A Viking we will go.... (Jorvik Viking Centre)

Member Name: DMWCarol

Product:	Jorvik Viking Centre
Date:	03/10/00 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You really get a feel for what it was like in 948AD

Disadvantages: Lots of stairs so you need to be fit and I'd have liked more in depth information

The Jorvik centre is great if you want to know what life was like for the Vikings. It’s built to incorporate genuine Viking remains that were discovered in the 1980s so it’s as close to actually being in Jorvik as you can possibly get.

Once you’re through the entrance all the staff are dressed as citizens of Jorvik and they talk to you in character, telling you about the shops and other townsfolk. After a while they direct you down the stairs until you’re level with the foundations of the surrounding buildings – deep in the underworld of York.

This is where the main street of Jorvik would have been in 948 before it disappeared under the debris of the last millennium. There is a brief display to tell you a bit about the Vikings and the dig that found this site, before you are ushered into the timecar which takes you ‘back through time’ and into Jorvik.

The first stage of the journey literally has you travelling backwards – moving past items that get progressively older and older until you finally swing round and find yourself in Jorvik itself.

The reconstruction really does seem almost real. Voices shout and chatter in old Norse, there are ‘authentic smells’ all around you – even coming from the genuine Viking toilet and pigpen and even more impressive, at least some of the waxwork faces are reconstructed from actual Viking remains so there really were people who looked just like the ones you are seeing..

After an all too quick journey through Jorvik Coppergate you’re taken through to the actual remains of the dig and can be amazed at how much detail could be gathered from what appears to be so little. The timecar drops you off at a reconstruction of the lab where you are shown around and allowed to look through microscopes to examine the actual artefacts and remains and even to touch some of the ‘organic deposits’ should you feel b
rave enough.

The final gallery is a more traditional museum where some of the more impressive artefacts are displayed in glass cabinets. Again there was a ‘Jorvik citizen’ on hand to point out some of the more interesting bits and answer questions.

Like all good museums, the exit was through a gift shop and café – although in this instance the shop was particularly good with very reasonably priced items and the chance to strike your own Viking coin with the able assistance of a coinsmith.

This is without a doubt a great place to start finding out what it was really like to be a Viking. It was the only time during my holiday that I really wished I’d had my kids with me – they would have loved it. Personally I’d have liked a little more depth, as I’ve been interested in the Vikings for years I didn’t really learn anything new from this visit and was just itching to be able to wander round the reconstruction rather than just being whisked past. They do have evenings during the summer when you can walk round but my visit was at the wrong time of the year - oh well, it's a good excuse to go back again isn't it :o)

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