The idea of a Viking Ice Race popped up when visitors from the skating organisation from Holland visited Sweden after their Eleven Cities Tour (Elfstedentocht) of 1997 together with the winner of that years competition. An investigation started which later did show that the only route possible of a Swedish skate competition is just the route Uppsala-Stockholm, because it’s there the safest ices are with not so much open water.

To skate between Uppsala and Stockholm had been a classic route for all kinds of ice skaters for many years already before the Viking Run started for the first time in 1999, organized by the Friluftsfrämjandet organization and the Swedish skate association including other sponsors.

In 2013 it’s scheduled to go off at the 10th of February around 8am at Skarholmen, Uppsala and finish in Hässelby, a suburban of Stockholm. The Viking Run race is probably the worlds longest recurring ice skate race that take place on only natural ice and not on a special built up or artificial ice track.

There are actually several different races:

• The Vikingarännet 80 km start in Uppsala
• Tjejrännet (Women Race) 35 km start in Sigtuna
• A short race of 15 km start in Kungsängen

The race got it’s name from following the ancient Viking transport routes on lake Mälaren, but you don’t have to be a Viking to participate. All types of skates are allowed and I actually hope for some participants to choose similar skates as the Vikings!

Yes, even the Vikings did skate, but their skates were made of animal thigh/shin bones, had no shoe and were attached by leather strings only. At just one spot on the Swedish island Björkö, in the Viking town Birka, they found 70 skates together.

In this year’s vikingarännet there are more participants from other countries in Europe, like Great Britain, Belgium and Holland (last years winner) of course – so obviously this Swedish competition starts to be more known around Europe’s ice skaters.

If you have the opportunity to get there, there are plenty of places where you can see the ice skaters swooshing by. Or why not sign up for the race? Go to vikingarannet.com to signup or get more information.

Sign up for a distance that suits you, read the rules properly (ex. Ice prods are compulsory), prepare yourself to skate strong as a Viking, hope for great weather reports and have fun racing!

Lets hope the cold weather will continue, so there will be great ice’s for skating, you never know with the Swedish weather…

To get there:

From Europe there are low budget airlines like Norwegian.com or Ryanair.com to fly you to Stockholm, but I would try to get a Norwegian flight in the first hand, because you will arrive at Arlanda airport, which is much closer to the event than Skavsta airport where Ryanair arrives.

I also recommend that you take the arlandaexpress.com into Stockholm City Center or if you are going to Uppsala, take the special flightbus 801 between Arlanda airport and Uppsala. Also have a look at the arrivalguides.com and look up either Stockholm or Uppsala to get more start info about the two cities.

Special thanks to:

Anders Tysk, secretary-general and one of the originators of Vikingarännet for replying to my request, providing me with more information and pictures from the competition to use when writing this blog post.

©Lifecruiser Love Viking Ice Run

The Viking Run (Vikingarännet) 2013 Map, (click to see details)

This cruise route is actually following the Vikings footsteps in the Baltic Sea – it is one of the famous Vikings most frequently used trade routes. The Vikings are an important part of Scandinavia’s history, so no wonder we want to follow along, even though we have no plundering in mind… lol.

St Petersburg – formerly perhaps most known as Leningrad and being a World Heritage Site – Russias second largest City with it’s simply gorgeous architecture (not many skyscrapers!), is perhaps the one thing we look forward to the most on this cruise.

The cruise is Visa-free for us, making it very easy for us to visit without any fuss, though there are some limitations with it too and I’m sure we will probably not think a cruise there will give us enough time to explore, just give us a glimpse.

We ordered an A-cabin with windows, I always want windows on cruises, not other cabins are any alternative for me. We will mingle with the other 2 thousand passengers the Anastasia Cruise ship can take. Expecting to have at least one very special birthday dinner in the ships restaurants.

We will also use the available aqua-zones, oh my – better get a sun-tan before going – and not to forget to pack the bathing trunks/bikini! *keeping a pack-list*

I’m not sure that we will buy so many things in the ships shops though (because we’re trying to save up some money for our Europe tour later this year), even if we of course are going to check out the tax free opportunities.

The performance aboard are the exclusive show programs by St. Petersburg Music Hall ballet theater, so that we will enjoy very much, I’m sure.

Neither one of us have been in Saint Petersburg before and I have not been in Tallinn either, so we found this to be an ideal cruise to do and to a very reasonable or even bargain price of 1244 SEK (186 USD or 140 EURO), aqua-zone and shuttle bus tickets included.

Of course, there will be other costs, such as food and drinks and sightseeing costs that is not included in that price.

I have been cruising to Helsinki numerous times as a child and once earlier as a grownup, but remember my *cough* seasickness experience? OK, that time we had a snow storm, not expecting one in May! (keep your fingers crossed!)

See you in the Champagne Bar aboard, right…?

©Lifecruiser Love Baltic Cruises

Some other cruise related posts by Lifecruiser:

Cruising is the Perfect Gift
Top 5 Pacific Cruises For Your Next Getaway!
Mediterranean Dream Cruises
Top 5 Cruises for family’s on a budget
Luxury Dream Cruises
The Worlds Oldest Gun Ship: A Medieval Cog Ship
Bargain Cruise Ships Tips
 

Julita existed already in the Viking era and was an medieval monastery that later became a state domain and manor owned by Swedish nobility. You can see that by it’s interiors and surrounded parks, with the architectural different green house and kitchen garden.

It was also the first Swedish Museum of Agriculture that started with gene banks in the seventies, in close collaboration with the Nordic Gene Bank NGB – and still is – for a lot of different plants, fruits and flowers. Their agricultural exhibits may interest garden enthusiasts, as well as their different markets and festivals.

Tours of the Julita Manor house is hold in the weekends in May/September and every day in June, July and August. There are also other different exhibitions, family activities and farm animals which will please the young ones.

There are simply beautiful decorated B&B rooms in the manor wings from the 17th century for around 12-1400 SEK/night and double room. There is also a newer hostel alternative in another building for around 600 SEK/night for a two-beds room.

If you want something different: ask if the more unusual Octagon House – an old distillery from around the 1800s down by the lake – is available.

For the Gourmet’s like myself, there is the Julita Skans Cafe and a well recommended restaurant, also mentioned in the White Guide: Julita Wärdshus, julitawardshus.se down at the lake shore, run by the silver awarded (Bocuse d’Or 2011 in Lyon) chef Tommy Myllymäki and Magnus Saleborn.

If you’re planning an unusual wedding, there is even a Skansen church where you have the unique opportunity to get married with your beloved one. In fact: if we weren’t already married, we would have jumped on this opportunity for sure!

There is other things to do in the area too, many beautiful walking paths or why not go horse back riding? There are around 400 kilometers riding tracks, have a look at www.ridleden.se.

Julita Gård is even offering a guest stable if you’re on the riding tracks, see the wonderful old stable building in the photo below.

If you’re planning to be there in May: don’t miss when the cows are put out to pasture at Julita, the pure joy of the cows are entertainment not only for children, but also for adults. Date and time use to be available at nordiskamuseet.se/julita at the start of May, the date for 2012 is the 6th of May.

Despite the dull weather when we were there in the beginning of March, we succeeded to get a few decent travel photos showing the interesting architecture. We’ll definitely go there again in the summer season when the place have flourished up.

Our reason for being curious of this special Mansion is that my grandparents once upon a time had a farm worker employed, that had been working as some kind of maintenance manager at Julita Gård, before he came to work for them.

Have a look at Lifecruiser Julita Gård photo slideshow here.

In the Google map below you can see were it is located and exactly how rural the area is.

Official info at: Nordiska Museets webpage about Julita.

How to get there: by car on road 214 or take the train to Katrineholm and then the bus to Julita: plan your trip to Julita by Swedish trip robot Resrobot.se.

©Lifecruiser Love Open Air Museums
 

The names Sven and Ulv are common in the runic inscriptions but Frödis has only one known bearer from the Viking age and that is the daughter of Erik the red who lived in Vinland for a time.

The fragments of this stone has been found at two different places in Sigtuna. As the runes are damaged in important places the name of the father, in whose memory the stone was erected, is not readable any more.

I love to read those ancient travel postcards – I just wish they could tell us more than they usually do. Wouldn’t it be thrilling to read a more detailed one from a real Viking…?

©Lifecruiser Love Old Carvings

Other Sigtuna ruins related posts of Lifecruiser:

Travel Photo: St Lars Church ruin, Sigtuna
Viking Travel Postcard: Rune Stone 385
Travel Photo: St Olofs Church Ruin, Sigtuna
 

The weather was very gray most of the time and not any good for travel photo shooting, so we got no photos from the market unfortunately.

I thought this photo more is like a kind of stone ghost of some kind with the tree’s as its arms – most interesting how photos can turn out!

©Lifecruiser Love Old Ruins
 

The runic inscription on this stone says: “..this stone in memory of Grimulv, his mate…“. The name of Grimulv has been found on four other runic inscriptions. The mate-word connotes merchants who shared their proviant during a journey.

We have no intentions to visit all rune stones now though, since only in Sweden there is more than 2500 runstenar with messages from the year 400 A.D. and forward….

It is said to be a total of around 6000 known runic inscriptions in the world and around half of them are rune stones from the Viking age.

As we know the Vikings traveled a lot, we might call the rune stones the Vikings travel postcards – or what do you say…?

©Lifecruiser Love Old Carvings
 

The Northern Venice: Stockholm, has a lot of water surrounding the city: one big sweetwater lake Mälaren is meeting the Baltic Sea in a couple of locks and there are also several other smaller lakes.

If you don’t want to follow the Viking trail at the canal of Åkers, Garnsviken, the lakes Vadasjön & Helgösjön, you can have an adventure out in the fantastic Stockholm archipelago with around 24,000 islets and skerries.

You can find some of the tours at Stockholm Adventures Paddle Tours, but as always: contact the local tourist office for updated and more information about the different tours that might be available – as well as advice about the best accommodation.

©Lifecruiser Love Tourist Activities
 

Carl Gustaf Pettersson designed those very special 7-10 meter long wooden boats with straight and high sterns in the mid 10′s. They soon became very popular among ordinary Swedes – perhaps because they were boats made for shorter trips.

Since Sweden has many lakes and a long coastline, it’s only natural with a vivid boat culture – especially with the heritage of the Vikings. The pleasure boat hobby has been and still is big in Sweden and so even the interest in boats designed by CGP.

The Swedish pleasure boats are known for their craftmanship – even abroad. A lot of exporting of Swedish Pettersson boats have been done to Norway, but also to Holland and Germany.

I’ve been out, both in the lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea, in a Pettersson boat many times. The thing I remember the most is the necessity of fronting the waves with the stern, to not roll in the sea too much (they’re only around 1,20—1,50 m wide).

Be aware of that most Pettersson boats are more than 40 years old and should be inspected under the waterline before buying. If the boat is taken up from the sea too late in the season, the wood won’t have time to dry before it’s going to freeze and the wood will burst.

It’s said that the Pettersson boat had influence on the Swedish birth-rate: the deckhouse are so narrow that man and wife can’t stay over night there without the wife getting pregnant…

You can see how narrow they are in my two earlier posts: The wooden Pettersson boat stripes photo and the Mahogany Pettersson boat photo.

©Lifecruiser Love Swedish Boat Photos
 

Other recent Swedish boats posts by Lifecruiser:

Stockholm Water: Two Wooden Boats or Gigs
Stockholm Water: Old wooden Boat Captain
Stockholm Water: Långholmen Canal Boats
 

I can tell that this is some kind of Fjord-boat, since I have had one myself many years ago and they’re very popular in Scandinavia. I can’t see the exact model name unfortunately.

Adopting the Ford motto: a car for everybody, Richard Bjercke started to made the Fjord boats in the early sixties in a Norwegian way: reliable like a Viking and very seaworthy.

©Lifecruiser Love Stockholm Boat Photos
 

The Cog Ship type was the absolute most common in northern Europe from the beginning of 1100 and long into the 15th century. They have a very flat carvel built bottom with a high fore and stern, making them more easy to defend during sea battles.

The Cogs only has one mast with one big raw canvas sail. This ship, Tvekamp af Elbogen, canvas is 225 square meter big and not allowed to set sail with passengers aboard, due to security issues. Instead we went by a help motor with a power of 70kW.

The project to build this Cog Ship was the Nordic countries biggest medieval project during 1998-2003 and the responsibility of Fotevikens Museum, which had both the archeological and overall responsibility to build those scientific reconstructions.

The original Cog Ship was wrecked outside the town of Skanör in the southern part of Sweden and it was not until the beginning of 1990′s the ship findings were dug out. The Cog was built in the Mecklenburg area and is the biggest Cog ship found so far.

The Cog Ship had at least four guns on deck which makes it the worlds oldest known fire-armed gun ship. Probably this ship was included in a pirate fleet which were plundering the Nordic coasts after that Queen Margareta had taken the power in 1389 and captured the Swedish/German King Albrekt of Mecklenburg.

From his prison, King Albrekt succeeded to get out his orders to his old home country Mecklenburg to gather a fleet and plunder the queens coasts. During several years thousands of sailors and warriors were sent out from just that area where Skanörs Cog Ship were built at the same time.

They loaded one of the guns with flour and oats and did fire it for us when we were returning to the Visby harbor, giving us a great show how the guns could bang. As you can see in the photo above the crew were wearing authentic clothes.

Today’s Cog Ship Tvekamp af Elbogen, has been out at longer sea trips and several German harbors has been on call. Even a trip north along the Swedish west coast. Those trips are of big scientific value, to test the ships seaworthiness and to get insight in how it was back in the medieval time era around the Baltic Sea.

Of course the ship crew was wearing medieval dresses to get it as authentic as possible, but also some of the passengers I think, since it were a Medieval festival in Visby this past week. A very nice touch, don’t you think?

Information source: The Swedish Archeological Open Air Museum of Foteviken, which also has a lot of historical activities – even a Viking village.

Click to see more of Lifecruiser Cog Ship Photos at Flickr.

Lifecruiser ♥ Old Ships