We were up bright and early this morning (i.e., 4 am) thanks to jet lag, no air conditioning in the hotel room and some very noisy neighbours. However, we were able to get to breakfast early and out the door for our adventures. We went down to the State House and walked around outside until we found the dock where our boat would depart for Birka.

We encountered a Swedish couple doing the same thing and they became our friends for the day. Harriet and Larss were great travel companions from northern Sweden. Their English was slightly better than my Swedish but they were very encouraging and I got to spend the two hour boat ride practicing my language skills. It is amazing how simple words are impossible to recall, but I can pull big words out of the blue. Dale was incredibly patient as we had conversations in front of him. Needless to say, Dale is picking up a few words too.

The boat ride was guided in English and Swedish so we got some idea about what we were seeing. The first interesting point was the place where King Erik “weather hat” and his horse jumped off a cliff to avoid the enemies chasing him. Somehow he survived the jump into Lake Mallerin off this cliff. Someone erected the statue of the King’s hat in honour of the event. The theory is that good luck will come to those who raise their hats in the king’s honour as they pass this place. I wasn’t wearing a hat do Dale raised his twice.

Our goal today was to visit the island of Birka.We were sailing inland, toward the Baltic sea on an inland lake to the west of Stockholm. We passed many interesting islands on the way. On Helja (holy) island they have done a huge amount of excavation and found it to be one of the richest areas in Sweden. They found lots of trade goods here from around the world including a Buddha from India! The Swedes were incredible traders during the Iron Age and it appears that they were trading with people from all over Eastern Europe and beyond.

The church above is an important one because it was built about 1100 years ago and houses a rune stone that the words were Latin but the stone was written in Runic script.

Birka is a world heritage site because it is the first Swedish City and is an archaeologist’s dream site because it has been left largely undisturbed for about 1200 years. The settlement started at the beginning of the Viking Age (750-800 AD).

We started our tour with a view of undisturbed graves of the typical villager in Birka. The guide clarified that the city was founded at this site because there was a great natural harbour and it was located in a great place to trade with eastern Europeans. The king Sweden at the time needed to have a strong and defended trading place and so he armed Birka and installed a trade centre. At its peak, there were 1000 people living in Birka. Then in 970 AD, and people don’t know exactly why, Birka was abandoned and trading shifted to Sigtuna (near Stockholm’s airport).

We were able to roam all over the site and imagine the Swedish settlement – along with cows, sheep, goats and children! Our guide informed us that there were Vikings that came to Birka. He informed us that Vikings made up fewer than 1% of Swedes. Being a viking was an occupation, not an ethnic issue. Of course all Vikings had to be Scandinavian, but not all Scandinavians were Viking. Effectively, Vikings were disenfranchised men who were not going to inherit wealth so they went out to get it for themselves. Effectively one might add. They traded at Birka and perhaps made up some of the defending forces to keep the trade route safe. We learned that the Swedish Vikings were primarily marauding the river systems of eastern Europe. The Danes focused on France and England and the Norwegians tended to raid Ireland.

They have redeveloped the Birka townsight in an attempt to illustrate life at the time Birka was in peak shape.

We enjoyed a meal on the boat back to Stockholm and then had to declare ourselves too tired for any other sightseeing today. We had a bit of a nap, found a place for supper and now, once this blog is posted, we are calling it a night. It was a great day!