May 19  -  Trondheim, Norway

We had two calm but chilly days as we sailed north to our first stop  in Trondheim, Norway.  Saturday was a huge turnover day for both staff and passengers.  My move three doors down went smoothly and with much less bother than I thought it would. Several friends from previous cruises have boarded and it’s great seeing them.  My friend Hilary from Stoke on Trent in the UK is on.  She’s a widow too and we met a few years ago on a cruise not long after Covid when we still had to wear masks when walking around the ship.  She’ll be here for this 14 days of my voyage. A couple, Cat and Doug, whom I’ve sailed with several times before are here too. It’s always nice to meet old friends.

The sea days were uneventful.  I played trivia both days and name that one tune one day.  No thanks to me we won the latter.  Yesterday I was feeling under the weather so in the afternoon I stayed in my cabin and watched the lectures by one of the guest speakers that I’d missed.  She’s an American who was married to a Norwegian but is now divorced and as best I can tell she has some kind of business degree. Nevertheless she’s done talks about Polar explorers, Queen Victoria, and Norway.  I’m not sure what the connection is, but anyway.  She went to UC-Berkley and in one of her talks about Norway she described a society in which the individual is unimportant; the collective group is what’s important.  It sounded like Karl Marx’s dream society.  If that’s what Norway is, I didn’t realize that it was and I’m pretty sure that despite the beauty I wouldn’t want to live here.  

We arrived here in Trondheim early this morning to a gorgeous sunny day with the temperature around 70°.   Before lunch I did a little wander into the town.  It looks pretty picturesque and spotlessly clean. Trondheim is the third largest city in Norway with a population of nearly 220,000. It was established by a Viking in 997 AD. During that era it was the capital. During WW II the Germans turned the city into a large naval base for its submarines that operated in the north Atlantic raiding Allied convoys. The city sits where the river Nidelva meets Trondheim fjord and along the riverfront are old warehouses that are colorfully painted and now converted into shops and apartments.  The Nidaros Cathedral was built between the 11th and 13th centuries and is the most important Gothic structure in Norway.  It’s also the most northern medieval cathedral in the world.  After the Reformation it became a Lutheran cathedral.  Close to where the ship was docked there was a little beach and children were playing there because it was such a sunny warm day.

The Nidaros Cathedral

The old town bridge near the central square

The colorful old restored warehouses along the river

I liked this mural painted on a building close to the dock

Someone was airing their bed linens out the window of their flat and I just thought it was cute. It reminded me of my grandmother airing her featherbeds out the window.

Not the best picture, but if you look really hard you can see the kids playing on the beach below.

We’re in the Land of the Midnight Sun now and even though there’s close to a month until the longest day, it stays light now until nearly 10:30 PM.  Sunrise is before 4 AM. Thank goodness for good drapes in my cabin!  That’s all for now.  We have trivia in a few minutes and I can’t miss that.