My second trip took me to Norway. It was only a 3-month trip, mainly because of the weather window that exists in these regions.
The Vikings have played a mayor role in European history, because it was due to their invading in Europe that the country's as we know them now started forming, and on their traces came the Hanse, the northern european "trade union", perhaps a far predecessor of the European Union ?
The hanse played a very important role for Flanders: Bruges whas the southermost hanse city, and connected the hanse thru over-land routes to the Mediteranean (Venice and Genoa) and so furhter on to the east.
The Vikings must have played an important role in the region where I lived, because my native dialect, West-Flemish, really is Dutch spoken with a Skandinavian accent.