Take a guided tour of Viking ship replica May 19
On Saturday, May 19, the Friends of the Viking Ship will host tours of the life-size replica at Good Templar Park, 528 East Side Drive in Geneva. Guided and self-guided tours will be offered from 1 to 4 p.m. The public is invited. Admission is $5 or $3 for teens. Parking is free. Thirty-minute guided tours begin every 30 minutes until 3:30 p.m. Group tours are available by appointment.
Future visit days are June 17, 23-24, July 14, 21, Aug. 18, Sept. 15, Oct. 20 and Nov. 11.
Friends of the Viking Ship, a nonprofit that maintains the Viking, will host its first Viking Ship Festival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, June 17, at Good Templar Park. The festival will showcase artisan jewelry, craft demonstrations, Viking storytelling, Viking shields, artifact displays and food vendors. Admission to the festival will be $10 per person.
Built in 1892, the vessel is about 78 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 6.5 feet high from the bottom of the keel to the gunwale. Its black oak planks are fastened together with thousands of iron rivets. At sea, the Viking averaged 10 knots and the hull was designed to flex with the waves. The boat is an exact copy of the Viking ship Gokstad, built about 850. A Gokstad replica, the Viking, was sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Bergen, Norway, to Chicago for the 1893 Columbian Exposition World's Fair. After being exhibited at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, the Viking was displayed in West Chicago before being moved to its current location in 1996.
For more information, call (630) 753-9412, email viking1893@gmail.com or visit www.vikingship.us or www.facebook.com/Viking1893/.