Denmark: new experiences with old friends in a very old land

I've been jumping out of my skin waiting for this week: the arrival of viking raiders from Australia on Danish shores, for a summer of rampaging adventure. Fellow one-time Normans Fathma, Josh, Jeff, and Catherine, and new faces from the group they're now a part of, the Jomsvikings, have been planning this trip for months, and I was just so honoured to be adopted by their Sudhird, or southern garrison, for a leg of their journey. Also joining us was the lovely Lissy, a viking veteran of at least 3 different incarnations back home, who moved to Oslo in March. My Danish is non-existant but Lissy's a Norse veteran, and after an overnight flight (Ants had dropped me at the bus from Oxford at 1am) her familiar grin was a welcome sight indeed at Copenhagen railway station. She's travelled in Denmark before and been offered the use of a friend's home while they were away. Just 15 minutes from the town centre and exquisitely European - from the shape of the doors to the huge double glazed windows, the o-so-clever kitchen and a furniture style that's light on woodwork and heavy on books and art - it was hard not to feel at home.

Our travels started with lunch - Danish beef, lashings of potato, fish, decadent wine, lashings of gossip and news from home. Yum. Then, as it was Wednesday, the day Lonely Planet tells us museums are free, we headed off to the Royal Armouries and the National collection. Wow. Weapons - big choppy blades and spears, horse armour, gorgeous ivory-inlaid rifles, cannon - up to 200 pounders. I knew Ants would spit chips over my photos from the Armouries and I just wished he was here! But better yet was to come at the National Museet. This was truly the stuff of legend - the things we've drooled over for years in books: still shiny and bright a thousand years after they were wrought, and right before our eyes! The Jelling Cup: the Mamman Axe: the Gundestrup Cauldron, Ogham stones and case after case of cloakpins, rings, brooches and familiar pieces that we've been asking Roy Castell to cast at home for years. I nearly cried when I saw the original of Mikko's massive silver cloakpin: perfect in every detail. Oh wow... Pints followed - it's so damn hard to find Scandi cider that isn't sickly sweet, but we did okay - a rummage around for a supermarket and finally, a home cooked meal (Liss used to be a chef and whizzed up the works) before an early night, ahead of more adventures planned for tomorrow...