Homeland of the Vikings- Norway

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Another beautifully sunny day when we moored up at Haugesund. However, when it is sunny here there is a keen North Westerly wind so you still have to wrap up. Our coach took us to Avaldsnes which was home to the first king of Norway, Harald Fairhair. He wanted to marry a young lady but she wouldn't have him unless he was important so he set about unifying Norway, by which I mean he set about slaughtering all the other Chieftains until only he was left to be King. The lady then agreed to marry him. A lot of archaeological excavation was going on and they have found many artefacts in this area. We had a nice but very windy walk across to a small island on which they have recreated a Viking village. This is mainly for school children to come and be educated about their heritage. They leave their ipads behind and stay in the huts, which must be fun as long as it is warm! We walked back to the church originally built in 1250 to celebrate the unification of Norway. It is a tiny church but was used by the allies as a landmark to aid the planes as they flew to German occupied Norway and did some bombing missions of German ships. The Germans wanted to pull it down because of this but the townspeople persuaded them not to but disguised it instead. The result of this was that our planes thought it was a German hideaway and shot at it! The bullet holes can still be seen in the walls. Behind the Church is a very tall obelisk which leans towards the church. It is called The Virgin Mary's Needle and it is said that once it touches the wall of the church then Doomsday will happen. It has 9.5 cm to go. We also visited a separate History centre which contains a large interactive exhibition about the Vikings who lived locally and about their gods and beliefs and contains several relics of Viking times

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