Here is your interesting fact for the day. There were no Vikings! The correct term would be Norsemen. Viking is a verb, meaning to go raid and pillage, it is not a noun!That is according to the very "Norse looking" men at L'anse aux Meadows, in Northern Newfoundland. They were not wearing horns on their heads, yet another erroneous fact, attributed to bad opera singers!
This village is the only settlement in North America that has been proven to have artifacts from the Norse explorers, who settled there some 1000 years ago! They were there for about one generation of time, before heading back to Greenland, and avoiding further confrontations with natives.
The re-creation of their settlement was really interesting! There were not many other tourists around, so one of the fellows put the kids to work in the smithy. They got to work the bellows while he made them each an "artifact" . He also talked to them about life at that time, and how it relates to life now, and the value of hard work. All in all, an amazing experience for the kids!!
What a great learning experience for the kids! Your trip is amazing so far (better than what they would retain in school)....
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