The Adventures of a Novice Historian

This morning Veronica and I went to Norwich castle to see their new Viking exhibit. I was eager see it when we left UEA, but I came home extremely disappointed. Because of the experience I acquired while working at the Vance Birthplace last summer, I’m well aware that museum exhibits are written for an eighth-grade reading level, so I was excepting that from the information boards. What I was not expecting was that the whole exhibit would be aimed at elementary school age children. If your nine then this exhibit is amazing! The York Helmet Aside from the numerous artifacts on display, they had interactive stations that allowed you to row a long boat, spell words with runes, tie a knot in a piece of rope, or play a Norse board game called, “HNEFATAFL.” They even had a section where you could build Viking long boats out of Legos. They also had videos that you could watch that told you about the spread of the Norse language into Britain as the Vikings settled in the region, or...

Over the weekend,Veronica and I went on an exciting adventure to Cambridge. This was our first big trip, and boy did we learn a lot about the do's and don'ts about travel; from the planning stages to the actually going. For example, we booked a lovely Air b&b in the village of Willingham. Little did we know that it was 12 miles outside of Cambridge and a taxi ride would cost us 35 pounds, or that the bus from Willingham into Cambridge only runs every hour and a half to 2 hours. OR that the guided bus into Cambridge is in the neighboring village of Longstanton which is a 45 minute to an hour walk away. Live and learn! Despite these set backs, we enjoyed our trip. The Air B&B that we stayed in from Friday to Monday was called, "Willingham House." We were in the lodge, but the main house is part of Cambridge Melchior College which offers a a wide range of cultural exchange programs. Our room in the lodge was very nice: it was simple, nothing fancy, but I...