After our early morning arrival in Aalborg, we spent the the rest of the day exploring the quaint town. Wandering through its pretty little streets, we stumbled upon a Christmas market where we bought yummy treats to eat and saw the real Santa Claus walking through the streets. The following day was the day we had been waiting for....we would visit the much anticipated Viking graveyard, Lindholm Høje. Some Vikings didn't bury their dead, they placed stones in the shape of ship for a man and the shape of a circle for a woman. They then laid wood over the stones, placed the body on top surrounded by small possessions and then lit it all on fire. Afterwards they would place dirt over the top. Perched picturesquely atop a green hilltop, Lindholm Høje is home to nearly 700 graves from the Iron Age and Viking Age preserved by sand drifts that had covered them for hundreds of years. In the cold, dark morning air, we wandered through the hauntingly mysterious landscape between Viking graves with our imaginations and inner-Vikings awake and alive on the resting ground of the ancient dead.
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That is a lot of stones. Did you feel you ancestors there?
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