We are staying in the Schous Plass area of Oslo and head to the Schous Plass T-Bane stop to catch the trolley to the downtown area where we’ll need a transfer to a bus to Bygdoy for our visit to the Vikingskipshuset and the Norsk Folkemuseum, our adventures for today’s Norwegian history lesson.

It is wonderful taking the trolley and bus to our destinations as we get to experience day-to-day life on the system, viewing life in the streets, people going to work or shopping, and children going off to school.

Viking Burial Ship

We get to the Vikingskipshuset (Viking Ship Museum) and use our Oslo Pass to by-pass the line at the ticket booth. Inside there is a wonderful space showcasing the 3 well preserved Viking Burial ships plus the sledges, beds, woodcarving, tent components, buckets, horse cart and other items from the burial sites they were excavated from. The ships and artifacts are very interesting and I enjoy discovering how they were constructed.

The Viking Ship Museum consists of three ships the Oseberg, the Gosktad and the Tune. The Oseburg is considered to be one of the finer artifacts from the Viking era. The ship is almost entirely built of oak, is 70’-10” long, 16’-9” wide with a mast height of about 31’-2” tall. It was able to proceed at speeds of up to 11.5 mph.

The Gokstad is from the 9^th century and is the largest ship at the museum at 78’-2” long and 16’-8” wide. The ship carried 32 oarsmen and up to 70 total individuals and hit 14 mph. It as built during the height of Norse expansion.

The Tune ship built around 900 AD is in pieces and is estimated to be 72’ long and 14’-4” wide with approximately 11-12 pairs of pars.

After a 2-3 hour exploration of the Viking Ships we board the bus for the short trip to the Norsk Folkemueum just down the road.