At 12.30pm, a large crowd waited outside the museum where the guide waited for us. We went to the archaeological site which is now a green pasture. It is hard to imagine that once upon a time, this was a bustling town where trade carried out and was once the capital of Sweden. All I can see now is beautiful nature.
Here, the guide is standing on a mount of grave. Graves here are made up of multiple layers.
Here, the guide is standing on a former wall. And he pointed behind us to a green pasture that was once the lively town of Birka. You can see in the following photo.
The famous cross of Ansgar. Here is a brief history from Wikipedia.
Saint Ansgar (8 September 801 – 3 February 865), also known as Anskar, Saint Anschar or Oscar, was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in the northern part of the Kingdom of the East Franks. Ansgar became known as the "Apostle of the North" because of his travels and the See of Hamburg received the missionary mandate to bring Christianity to Northern Europe. Source from Wikipedia.
Sources of Birka are mainly archaeological remains. No texts survive from this area, though the written text Vita Ansgari ("The life of Ansgar") by Rimbert (c. 865) describes the missionary work of Ansgar around 830 at Birka, and Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church) by Adam of Bremen in 1075 describes the archbishop Unni, who died at Birka in 936. St Ansgar's work was the first attempt to convert the inhabitants from the Norse religion to Christianity, and it was unsuccessful. Source from Wikipedia.
The two of us that went. This picture was taken right next to Saint Ansgar's cross.
On our way back, we stopped by at an old Viking village (that was reconstructed) and its jetty.
For lunch, we went to the only restaurant that was opened on the island. There are 2 restaurants and one of them is closed. This restaurant is located next to the jetty where all the boats dock. The restaurant has a couple of Viking items on display. Even the staff was dressed in Viking attire. There were only 4 main dishes served in the restaurant, and each dish costs SEK175 / RM88.
We shared a light beer (the small bottle) and a honey cider drink (from Russia). The honey cider drink costs SEK40, whereas the light beer costs SEK45.
We had moose patties and wild boar sausage. We took half of each meal. Pretty good. I like the wild boar sausage. It was very juicy.
At 3.10pm, we caught sight of our steam boat.
It was sunny on our sail back, so we sat on the highest deck facing the sun. It was a beautiful sail back, seeing the archipelago and the houses on the slope.
We reached Södertälje at 4.45pm. It is definitely a beautiful place to go to although there is not much of the archaeological site left. One has to imagine a lot. I spoke to a couple of locals and not many has been on the island. Well, I don't blame them. Locals usually tend to take their own country's places of attraction for granted because they live there.
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