Forman Winterim - Vikings in Ireland

My name is Matt Schwind. I have bright red hair, and I love to play sports. I played football, basketball and will be playing baseball this year. I am excited to go to Ireland to learn about vikings and have an experience that not many other schools have available to their students. I’m also excited because I will see more redheads in Ireland. After a long flight across the pond the Ireland group was very tired, getting off the plane at 5am. The day started off by going to some good old fashioned McDonalds for breakfast (because nothing else was open at 6am) and headed back to the hotel for a Viking walking tour all around Dublin. We started off by walking by the post office and eventually made our way thee Viking Stane to where we believe the Vikings first landed in Dublin in the year 841 (see picture right). After walking through some of Dublin, we stopped in to see the gardens at Dublin Castle (see picture left). Afterwards we walked over to see the outlines of an o

Hello, and welcome to the blog for the Vikings in Ireland winterim!  As the trip leaders, we just wanted to introduce ourselves to you, as well as outline the ideas behind this trip. We are Matthew and Amanda Bender, and we were both excited to design and lead this trip.  We've both been interested in the Vikings and Celtic culture for quite a long time, and I wanted to design a Winterim trip that was shorter and more flexible in cost in order to provide a more affordable international Winterim experience for students. This is a picture of us and our children in front of Edinburgh Castle in Scotland after Winterim 2018.  Our goal for this Winterim is to visit locations in Ireland that can help us to understand who the Vikings were, how the Viking occupation of Ireland went, and how the Irish people dealt with these invaders.  Students will visit museums, ruins, standing structures, and all sorts of other sites that will help to build our understanding of the Viking invasions