The Friday Five

[ppfuf]

It’s been a good week, outside of work. We had Aasa’s early birthday at Wednesday dance practice, with a celebratory sour cream and raisin pie (my link button no workie!  http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sour-Cream-Raisin-Pie-14458). Actually it’s been pie week all around, as GM made a chicken pie and I made cherry pie for dinner on Saturday.

Inside of work, it’s been a frustrating week of people who don’t know what they want, but want it right now. I’d like my job better if I was allowed to enforkenate the deserving. There’s at least one person who would look like a hedgehog afterwards, but I would feel much better, I’m sure of it.

As usual, I have no idea what to get my mother, or my mother in law, for mother’s day.

I think the spiders are trying to take over the house. The garden is full of spiders with white bellies, and the house seems to have more than usual of the tan-colored leggy ones. They must be eating something, but heck if I know what. At least the roses are blooming, and GM seems to have succeeded in his plan to actually have grass in the back yard. The shed is in dire need to fixing, we’ll need to do that Sunday.

This year’s vacations plans have shifted, we’re not going to Germany. :(  Hopefully the Germany plan is just put off to 2014. We’re going to Denmark/Sweden/Norway instead. Anybody got any can’t-miss destinations for the medievalist in those places?  

Comments

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

If you get to Bergen, Norway, the houses that the Hanseatic League lived and worked in when they first moved there are still next to the harbor, and at least one of them is furnished like it was in the 14th century. It's worth a tour.

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

My living-history friends say that Denmark's Middelaldrecentret is a must-see....

[kiria-dk.livejournal.com]

In Lillehammer, Norway, the open air museum at Maihaugen has a stave church that was originally constructed in the 1200s (it's been added expanded over the centuries, most recently in the 1730s or so). Most of the rest of the museum is much more recent, but the I thought church was worth mentioning. (I may also be slightly biased, since the church in question is from Lom, which is where the Norwegian branch of my family is from, so I have ancestors in the church records.)

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

Roskilde is about an hour west of Copenhagen. The church has a copy of Queen Margaret's golden dress, although the specially woven fabric was not made with real gold.

The museum down at the harbor has boats dredged up from the channel, and there are people building reproduction boats using hand tools. You can rent a boat (takes 10 rowers to fill it) and row out into the harbor.

More later.

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

Copenhagen has a great harbor tour, but I didn't like the Stockholm one. Both cites have fabulous museums and old towns. I believe the museum with the period shoes was under the palace in Copenhagen. GM would really like to go there.

The original Queen Margaret's dress is in Uppsala, a train ride north of Stockholm. (It was spoils of war.)

Visby was a major port until ships were capable of traveling all the way across the sea. The city wall has been maintained, and I am sure you have heard of the annual re-enactment of King Valdemar of Denmark invading the town (and freeing them from the Hanseatic league). Valdemar is buried in Roskilde and wears a really cool plaque belt with his armor (all in marble, of course).