Another beautiful day, and a later arrival into port means even more time to really enjoy the warmth and sunshine. After breakfast, the 4 of us strike out into the town. We made a decision early on to cancel the car here – the town itself looked like a good place to explore and spend the day without going too far afield. So, off we go across the pedestrian bridge that straddles the railroad and down into town to the Stiftsgarden.
The Stiftsgarden is the Royal Residence in Trondheim, and considered the largest wooden building in Northern Europe. With over 140 and 4,000 square meters, it has been used by Royals since 1800. It’s very impressive, even seen from the back – where we arrive at the courtyard and gardens. It’s quiet and lovely back here (and for some reason I didn’t take any pictures!) so we sit on the benches for a while, then resume our tour by walking through the garden gate and into the main town square, Torvet.
It’s still relatively early – for Norwegian standards – but you can see this is the bustling hive of the city. A huge open area where the two main streets Kongens gate and Munke gate meet, there is a statue of Olav Tryvaggson, the city’s founder, in the middle of a roundabout.
Also off to our left is a huge archeological dig – all fenced off with workers busily dusting off sectors of dirt. We later find out that this excavation began in 2015, with the goal of discovering human activity dating from about 1000 years ago to when the square was designed, after a fire in 1681. It makes for an interesting few moments watching the archeologist meticulously work.
We are heading toward the Nidaros Cathedral, the dominate church in town, but we take a quick side trip to the Var Frue Kirke – Our Lady’s Church – a little bit further down Kongens gate. It’s a beautiful old stone church, with steeple and clock (and completely backlit – so no photos here either). But the greatest thing about this church is that it is run by the City Mission as an open church. There is a coffee shop inside, with seating for anyone who wants to come in. They serve soup and mass on Thursday and are committed to being a shelter for those who are in need.
Quite a wonderful mission, and a lovely church inside as well. There is a fabulous altar and creche, as well as the most interesting candle display on the floor before the altar.
Back out into the sunlight, we make our way to Nidaros, the world’s northernmost medieval cathedral. After wading through the crowds to find out pricing, we make an executive decision not to pay the pricey entrance fee – the crowds are tremendous and there appears to be construction inside – the brochure even says for “a thousand years, the building and restoration…has been a constant task,” so we forgo it - and how many churches do we really need to see? Just standing outside in the throngs, and looking at the façade, which is pretty incredible with all the statuary and interesting building adornments, is plenty good for us.
Next we meander over to the Kunstmuseum, which has a collection of Norwegian and International art. Maggi makes this executive decision, and we blow off the gallery in favor of more outdoor walking and basking in sunlight. Oh and torturing Sunny with the vicious looking wolf/dog outside the museum.
Retracing our steps a bit, we pass back by an interesting sculpture out side the museum and behind the cathedral (look at all those people!)…
…and onto the Army and Resistance Museum. Well, we think we’re heading in the right direction, the map looks right, but we round this building that looks abandoned and we are thinking we are 0 for 2 on the Resistance Museums! But we keep going and find the museum in the corner of the cathedral courtyard. Phew! And it’s free! Even better. We take our time wandering through all the displays – from the Vikings (900 AD) through the present. I never knew the history (at least WWI on history) of Norway, so it is fascinating to learn the relationships between the Allies, Germany and Russia.
Now it is time to find some adult beverages. We head through the courtyard, back through the masses at the cathedral and toward the Old Town Bridge which leads into Bakklandet, the reportedly “charming” old city. As we approach the bridge, we run into none other than the “Cho’s” – this is the nickname Maggi has bestowed upon the large Asian-American family who commandeers an 8-top in the breakfast lounge every morning, and whose children are some of the most ill-behaved – and they are teens! The “Cho’s” were actually seated behind us the first night at dinner and we thought we might have to smack the kids, they were so noisy and unruly. Never did we imagine they’d be with us all throughout the cruise. Ugh.
But, nonetheless, we successfully navigate around the wild children to snap a couple of pictures of the old bridge and the lovely wooden houses lining the Nidelva canal.
Bakklandet is indeed charming, but unfortunately for us, completely packed at every bar and cafe that line the road. We soon retrace our steps and head back to Torvet to find a suitable midday respite. We end up at Frati, an Italian restaurant and cafe right off the square. There we have our beer and wine, while basking (or baking, depends on your point of view) in the sunlight and heat of the midday.
We decide that drinks are enough, even though there is a pizza special that really isn’t all that unreasonable, and end up taking our leave to walk back to the ship. On the way, Maggi & Richard find some antique shops to browse, so we walk back to the ship alone, stopping at one of the fun sculptures in front of the pier. Is it an ear? Is it a conch shell? Is it both?
We later find out (thank you Google) that it is indeed both! The name of the sculpture is Ørekonkylie – which literally means Ear conch. The idea is that you can’t listen to the ocean with the conch, because it has its own ear. Interesting….
We spend the rest of the day lolling around the cabin and ship, grazing on the snacks left to us by Mellany and then hitting the gym later. Drinks and dinner with Maggi and Richard – then later more drinks at 5 o’clock Somewhere bar. I think this is also the evening where Maggi & Richard’s room steward left them a towel animal that I am convinced is Willard the rat. It was even peeking out from under their covers. Thank heavens we have told Christian not to do towel animals for us. That darn monkey is bad enough, I’d be having nightmares every night if I found Willard in my bed!
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