Trondheim, Norway

 It was a very smooth ride last night as Captain Luksa said it would be since we were close to the coast the whole way.  That may change here over the next few days of travel north.

We're only here in Trondheim until 4:00 pm as we have a long way to go to our next port.  Our tour left at 8:30 am and fortunately, the forecast for rain turned out to be not quite right.  Trondheim is a large university city.  It seemed pretty quiet for a weekday but our guide, Marie, said that was a combination of early hours, students not in session and July is a popular holiday month here as well as the rest of Europe.  She said that most office workers start early, 7:00 or 8:00 am, so they can leave around 4:00 pm for a better life balance and also for some outdoor time.  Even in the dark winter, they will go skiing or ice skating in the late afternoon. Right across from where we're docked there is a huge indoor water park and we can see slides, diving pools, wave pools and, of course, saunas.  It is very busy.  

Our first stop was at a former fortress at the top of a hill.

This was built as a military defense system in medieval times, then used as a fire lookout for the city.  As with most cities of those times, Trondheim burned down several times before they built wider roads and stone buildings starting in the 18th century.

The big brown building is the main University building.  There are about 30,000 students studying mostly technical subjects.

On our walk to the Trondheim Cathedral, we went down a very steep hill and came across this.  Marie said it is supposed to be the only one in the world, but she couldn't verify that.

The instructions seem a bit complicated.  Unfortunately, it was broken so we couldn't see it in action.  Basically, you line up your bike, put all your weight on your right foot on the lift and hit the green button.  You get pushed up the hill on your bike.

I love "This lift is authorized by the Norwegian Railway Authority and is safe to use.  You are nonetheless asked to use a bicycle helmet."  Not stated is that you use it at your own risk as that is always understood in Norway.

Push off at the top and away you go.  Marie said it takes a bit of a knack to get the hang of it.  It was designed by students at the University.

I couldn't find anything about this sculpture, but it looks like a man looking out of a radio cassette player.  Must be a story there somewhere.

This is the most famous picture spot of Trondheim.  These used to be warehouses and are now very expensive homes.  They're on stilts because the tide is about 7-8 feet.

Loved this sweet little white home tucked in amongst the others.

Many houses have ladders going up to the peak to facilitate snow and ice removal in the winter.  This one has extra cross walks which help break up the falling ice.

This is the oldest bridge in Trondheim, now only for pedestrians and bicycles.  Legend says if you kiss under the arches, you will remain together forever.  Didn't want to tempt fate, so we did.

We stopped to see the outside of the Cathedral which is magnificent.  We didn't have time to go inside and they were setting up for an upcoming festival, so the photo isn't perfect, but the facade is.  It was too massive to get into one photo.

The last stop was at an outdoor museum, which included sections on farming and city life in years past.  It was nice and peaceful until a group of hundreds of walkers arrived.  They were on some kind of a tour and just took over the place.  On our way back to the ship we went through a tunnel that actually had a roundabout in it.  It wasn't a big roundabout, but still ...  The Norwegians love their tunnels.

We spent a quiet afternoon on the ship.  Michael joined us at trivia and we still came in 3rd, but this time with 12/15 so we felt pretty good.  Terry Bishop gave a lecture on the discovery of the NorthEast passage.   And then dinner at Compass Rose.  We made it to the show tonight and were glad we did.  The Other Guys did a lot of music from Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and other music of that time.  They called their show the 4 Sea Sons, which is pretty clever.  They'll be back fortunately.

We're back in the land of almost no dark night.  We still don't pull the curtains all the way, but close the curtain near the head of the bed so at least we aren't looking directly into the light all night.