Trondheim

Storyline: Scandinavia

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Wed, Jun 18

We love Trondheim. Trondheim, the Viking capital along the river.

Arrived late last night after about 10 hours of spectacular train ride from Bodø. The train pulled into the station at 22:13. The area around the train station is in construction so although the hotel was 5 minutes away it took us some time to get through the mud and find our bearings. We are now about 300km south of the Arctic Circle, but at latitude of 63°43’ it is still light out. Trondheim is probably the closest latitudinal north to Iqaluit, Canada (~63°75’) that we’ll visit.

We were in the room before 23:00 and asleep shortly after.

Our hotel is a two-storey old bakery renovated and converted to a hotel.

It has interesting artifacts displayed just about everywhere. As in many other hotels, there are books provided for reading on a small table and a book about the city itself.

Below is some of information from this book that gives you an idea of the city’s history.

“Strategically located along the river Nidelva and the mouth of the Trondheim Fjord, Trondheim was founded by the Viking king Olaf Tryggvason and soon became the capital of his vast kingdom.”

“People have lived in the region around Trondheim for thousands of years, and the fertile lowland bordering the Trondheim Fjord was probably the most important power centre during the Viking Age.”

“The history of Trondheim has always been linked to the beginning of Christianity in Norway.”

“Although his reign was short, Olaf Tryggvason is considered one of the most important influential kings in Norwegian history. His goal was to build a modern central state on the foundations of the old decentralized heathen tribe and chief community, using Christian faith as a new unifying cultural identity.

This vision, however, was not fulfilled until years later. When his namesake, King Olaf II – more commonly referred to as Olaf the Holy or Saint Olaf – was killed during the Battle of Stiklestad, about 90km north of Trondheim, in 1030.”

“Consequently, a national shrine and cathedral were built in his honor over his burial site: Nidaros Cathedral… Today, it is the northernmost medieval cathedral in the world”
“Nidaros Cathedral is not the only medieval church in Trondheim. Just a few blocks away… is Vår Frue Kirke (Our Lady Church)”

“Today, the Age of the Vikings is long gone, but Trondheim remains Norway’s oldest city still in existence.”

Weather as everywhere here is changeable and unpredictable. Although for its northerly latitude it is mild (compare to Iqaluit Canada) with winters often above freezing temperatures.

Given the fact that we only have one full day here, we have an early breakfast and then go for our first exploration of the city. With rain on and off, it is quite wet. We take a general direction towards the famous cathedral, but are attracted to a small pedestrian street with colourful umbrellas hanging over. The problem with them is that some had reversed and are full rain water. As we walk the wind blows them back and they release their water over the unprepared passers-by.

Meandering through pedestrian streets we reach Our Lady Church (Vår Frue Kirke). Further on, through a little park and we see the cathedral. We pass by a monument that reads Tordenskjold. I look it up.

Born in Trondheim, Peter Tordenskjold travelled to Copenhagen in 1704 and joined Dano-Norwegian navy. He rose to vice-admiral for his actions during Great Northern War. This is an entirely new history page I didn’t know about. I knew a lot about the Russian Peter the Great, but it is a lot more interesting and complicated than my knowledge. If you are history fan look it up.  (Great Northern War – Wikipedia ) In a way the Dano-Norwegian union with the help of Russia ended the Swedish hegemony of the Baltic Sea region, but this allowed Russia to establish such. And even now, four centuries later, with Putin in place Russian hegemony is very damaging for the region.

It is now pouring like crazy, so I run to shelter under the catherdal’s doorway, while Alex is walking with his video camera (I am still to see anything out of it).

After Alex comes, we walk towards the river. We reach Gamle Bybro (Old Town Bridge) – a historic bridge built in 1681 after the great fire of the same year. Its location was of military strategic significance and king Christian V of Denmark assumed the cost of construction, which was completed in 1685.

Both sides of the river are lined with quaint and colourful wooden houses.

“Wharves, warehouses and boathouses have stood at the mouth of the Nidelva river since the early days in Trondheim. The locals traded goods here from near and far. In King Sverre’s day, the wharves were also used as defences. Barriers and corridors were built down by the river from where stones could be thrown at the enemy.”

No reflections when we are on the bridge. Just rain and more rain. We take tons of photos but my feet are all soaked so we decide to return later, after I change shoes. The hotel is around to corner anyway.

We pass by what seems to be a science museum with a sculpture of the Norwegian violinist Arve Tellefsen.

We observe little kiddies all well-prepared for the weather here. As they always say, there is no bad weather, just bad clothing.

 

Back at the hotel, still raining out, so doing laundry seemed a good option. We learned last night, during check-in, that there was a free laundry room in the basement. So, Alex takes the load down and says he’d wait there (we only run it on the quick wash). After some time had passed, I go down. The laundry is in the drier but it didn’t come dry, he says. I look at the programs and set the drier on a program that will dry it (after all we don’t have 50 programs on our dryer back home so how was Alex supposed to know?).

In the meanwhile, the rain stops and it is now sunny outside. Thus, in a way we wasted some dry time for the laundry. But it needed to be done and the hotel basement was perfect for it. After all, how am I supposed to know when the rain would stop for some precious hour?

Out again in the afternoon. First, we walk to Gamle Bybro and cross the river to the old town. I snap a few photos with the houses reflecting in the waters.

We walk through the cobblestoned pedestrian streets of the old town to the next bridge (Bakke bru). From there we head towards the city centre.

We pass by Trondheim tinghus or tingrett (Trondheim District Court). Nice tile art at the entrance. Then some more statues, some interesting but hard to identify all of them. It is wet again.

In the centre is the monument of the king Olaf Tryggvason, so tall that it’s hard to take a photo of it.

It’s been a long time since breakfast and we are hungry. Our hotel room doesn’t have even a mini fridge, so we have something out. I check prices as we go and find some place with something we could afford. But as we go through the maze of little streets, we can’t find these places again.

So, we settle in a pub/restaurant near our hotel. It will be my first (of 3) drink in Norway. I order the spritz and Alex has a beer. We share a salmon dish with some veggies and 4 small potatoes.

Bread is free and we appreciate it. It is now dry, so we head back to the Gamle Bybro bridge and cross it again.

Most of these houses are renovated and serve as dwellings and storefronts. Unfortunately, the dry didn’t last long. It is pouring again and we are off to the hotel to prepare for our morning flight to Bergen.

Thus, Jun 19

It is the second fly day in Norway. To get to Bergen, where we are due today, one either takes the train to Oslo and another to Bergen or flies. After all it is water and fjords between. Given our tight schedule I booked a fly with SAS. We have our breakfast relatively early and inquire at the reception desk how to get to the airport.

They tell us that due to construction (it is the same as in Canada – two seasons: winter and construction) the bus may be delayed. They advise us to take a cab. We had two choices with the cab – fixed fare or pay as you go. The fixed fare may be a bit more expensive if traffic is good. Well, if! We ask them to order a taxi with fixed fare.

We are so glad we did. Trondheim airport is some 34 km away from the city. As we hit the highway we are in standstill mode for a long time. Due to construction on the two-lane road, only one of the lanes is open and traffic from both directions is alternately allowed through. We spend close to two hours there (instead of about 40min). We are at the airport around 11:30am for our 12:50pm flight. Small airport so we breeze through security and shortly after board the plane for the one-hour flight. See you in Bergen.