Nina's Blog - Wednesday 15th April 2026

Wednesday 15th April 2026, 12:21

As I have to go out to get the tyres swapped and to post a parcel I've taken the opportunity to visit Tønsberg again. This time I went for a slightly longer walk from where I park to the Skaperverket café. I walked along the waterfront where a new Gokstad ship is being built.

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ninalanyon · 70-79, T

Wednesday 15th April 2026, 12:24

Before I reached the waterfront I passed the swimming baths. In front of the building is this delightful statue

As I finished taking pictures a woman walked past and said "Hun er så flotte". Flott is a little difficult to translate exactly. It doesn't exactly mean pretty or beautiful, it also has the meaning just right or well done.

Across the road in the grounds of one of Tønsberg kommune 's office buildings there were more statues

As I was taking this picture another woman said something similar about this statue as she walked past.

ninalanyon · 70-79, T

Wednesday 15th April 2026, 12:41

And of course I took some selfies

ninalanyon · 70-79, T

Wednesday 15th April 2026, 12:34

And here's the ship

The ship is held together with iron rivets

There is also a workshop

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ninalanyon · 70-79, T

@WillaKissing You really want them going a-viking in modern ships? Look what they did in the centuries immediately following the Gokstad ship! They were raiding from the upper reaches of the Volga to the west coast of Ireland and acting as imperial guards in Constantinople. They founded both Kiev and what is now Russia. Even the name Russia comes from the Vikings.

WillaKissing · 56-60, M

@ninalanyon Yes, they need to go back and teach Putin how to behave or to make him a Blood Eagle! You asked.

ninalanyon · 70-79, T

@WillaKissing I'm sure there must be craftsmen in the US who can do such things too. Perhaps part of the difference is that in Europe the old stuff is still all around us. I can go and see the original Gokstad ship in the museum at Bygdøy in Oslo along with Fridtjof Nansen's polar exploration ship the Fram, and Thor Heyerdahl's Kontiki raft.

So if the builders of the new one need to see how the old one was built they can just go and look.

You might find these web pages from the county museums website, and others, of interest:

https://vestfoldmuseene.no/saga-gokstad (in Norwegian, but Google Translate or Firefox's built in translator work quite well)

https://osebergvikingarv.no/eng/2025/07/25/an-armada-of-gokstad-ships/ (in English)

This isn't the first full scale copy although it will probably be the truest one. There is one on display in Illinois:

Viking

Year Built: 1893
Location: Framnes, Sandefjord
Status: On display in Geneva, Illinois
Notes: Full-scale oak reconstruction. The first Gokstad replica and the first to cross the Atlantic. Participated in the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.