A day of Vikings

As you know I have already seen Viking ships but not more historical aspects of the Viking culture so I took a tour. The first stops along the way were to see runestones and a council meeting space. Vikings were actually a pretty developed society that engaged in commerce all over the world. They spoke several languages and would travel to Constantinople to trade with all over the world. While some of their acts were savage, they were more advanced than most shows and movies make them out to be.

Runestones are basically stories about men who were Viking warriors and/or died while travelling. They can be found all over Scandinavia but Sweden as by far the most - somewhere between 1,700 and 2,500. There was one in even in the city centre but for this tour, they were all in the outskirts and countryside.

These ones were all around the suburb of Stockholm known as Täby which is also where we saw a traditional looking farm.

As mentioned, we also saw a Viking council area - based on the layout of the rocks in the area, they believe it was where decisions were taken by those that governed at that time. You can see them in behind the runestone. The site was beside a lake which in Sweden, are all public. People have the right to camp on other's property because certain distances from the water belong to everyone.

Then it was off to the countryside around Hökeriet to see another old Viking establishment with a giant runestone!

Some of the runestones are found now where churches stand, in some cases they are even embedded in the structure. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of the church or where it was (again, a failing of not keeping this up to date!)

The last part of the tour was fittingly Viking burial grounds which are huge hills. Vikings were often buried with their possessions which sometimes included their ships which is why some of the mounds are so large. This site was also beside a church which had - yes - a runestone but also this super cool trunk that had a bunch of locks so that treasure was harder to steal. Those Vikings knew what they were doing!