Visiting Birka

Me and Karin went to Birka yesterday. It's an old viking town located on an island in Mälaren. During it's time it was strategically placed to controll the trading routes and had a population of 1000 habitants. Today the only thing that is left of the town is findings in the ground.

We joined a tour and below us is where the town used to be. The start of the two main landing stages are visible in this pic as clusters of rocks.

Karin is standing on top of the hill where the castle yard was once. From this point the kings soldiers had a great view in all directions. Below is an area that was once under water and now houses a museum, restaurant and a jetty for the ferries.

They have started to re-build a couple of buildings to show visitors how it once looked at Birka. At the moment there are only 4 houses but more are to come.

Once we got home I felt I deserved a beer or two.


Rhenania Alt 4,8%
It poured a dark copper-amber liquid with a big foam that left a nice lacing. It had a weak smell of metall, bread and a hint of something sweet. The flavor was sweet with malt, bread, metall and a low bitterness. The liquid was fairly thick,. An ok beer.
Total: 2,4/5

La Meule 6%
It poured a hazy golden liquid with a big foam that dissapeared fast and left a nice lacing. It also had some yeast in the liquid. Looked like a wheat beer, very appealing. It smelled sweet, spicey with peppers and some other spices. The first taste was smooth and it had a spicey peppery flavor with some honey and yeast. A bit to weak in the flavor to get a higher score, would have love some more of that spicey aroma to break thorugh in the flavor. Good beer though.
Total: 3,7/5