Trondheim

We had rough seas as we headed north along the Norwegian coast. Throughout the night the ship seemed to clank and groan as if it were some doomed spectral vessel. I found it hard to sleep. I had finally fallen asleep when the captain came on the intercom sometime after midnight to call all hands to help prepare for an emergency helicopter landing. Apparently there was a guest in critical condition who needed to be taken to a hospital immediately. I know this sort of thing happens on cruise ships all the time. A crew member told John on a previous cruise that typically several passengers die during the voyage. But combined with the eerie noises and the rocky seas it was hard not to have a sense of apprehension. 

But “weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning.” When the sun rose this morning the seas were smooth and the sun was peeking out from behind the clouds. Looking out our window, I could tell that we were starting to help down a long fjord. From the lecture the previous day, I knew that Trondheim is located on a peninsula at the end of the fjord, some distance from the open sea. 

John and I went to his favorite perch on the top floor of the ship. As we pulled in, we could see the town.

The small boat pulled up along side us From other sailings, I knew that this was the local pilot who would guide us as we docked.

John decided we could wait a bit and not join all the people rushing to get off the moment the gangway was opened.

But it was finally time for us to get off. There was a really steep ramp that lead over the railroad that that lie in between the town and the port. Right at the top of the ramp was a store selling tourist tchotchkes and supposedly discounted sporting goods. John announced that he needed to buy a cap and some good gloves. And so he did. 

The river Nidelva runs through the center of Trondheim. There are colorful wooded warehouses all along the banks. 

John and I went for a walk along the street behind these old buildings. It was surprisingly not touristy. There were lots of second-hand shops and hardware stores.

Still, it was quite an attractive area. 

We had a walking tour of Trondheim that I had found online and for most of the day we just followed it. The first stop on the tour was the Stiftsgården.

This is a 140 room mansion built by a the wealthy widow in the late eighteenth century. She seldom used it, however, preferring to travel abroad or live in Copenhagen. Norway was a part of Denmark at that time. With the restoration of a Norwegian monarchy, Stiftsgården became a royal palace. It is not open to the public, though the gardens in the rear of the building are. 

We continued on into the main square. This is dominated by a statue of King Olav Tryggvason, considered the founder of Trondheim. 

King Olav was instrumental in the conversion of the Norse to Christianity though his methods of doing this were characteristically brutal. In the statue, he holds a sword and a chalice and his food rests on the head of the god Thor. 

We continued down couple block until we arrived at the cathedral. 

The Nidaros Cathedral is one of the oldest and largest gothic structures in Scandinavia. It dates to a time before the Reformation when the Archdiocese of Trondheim was one of the largest and wealthiest in Scandinavia. During the Middle Ages it was a great pilgrimage site connected with the Cult of Saint Olaf. It is also traditional site of the coronation of the Kings of Norway. 

Sadly, we discovered that it had closed for the day just before we arrive along with the Archbishop’s Palace, a major museum housing the royal regalia. So we had to content ourselves with examining the exterior.

The statuary on the West Portal is not medieval. The few that remained from that period are in a museum. These are nineteenth and twentieth century carvings. We noticed Adam and Ever right away. 

The cathedral gift shop was open, and John found a jigsaw puzzle of the cathedral at sunset. 

The Trondheim Art Museum was located nearby. We decided to go in as our walking tour said it had an important collection of Norwegian art. The collection inside was rather curious as it had been rearranged by various themes. There was a room devoted to faces. There were a couple dozen small portraits on one wall. There were a few larger ones such as this prosperous bourgeois..

There were a few kind of fantasy scenes

or historical ones.

Another room was devoted to “bodies.” I was surprised by this male nude.. It seemed rather daring for a cultural backwater in the 1870s. 

Signage in the museum was in both Norwegian and English, mostly describing the theme of each room. Sadly, there was not much information about specific pieces or artists.

We continued on towards Bakklandet. There are two bridges linking this district with central Trondheim. The more interesting is Gamle Bybro, the “old town bridge,” which is open only to pedestrians and cyclists. 

Bakklandet is famous for its wooden buildings, particularly those on the river. 

While Bakklandet today is the hippest and most expensive section of Trondheim, it was not always that way. Developed as the city’s first suburb, it was a working class district throughout the nineteenth century. By the 1960s, however, most of the olde buildings were abandoned. The city planned to tear them down and create a roadway linking central Trondheim with its newer residential areas. Residents were outraged. They started squatting in the old buildings and painting them bright colors. The city relented when the tourists started showing up. 

We have a day at sea tomorrow. After that, we will come to Tromsø.