Trondheim by Tram

We were late coming into Tromdheim, by about 20 minutes. Just before we got there we passed a Hurtigruten ship going the other way. They are the other company doing the Coastal Express Route.
We had a talk on board about Munkholmen, a small island just outside Trondheim. It’s been used as an execution site, monastery (where the name Monk’s islet comes from), fortress, prison, anti aircraft gun station and is now a recreation site.

I chose to do an antique tram ride in Trondheim. Getting from the dock into Trondheim would have been too difficult for the time we had so I elected to do this guided tour. We went by bus to the tram station and got a good look at central Trondheim. It was founded in 997 and currently has a population of 260,000, 40,000 of those are students.
There buildings of Trondheim have a distinctive style, colourful with wooden planks running vertically instead of horizontally.
The tram was built in 1924 with the decor being from the 1950s. It took us to Lian up in the forrest. After we came back down we went by bus to a lookout which translates as “Stone Mountain viewpoint”. We got very comprehensive views of the city.

From there we went down to the cathedral. It was built over the burial site of King Olav II who later became Norway’s patron saint. It was completed around 1300, suffered several fires over the centries and restoration took from 1869 to 2001. There was a service on when we were there so we couldn’t go inside but the outside was spectacular enough. The west front has 57 sculptures of biblical figures.

After that is was back on the bus and back to the ship.
At 3pm the chef came out to the back deck and we had a brief talk on Norwegian blue mussels that are farmed in the Trondheimsfjorden which we had gone through to get to Trondheim. Apparently there is a push to get Norwegians to eat more blue mussels. We got to try some and they tasted like mussels.
We then passed the Kjeungskær lighthouse, a famous lighthouse but I think there are a few famous lighthouses in Norway.
This evening we had a talk on the fjords in the daily briefing and later watched a film on the Northern Lights. I’m hoping to see some in Tromso although if they are around it would be amazing to see them from the ship. More likely to see them further north though.

Tomorrow we cross the Artic Circle sometime between 7:30am and 8:30am. There’s a competition to guess the exact time we cross. I guessed 8:23:23am.Read more