Trondheim

Day 18

I felt considerably better by dinner time so we dressed up and went down. We had another lovely evening with The Gang. After dinner we all headed to Anderson’s for a night cap (do you know where that expression comes from?  We had to look it up). We had wanted to go to the show - Destination Dance - but it had been cancelled because, as the Entertainment Director said, the sea was still too frolicsome and it would be dangerous for the performers, particularly as it was due to be held in the Curzon which is at the front of the ship.

Donna said that she had had a moment up in the Curzon earlier in the day when she’d suddenly felt very queasy and both Janet and Di had taken sea sickness tablets earlier.  So maybe the dance group were seasick as well 😜.

We had a nice drink then headed for bed.

This morning we had booked on the Bymarka Hike. P&O were unable to put on too many excursions due to the late change of plan, but because we love nature and walking, we were delighted with this option. We were even more grateful when we realised that it’s a Sunday today and Trondheim still honours its religious traditions so many places are closed and others don’t open until later after the church services.

The hike was really fabulous and it was a proper hike rather than just a stroll or easy walk. We climbed to 552m above sea level, although we were taken part of the way in the coach. But we still walked 6-7km with some very steep walking and some scrambling in parts. It wasn’t a walk for the faint hearted.  It might even have been up to the Scott’s excellent standards 😜.

Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been great all day, ranging between light drizzle to relatively heavy showers with some dry spells (I sound like a weather forecast), and it rained quite heavily on our journey down the mountain so we were quite wet when we reached the coach. But as we have been told many times here in Norway - there is no bad weather just bad clothing - and we have been delighted with our wet weather and walking gear. Most of which came from either Decathlon or Marks and Spencer with a few accessories from Iceland.

The poor weather also meant the views weren’t as spectacular as I am sure they are when the weather is clear but it was good to be there and we took photos to remind us.

At the start of our walk we passed a small lake which is designated as a child’s fishing lake.

On the way down we saw so many people of all ages running, cycling and summer Nordic Skiing. On the mountain we’d even passed some runners running to the top.

Despite Trondheim being the third biggest city in Norway, when we left the town - after going through a tunnel with a roundabout in it - have you ever seen that before? - we reached the Nature Reserve very quickly. As our wonderful guide, Simone, told us, the Norwegians love nature and need to be able to access the countryside as easily as possible. In schools

there is a mandatory 1 hour outside daily, whatever the weather.

I asked Simone if she was a local and she said she’d moved there when she was 11 - 7 years ago!  She is still at high school and has another year there. She went back to school on Thursday. Wow!  She was a brilliant guide and rearranged our journey as we went according to the extra time we had. We could not believe that an 18 year old could be so confident.  All credit to her.

The extra time meant that we passed the university, Nidaros cathedral and were able to stop at Kristiansten Fortress as well as stopping at a viewpoint over the city.

We got back to the ship at around 12.30.

We were soaking wet and Steve was a little cold as he hadn’t worn his best rain jacket. So we headed upstairs and had another really health lunch to warm up - not!  Burgers I’m afraid.

A short sit down in the cabin after, then off again. We caught the shuttle bus which took us to the cathedral. From there we decided to walk back to the ship. We headed down to the river and walked along it all the way.

Trondheim is a very pretty city and we loved it. There was plenty of life along the river and one street in particular that had restaurants all along, was absolutely heaving. Being a university town, the community is very young. Around 20% of the population are students. A couple of restaurants along this street looked as though they were hosting a special event for students who are just returning to the city for the new educational year.

By complete chance we bumped into Donna

and John on their cycling tour of Trondheim. They are loving it and Donna was doing far better than she had expected.

There are some extremely pretty houses all though the city, especially by the university and down by the river. The river houses are all converted warehouses. We both felt it was a city where we could live. I saw a lovely looking yoga studio and right by the dock is the Pirbadet swimming pool, Norway’s largest indoor water park. It even has an outdoor roof pool with beautiful views over Trondheimsfjord - when there isn’t a cruise ship there 😂.

We saw plenty but there is still plenty we didn’t see and would be very happy to come back for another visit.

Despite the fact we are leaving late tonight, we came back to the ship around 4.30pm. We’d walked another 5-6km in the afternoon and just as we arrived the sky, which had turned very grey, opened up and poured down. So we had timed it well. We had made a small mistake and gone the wrong way round the swimming pool (we’d gone the same way as the coaches) to an entrance that wasn’t for pedestrians but a really lovely security guy let us in. We were very glad as the heavy rain was just starting and we would have drowned had we had to walk back round.

Yet another wonderful day in a very different environment. We were disappointed not to go to Lefknes but our disappointment was more than compensated far by our visit to Trondheim.

Trondheim image gallery.