Take a virtual Viking ship tour Sunday
A virtual tour of Geneva's Viking replica longship will be given at 10 a.m. Sunday, June 21, on Facebook.com/Viking1893/.
Dave Nordin of Naperville, a volunteer with the nonprofit Friends of the Viking Ship, will don Viking-style garb to lead a 30-minute recorded tour of the replica Viking longship displayed at Geneva's Good Templar Park.
Nordin said, "The 1893 Viking ship is closed to the public during June due to COVID-10 restrictions. However, on Sunday, June 21, at 10 a.m., the traditional day for Good Templar Park's Swedish Day festival, we are going to post a 30-minute walk-around virtual tour of the Viking ship on the Friends of the Viking Ship Facebook page.
"The tour will be also available after that date and time on the Facebook page. We want to launch it as an event that day to help keep the Midsummer Day festival tradition going during the pandemic," Nordin said.
Nordin said he will give a quick explanation of Scandinavian Midsummer traditions, the story of the ship's 1893 voyage from Norway to the U.S. and an inside-outside explanation of how a Viking ship works.
About the Viking
Viking now counts five homes after her launch in Sandefjord, Norway in 1893, her voyage to Bergen, Chicago and to Geneva:
1893-94: New Orleans, final stop in her journey downriver toward the Gulf of Mexico (her direction until the donation to the Smithsonian fell through) - half a year
1894-1919: alongside what is now the Museum of Science and Industry at the northern end of what became Jackson Park - 25 years
1920-1994: Lincoln Park just outside the zoo - 74 years
1994-1996: the Belden Company yard in West Chicago - 2 years
1996 - Present: Good Templar Park in Geneva - 21 years.
Since leaving Lincoln Park, the intention of those caring for her has been to return the ship to Chicago. For 23 years, Viking has been resting on that robust semi-mobile steel "cradle" that Belden used to roll her first to West Chicago then two years later onward to Geneva and Good Templar Park, where she sits today.
For more information, call (630) 302-7338.