Trondheim to Rørvik

Wednesday 13 December

When I woke during the night my window was not looking as dark as it should and then I realised that it was snowing. It snowed pretty much all night but this morning it had stopped, which was convenient for our walk into Trondheim.

Because of the fresh snow, walking was less slippery and there was also plenty of grit to make the footpaths safer. Stopped for a hot chocolate at a nice little cafe. Every time you go in or out you have to deal with coats and gloves and hats and scarves. It takes a while. However we are told that “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing”, and that has been proven on this trip.

Time for a hot chocolate

Boot chains save bones

Trondheim looks like a lovely city. It’s the third largest in Norway. Mostly timber buildings, painted in colours such as dark red, green or grey. We found a Christmas market in a big long tent and there were lots of Christmas lights in the streets. We caught a taxi back to the boat, just to be safe time-wise, and enjoyed our first ride in a Tesla vehicle. The Norwegian government is encouraging people to change to clean electric cars and they get some sort of discount if they buy one.

Walking into Trondheim

Christmas market in a tent

Our ship departed Trondheim at about midday, headed out of the fjord. We passed a town which is known for ship building. Our ship had some work done there just last weekend. This works also built the big cruise ship, “The World”.

Ship building town

A little later we saw an amazing octagonal lighthouse from the 1800s. A family with three children lived there, with a school teacher as well. It is just a tiny rock which is largely underwater when the tide is high. If the children went outside they had to have a rope tied to them for safety. What a life!

Octagonal lighthouse

This afternoon we had two presentations. The first was a film about the northern lights, the myths and the science. It was very good. I loved the story that some people believed there was a hole through the centre of the earth from pole to pole, through which the sun sometimes shone to create the Aurora at the opposite end.

The second presentation, from the ship’s tour leader, was about the Vikings. He has studied Viking history extensively and was both entertaining and informative. It’s really interesting to see the extent and expansion of the Viking influence from the 790s to 1066.

Another excellent dinner tonight. The food is outstanding, way better than I expected, with lots of local dishes and ingredients.

A new one for my collection