhbh and Caoimhe thought the chain mail was very heavy and couldnt believe that vikings could wear this.

Oh yes viking Caoimhe!

This display is of the protestant reformation...not the next top model!

this is the scribes stall. In viking times if you had money you could get certificates made. The girls are doing rubbings of certificate plates.

this stained glass window is beautiful. its at the end of the viking experience.

the photo doesnt do it justice.

Im so glad we went on this trip. there is so much more to see.

The girls rate this one as ten out of ten! because their was lots to do not just the reading.