cornerofmadness: (Default)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
My brother and his wife came home today. Bye bye pool and streaming and three evil kitties. And thanks everyone the good wishes worked. Elder cat made it a week.

And before I get into yesterday's adventure let me say
To [personal profile] spikesgirl58 Hope it's a great one.

Mom, Dad and I went to see the Viking exhibit at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. Sadly it didn't hold a candle to the Pompeii one from last year but that said it was still a good exhibit. I just wish they had more than weapons and jewelry. Yes there was a small bit of boat and some videos on life but it just felt a little like why not have more about the housing situation, food prep or death rituals. Surely I can't be the only one interested in that.

On the flip side where most of the Pompeii stuff were replicas most of the Viking stuff was real, most of it from Denmark, some from Norway and a few pieces from Germany.

What I liked best was the one place at the end where there was a docent with some replica wool clothing and a shield you could touch. But they also had a touch screen bench where you could learn to play Hnefatafl which reminded me a little of chess meets checkers. That was a particularly nice touch





Another favorite part of the exhibit was the religious room a lot about the gods, goddesses and other supernatural females of power like the valkyries and norns, plus things like the midgard serpent (and the eventual invasion of Christianity) I liked the sadly small bit about females performing magic (and why it was bad if a man dabbled in it).

Over all a good exhibit that just needed a little more to make it excellent. What made it less excellent as an adventure is Pittsburgh itself. If you've never driven there it's over 300 bridges many going into tunnels over three rivers hemmed in by mountains. It's a madhouse. This time it was dead stopped. Someone had a BIG mischief on the fort pitt bridge (going into the fort pitt tunnel where I need to go) I could see 5 police cars and at least 3 tow trucks. So I had to make it up as I went, got over on another bridge but had to circle all the way back to the science center (across the river this time) and go that way. If I had just gone that way in the first place (it's harder to get to that bridge)...took an hour to go 15 miles. Ah pittsburgh.





replica boat (and dad)

I particularly like the thor's hammer mold on the bottom

Swords!


Thor's hammer and a dragon head

keys and clasps


wood carving axes

silver pretties

dress brooches

replica of the Jelling stone

ceremonial axe

dragons

replica of the Jelling stone the other side

a woman's magical staff

Date: 2023-08-06 10:51 am (UTC)
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
From: [personal profile] spikedluv
Oh man, the traffic issue sounds horrendous! I'm sorry the exhibit was just okay.

Date: 2023-08-06 11:56 am (UTC)
aien_hime: (Default)
From: [personal profile] aien_hime
The exhibit looks good! Thanks for showing pictures. Really liking the dragons.

Date: 2023-08-07 07:35 pm (UTC)
under_the_silk_tree: Hercules pythangoras and jason from the tv show bbc atlantis (Atlantis)
From: [personal profile] under_the_silk_tree
The Viking exhibit does sound good, sorry it wasn't as good as the Pompeii one.

I love it when museums allow you to touch things even if they are replica's because it gets your other senses involved instead of relying on sight only.

You are not alone I would be interested in the daily life of Vikings also, it seems like we mostly hear about the explorations and gods.

Never been to Pittsburgh but traffic sounds like a true nightmare.

Profile

cornerofmadness: (Default)
cornerofmadness

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 2021
22232425262728
2930     

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 20th, 2025 04:50 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios