Viking history sits close to Copenhagen, and much of it is hands-on. Kids climb aboard full-size Viking ships, swing Iron Age axes, paint shields and watch reenactors fight. The real thing is here too: wrecks raised from Roskilde Fjord and a rebuilt king's hall at Lejre. Here's what we checked, from the Viking Ship Museum to the reenactor markets that pitch their tents each year.
The museum is built around five original Viking ships, sunk in Roskilde Fjord to block a sea route about a thousand years ago, then raised in one of Denmark's major excavations. A giant window frames the fjord behind them.
Kids can climb aboard two full-size Viking ships as a light-and-sound storm rolls across the walls, play in a Viking children's village, and watch boatbuilders at work on Museum Island.
Frederikssund's Viking market fills the grounds of Frederikssund Vikingespil, the town's Viking play, with stalls, craftspeople and traders around the play's summer premiere.
Kids paint shields, shoot with bow and arrow, join Viking games, take rides and work out the rune hunt's riddle. Parents can browse the stalls and chat with the makers. It suits kids who like to try things with their hands more than watch.
Denmark's national history museum fills the Prince's Palace with 42,000 objects on display, from a longbow made around 7,000 BCE to the Bronze Age Sun Chariot. Kids can lift a real gold bar, meet a mummy and the Egtved Girl, see the Gundestrup Cauldron that inspired the Asterix and Obelix artist, and find astronaut Andreas Mogensen's spacesuit.
Reenactors turn Ishøj Tange into a Viking-age trading place, with tents, craft stalls and warriors ready for combat. The "modern Vikings" are ordinary families, retirees and young couples who show how people lived then: silversmithing, tablet weaving, blacksmithing, woodcarving, cooking over fire and the old sagas.
Kids can watch the fighters, join the children's activities and ask the stallholders how things are made.
An open-air history park on 43 hectares, founded in 1964 for experimental archaeology. Paths lead to an Iron Age village with grazing sheep, the Viking King's Hall with a blacksmith at the fire, and two thatched 1800s houses with pottery and textile workshops.
In Bonfire Valley kids chop logs with Iron Age axes, paddle hollowed-out log boats on the lake and grind their own flour for baking.
Viking history sits close to Copenhagen, and much of it is hands-on. Kids climb aboard full-size Viking ships, swing Iron Age axes, paint shields and watch reenactors fight. The real thing is here too: wrecks raised from Roskilde Fjord and a rebuilt king's hall at Lejre. Here's what we checked, from the Viking Ship Museum to the reenactor markets that pitch their tents each year.
The museum is built around five original Viking ships, sunk in Roskilde Fjord to block a sea route about a thousand years ago, then raised in one of Denmark's major excavations. A giant window frames the fjord behind them.
Kids can climb aboard two full-size Viking ships as a light-and-sound storm rolls across the walls, play in a Viking children's village, and watch boatbuilders at work on Museum Island.
Frederikssund's Viking market fills the grounds of Frederikssund Vikingespil, the town's Viking play, with stalls, craftspeople and traders around the play's summer premiere.
Kids paint shields, shoot with bow and arrow, join Viking games, take rides and work out the rune hunt's riddle. Parents can browse the stalls and chat with the makers. It suits kids who like to try things with their hands more than watch.
Denmark's national history museum fills the Prince's Palace with 42,000 objects on display, from a longbow made around 7,000 BCE to the Bronze Age Sun Chariot. Kids can lift a real gold bar, meet a mummy and the Egtved Girl, see the Gundestrup Cauldron that inspired the Asterix and Obelix artist, and find astronaut Andreas Mogensen's spacesuit.
Reenactors turn Ishøj Tange into a Viking-age trading place, with tents, craft stalls and warriors ready for combat. The "modern Vikings" are ordinary families, retirees and young couples who show how people lived then: silversmithing, tablet weaving, blacksmithing, woodcarving, cooking over fire and the old sagas.
Kids can watch the fighters, join the children's activities and ask the stallholders how things are made.
An open-air history park on 43 hectares, founded in 1964 for experimental archaeology. Paths lead to an Iron Age village with grazing sheep, the Viking King's Hall with a blacksmith at the fire, and two thatched 1800s houses with pottery and textile workshops.
In Bonfire Valley kids chop logs with Iron Age axes, paddle hollowed-out log boats on the lake and grind their own flour for baking.
