Today we walked. A lot. Over 20,000 steps though it’s hard to say exactly because we were off the ship at about 8 and my walking day starts at 9am (heaven forfend my streak of 1900+ days of meeting my step goal at least 6 days a week end because of time zone issues). Found a few caches, failed to find one in a library (though the very friendly and helpful librarians also couldn’t find it).
Trondheim is pretty far north (63 degrees latitude) though not as far north as the Arctic Circle (a bit north of 65.5 degrees). It’s along a fjord but a bit inland from the ocean. It was a fine place to walk, though not an especially memorable one.
The architecture was a mix of old brightly colored Scandinavian buildings next to each other and newer Scandinavian buildings that invoked images of IKEA.
We saw some nice statues — one of a speed skater (it was Hjalmar Andersen who skated in the 1950s, not Johann Olav Koss who skated more recently), a few of different Vikings including one of Leif Ericsson which was apparently a gift from a Norwegian group in Seattle. We spotted an outdoor cafe which thoughtfully placed pastel-colored blankets on the chairs so the customers would be comfortable. There was a nice open square in the center of town which, thankfully, did not have the same look as many Central European cities — the buildings were a bit less fancy but there were some nice sculptures, water features, and flowers. We walked by the “Trondhjems Hospital” which had a sign announcing it was “etablert 1277.”
Actually, there were lots of flowers just about everywhere, many of them in pots. It seemed that many sidewalks and even a few of the many bridges we crossed had plants. And more impressive were the many bees (of different species) busy pollinating them. It makes me wonder if the plants were specifically chosen because they attract bees.
The water was interesting. There was a small island in the fjord which apparently had been a prison at one time. A pretty lighthouse along a breakwater. Some water was very blue, other very clear but brown (perhaps influenced by the fact that the weather was very cloudy when we were there). We spotted a small platform maybe 25 yards/meters offshore and noticed a woman and a 10-ish year old swim from shore to the platform, stay there (in the wind) for a few minutes then swim back to shore. Brrr.
It’s interesting to see what Norwegian words we can decipher easily (besides etablert which is “established”). For what it’s worth, these were all near the dock, not the hospital and there were also some non-health-related words but I didn’t have pictures of them so they’ve escaped memory. Fysiotherapi. Urologi klinikken. Hjertrespesialisten. And the one we correctly guessed at based on the logo: mage og tarnsenter. (Physiotherapy, urology clinic, heart specialists, and stomach and digestive center.)
A very pleasant day exploring with friends in a very pleasant city. Probably not a place I’d want to live because of the extremes of sunlight: today’s sunrise was shortly after 3am with sunset after 11:30pm. I was surprised to see that winter low and high temperatures hover around freezing, though get much colder further inland.
Tomorrow is another sea day. We will cross the arctic circle which seems to be the first time for many friends but will be my third (in 2001 I went to Barrow, Alaska — now Utquiavik; in 2011 I was in Kiruna, Sweden). That said, I expect this to be my first time above North 70 degrees latitude.
Adding a few pictures:
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