'tis better to have discovered rubbish, than to never have discovered at all

I don't know what it is about frozen ocean that fascinates me so much,
but it just does.

I'm going to begin with a tangent to a tangent here. The first tangent is the title of this entry, the tangent to the tangent is that up until now I had always quoted the real words from the quote as coming from Shakespeare, thinking it was from Romeo & Juliet. And it was one of my favourite quotes. For some reason, I decided to research it tonight and much to my disappointment I discovered that the words come from Lord Alfred Tennyson, and not from Shakespeare! So much for thinking I actually absorbed the one Shakespeare play I studied at school...

Back to the original tangent... A friend of mine told me not to bother with the Viking Museum in Roskilde as it is a waste of money. I think they were bang on actually. The Viking Museum is a large building hosting a collection of 'pieces' of 6 Viking boats that were excavated from the fjord in 1962. They were 'put' there by the Vikings to create an underwater barrier to prevent sea based attacks on Roskilde. The 6 ships are in various states, but in general, without the steel frames and some imagination, there really wouldn't be that much to see. However, WITH the steel frames and imagination, I did still find it fascinating seeing wooden constructions that carried dozens of Vikings, thousands of miles, many hundreds of years ago. Something about old 'stuff' always fascinates me...

The 'on board' dunny on the reconstruction.

In fact, a reconstruction of the largest ship (built in the museum's shipyards) recently completed a voyage to Dublin and back (it was thought the original was constructed in Ireland). The was a special exhibit on this in the musuem which was quite interesting, and it definitely reminded me how glad I am to not be a Viking sailing the choppy seas 1,000 years ago!
 
So back to my tangent. I had been told the museum wasn't worth it. And at DKK 75 (that's the special 'winter' price) I honestly think it was a bit of a rip-off. However, that's pretty much standard in Denmark I guess - that things are a rip-off and it's just a part of life. But, my point is, despite even thinking to myself that the museum may not really be worthwhile, I still wanted to go. It's not like I didn't have the money or the time, it was a beautiful day to be travelling to the country-side anyway, and, well, I thought to myself afterwards, 'tis better to have discovered rubbish, than to never have discovered at all.

And I think that philosophy pretty much explains so many of the things I do in life, and so much of why I do things. But finally I have put it down in a single line, one explanation of why I feel I need to try everything at least once, why I want to travel to so many places (even the ones that may not be so exciting), why I seem to want to chop and change jobs and careers, why I want to live in different cities, and why I am who I am.




Anyway, back to Roskilde....

The pillar grave of Harold Bluetooth (inventor of the wireless
communications technology used in mobile electronics

The other big attraction in Roskilde is the cathedral - Roskilde domkirke. This is a rather impressive cathedral which serves as the resting place for most of the Danish monarchy. Originally a Catholic cathedral until the reformation in Denmark in the 16th century. Seeing the tombs of kings and queens from a monarchy that stretches back around 1,000 years is quite impressive. I'm not sure why, especially since for all I know I'm looking at marble coffins with nothing inside - but it seems rather impressive! In fact, what is most amazing in my opinion is the extravagant nature of most of the tombs. I mean it's one thing, as king, to be entombed inside such an impressive cathedral, but (and dare I say this, as I fear this may lead to me being persecuted in Denmark for this kind of blasphemy), but the way they are entombed really emphasises the fact that the royalty here believe themselves to be somewhere between 'human' and 'god'. It is truly spectacular. And who am I to say it's a 'bad' thing - the population adore their monarchy and it's obviously good for the country. But, I don't know, there is something there that just doesn't sit right with me...

Well, that pretty much sums up Roskilde. It is actually quite a pretty town. It's even got some hills (think the kind of terrain you would find in a city in any other country - but it's quite a novelty for Denmark). Apart from being a total ghost town (I guess it is winter, and it was a Sunday) - so walking down the pedestrian street felt a bit eerie, it still has a nice feel about it. The houses have a bit of an 'English country' feel to them with the thatched roofs (I presume for insulation), and the pier at the bottom of the hill makes it feel like it would be a nice place to be in summer.

The ghost town aspect did make finding some food a bit difficult. So I settled on a DKK 59 banquet at a Mexican joint aptly named Gringo's. Unfortunately though, the DKK 10 charged for a glass of tap water was pretty ridiculous, even for Danish standards. Definitely not somewhere that would ever get a 'thumbs up' from me.