I woke up this morning and wanted to go somewhere. My first thought was Odense, which is the ‘capital’ of Denmark’s middle island Fyn. I’m been to Fyn lots of times, but it’s always on a high speed train to Jylland (the Danish mainland) or back home to Sjælland (the island where Copenhagen is). The descriptions of the island that I’ve been given by Danes are not very flattering and usually involve fruit farmers and boredom. However, I knew that the DSB train museum was there and as I fancied seeing the first Copenhagen suburban train that now lives there, I set off with my camera and a good book for the journey.

However, by the time I reached the central train station I realised that I’d left everything too late and, as it was already nearly 2pm, I wouldn’t make it there in time to make good use of a museum entry ticket. Not wishing to abandon my explorative mood, I decided to go to Roskilde instead.

Roskilde is on the same island as Copenhagen and is only thirty minutes away. My only previous visits have been changing from train to bus on my way to the music festival in 2006 and seeing Casper’s band play in a bar. The first involved a very brief walk, followed by a long wait in a queue surrounded by cockney ticket touts, and the second was a longer walk in the dark to somewhere else that was even darker. I’ve been meaning to go back for a proper look around for a while and I even arrived in time for a trip to the Viking Ship Museum.

One of the most interesting parts of the museum was the exhibition dedicated to the current Havhingsten (”Stallion of the Sea”) project, which involves building a new longship using traditional methods and then sailing it to Dublin and back. The Dublin journey was completed successfully in August of this year and the return leg will happen in 2008.

Considering the tyranny and damage the Vikings caused to Ireland, I can’t help wondering how the Dubliners felt seeing them turn up at their harbour again. I guess in 1000 years time people will be building Nazi tanks and recreating the invasion of Poland in a jovial mood too.

See more photos from my Roskilde trip.