Sweden's Foteviken Museum: Vikings, Hovels, Longships, and a Wonderful Market Fair

Given the name Foteviken Museum, you would likely expect to find a building housing lots of Viking artifacts. You would be wrong. What this place is, is a Viking settlement. That's right. Just below that beautiful bridge which joins Sweden and Denmark in a town called Höllviken you will see a tall wooden castle tower. That's the place. We paid like the equivalent of about 3 bucks to park in a field, and walked the short way into the village.

Now, this place is here year round, but it is only open during the summer months... end of April thru about the middle of October. That is weather-dependant and subject to change. You see this really is a live-it, breath-it kinda place. They have taken a wonderful spot there on the cliff overlooking the Oresund and build Viking hovels. So far there are almost 30 of them. You get to wander around the grounds and ooh and ahhh to your heart's content, even inside the hovels. While you're doing this, the village is going about their daily routine as if this really were the Age of Vikings. They are in full garb and you'll see them using the same tools used back in the day to do everything from fix food to carding wool.

This in and of itself is totally worth the stop and admittance. There is one restaurant, which serves two choices: Chicken or Ham. This comes with a potato & carrot concoction and both are wonderful for only 70sek (about $7.50). Port-a-potties are placed fairly frequently. I suggest you bring your own paper. Handily enough, you can buy a little leather carrier for a few sheets here during the Viking Market the end of June.

That Viking Market is what drew me down there. If you have ever been to a Renaissance Faire, then you know what to expect with this. Same thing, but a bit earlier time period. Lots of wonderful vendors showed up from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Germany to set up camp and hawk their fine hand-made wares. Lars scored a gorgeous leather pouch for a mere 250sek (around 30 bucks.) He got a bargain. This thing is damned nice and high quality. I decided on a silver pendant in the shape of a battleaxe for 150sek, and a book on the history of the area for 90sek.

Had I been in the market for it, I could have picked up any number of weaponry and hand-tooled sheaths, cloaks, pottery, herbal teas, you name it and it was probably here. Actually, I'm pretty ticked off at myself for not going ahead and getting one of the dresses from the Viking Era.

Oooh ooh! And oh yeah! There are several Viking Longships anchored off the coast there, and visible from the cliff of the village. On the beach down below you can watch all kinds of shenanigans too. They were having quite a good time of it with a good old-fashioned tug-o-war in full garb the day we went.

Anyway, the short of it is, if you are planning a trip to Sweden then do make an effort to stop into the Foteviken Museum... especially if your trip coincides with the weekend of the Viking Market. This is a wonderful way to kill several hours for not much money. Five out of five Stars.