All in all, Trondheim has proved to be pretty easy . . . except for getting lost on our bikes. To begin with, the GPS led us to the city’s free “bobil parkering,” a nice big lot where half a dozen other RVs were already parked. Then we got our bikes out, re-educated ourselves on how to unfold them, carefully rode down a big hill on their very soft tires to a nearby gas station, filled the tires, and then headed further down the hill into the “sentrum”--about a 15 minute ride. Easy.
The old city center is an island, easily walkable and full of bicycles. Our first stop was at the Nideros Cathedral, Scandinavia’s largest church building. We were charged admission to enter, and the cloudy day didn’t do justice to the stained glass windows in the dim interior. But we also heard a beautiful choir performance that evening, sung without accompaniment in that massive, echo-y space.
(If you've been following our blog for any length of time, you'll recognize this as the inevitable "cathedral facade" photo.)
Usually we don’t go out in the evening, preferring to be back to Rover by dark. But as far north as we are now, and as close to the summer solstice, there’s no such thing as “dark.” It was barely twilight by the time the concert finished at 9 pm. So we could easily see our way home even though it was the wrong way: our GPS still thought we were a truck and didn’t want to let us go on bike paths. And much of it was uphill (like all of Norway, so far as we can tell). As a result, the return trip was considerably longer than the one into town that morning had been.
Like most cities in Norway, Trondheim was originally built from the pine trees that grow all over the country . . . and, also like many of the nation’s cities, it has burned to the ground several times. After its last major fire, in 1681, it was rebuilt with wide streets, so it has quite a modern feel, even though many of the buildings are very old. It is also home to a large science and technical university, so there are lots of students around.
The next day we had no trouble driving all of three miles right through the middle of the old city to another “bobil parkering” even closer to the city center (no more uphill jaunts on a folding bike, misled by a GPS, thank you very much). This lot had no services, just free 24-hour parking, but it also was only a short walk across the river to the city. With no plug-ins, we had to depend on our batteries for 12-volt and 110-volt power both days, but so far they have held up well (of course, we have hardly had to turn the lights on).
We spent our (mostly sunny) second day in Trondheim walking the neighborhoods . . .
. . . visiting shops and museums and reading English language papers at the library. It is amusing to see streets and alleys and whole sections of town called Brattsomething: Brattorga, Brattorgt, Brattorvieta. . . . Trondheim is on a fjord, so there are plenty of seagulls. As we walked past an outdoor cafe, we saw one swoop down and take the last bite of bread off a woman’s plate. She was very startled and upset about this large scavenger literally flying in her face. (The bird, however, seemed rather proud of himself.) Later in the day as we were eating our sandwiches on a bench, we were circled by seagulls keeping a close eye on us--as we did on them. We knew enough to keep our food out of sight, but they didn’t leave until we had finished and disposed of everything. They were . . . intimidating.
The weather is cool and there’s often a brisk breeze: we wore gloves and headbands today, June 11. On the other hand, this is the first day since we got to Norway that it hasn’t rained even a little!