Norway Fjords/Sweden - Day 12 - Trondheim 2

Three days ago I was on Facebook and on the JourneyWoman group someone had posted about going to Norway and asked for advice about the Hurtigruten cruise. I was on it right then!! Anyway, one lady, Brenda (name changed for privacy) replied that she was in Trondheim and could help. I wrote to her that I would be there and would love to get her advice on what to see. She said she could meet. I did not expect that. So we messaged and within two days decided to meet today, Friday, in Trondheim. So....today is the day! I have nothing planned today as I have seen the major places, so now I will see what Brenda has planned and go from there.

But first, breakfast - it was great! Roasted vegetables and potatoes (my first breakfast potatoes in 11 days!!), pancakes, fried eggs...the spread at Thon is just amazing. I would need to stay here 3 days to try all the things they had here. I ate my fill today. Did not do much till 12 pm since Brenda is coming then.

Went downstairs to wait for her in the lobby. She was prompt, recognized me right away. I had not bothered to check anything about her (I should have!) but sometimes surprises are good, and she definitely was a surprise. Let me just start by saying that my day did not go at all as I was thinking...it was sooo much better. 

We talked a bit and then ventured out towards the cathedral. We went inside a church near the square, I had seen it yesterday but did not go in myself. This church was open for charity services, it provided meals and a place for the homeless and poor. Really what I think any religious place should do with pubic money. We sat there for a while. The next stop was the summer palace and then we went for a coffee to the Pilgrims place, which is a rest stop for pilgrims on their walk. It is the pilgrimage walk of St. Olav. The place was very nice, comfortable and had a cafe that sold food and coffee. We both had cake can coffee and talked for about one hour. She is so easy to get along with. She is also a fellow traveler, maybe that helps.

The royal palace

The pilgrimage place

She asked me here what kind of food I eat, and I mentioned to her that I was a vegetarian. She made a call to her husband to make sure they had vegetarian soup for the evening. I did not realize I was going to go to her house for dinner! OMG...I have not met anyone like her before. 

She told me a lot of things about Trondheim and the places we were at that I would never known myself. It really does matter to know someone in that place. 

From there we went to get on the bus (#22) to go to the Tyholt tower, which is actually a radio tower. She paid for my bus ticket, I could not help it because she had the app for it. After 20 mins of waiting the bus came. The funny thing is we were on the wrong direction bus, I think she had not realize that. But for me it was interesting, because I got to see quite a lot of the city. We finally looped back to where we had begun and went in the direction of the tower. On reaching there, I did not know we were going to go up, but we did. There is a revolving restaurant up there! I did not see any of this in any tour guide. Up the tower gave us great views of the city. I would have never seen this place if it wasn't for Brenda. We went round the restaurant to see all views and she called her husband to pick us up, which he did quite quickly.

We drove to her apartment. She did not let me do anything while she warmed the soup, set the table etc. Chris, her husband was as nice as her. Amazing couple. I am blessed to meet such wonderful people. We all talked as if we were old friends. Soup was great. They served Norwegian flat bread, which was like our papad, and finally ice cream. All just perfect. We sat for some more time and soon I requested to take their leave, and they dropped me to my hotel. 

I am writing my day, but I my feelings of gratitude and love and friendship may not be easy to write. It has been such a memorable day for me. Just yesterday I was thinking what the heck I am going to do all day Friday, and God said, you just wait! I am going to make it the best day in Norway for you. I enjoyed the day and the company and can easily say it was a perfect day.

I finished it off by going to the Turkey eatery to pack a falafel for tomorrow's train journey. And they were very nice there and packed the sauce and falafel separate so things don't get soggy. Just nice!

What a great day. 

Norway Fjords/Sweden - Day 11 - Trondheim 1

Good morning on the ship. Had to check out by 8 am so got up by 7 and packed up to go. Had to wait until 9:45 am to reach Trondheim. Went to the lounge and lounged around. It is kind of nice to get off the ship. I am not sure I would be able to do 12 days of solo on a cruise. Maybe? I have to give it a try someday.

The walk to my hotel is just about one mile. It was not a bad walk. It is cold here though. I saw the Rockeim museum building on my walk. The view on crossing the bridge was lovely.

The Thon Hotel staff is nice and even though its only about 10 am, they give me a room. Its a one person room but comfortable enough. And there is tea in the room! Awesome. I have not had anything this morning, so tea is welcome. After a hot cup, I am ready to venture out. I made my walk plan. There is really not much to do here. to the hotel and I am not going to any museum for now. So the remaining is the Cathedral and the city.

As I start my walk, I see there are plenty of places to eat in case I want to tomorrow. I walk towards the cathedral and run into food trucks in Stiftsgarden. Stiftsgarden is a huge square with empty space, I guess for events. There is a mall on one side and offices and restaurants/hotels on other sides. Since I have not had breakfast, I thought I would check out the food trucks. I found one that made Danish pancakes. I thought I would try that out. It was 8$ but worth it. I love these pancakes! I am going to make them when I get home. The poor guy's card scanner was not working, but he figured it out. I was his first customer today.

Now...on to the Nidaros cathedral. First I was just planning to walk around, but since its only 12 pm, I decided to visit and be done with it. The outside is quite complex and interesting with a lot of burials around the church. I bought the 12$ ticket and went in. It was a nice church. It is about 900 years old - well, it started small and progressively got larger and larger. I always love the stained glass work and huge organs in these churches. Spent about 45 mins here and then time to move on. 

Crossed the bridge to get to Bakkalandet, an old city area. It was a nice walk towards it. There are many many apartment buildings, not so many standalone houses here. The colors are nice, the gardens are lovely. Despite the cold weather, flowers are still blooming everywhere. Here in Trondheim, fall has arrived, the foliage has definitely changed colors. 

Bakkalandet was a cute area designed in the colorful houses joined together (Bergen style). Many restaurants and small shops. Its a small area - just 3 blocks. The wooden bridge is also here - big ado about nothing. Fine, I will take a picture of the bridge. Going on the bridge though gives a nice view of the buildings on both sides...really pretty. 

I skipped the fortress. The Norway fortress are nothing but a bunch of stones put together as a room. The walk back is also scenic.

And that's it! It's only 2 pm and I have seen it all. On the way back stopped at Rema1000 to get some chocolate, a croissant and some peanuts - really like those jalapeno peanuts. In retrospect I should not have gotten the croissant - the hotel has a light dinner in the evening. Came back to the hotel, ate the croissant and had some peanuts and one piece of chocolate. All this more than 10,000 steps of walking I am doing everyday has done nothing to my weight. 

The most thing I am missing about food is vegetables and fruits. And hot food. Thai food in Bergen was really good because it was all that. Maybe I will get some good food tomorrow.

At 5 pm decided to go out to the mall for a walk. I though the square would be busy, but its not. It is a bit colder now and sort of drizzling. The mall was well....a mall. I don't need anything so for me it was just walking around. Prices are too high for everything, although they do have some cool stuff here for kitchen and some of those greeting cards were good. 

Came back by 6 pm and around 6:30 went for the dinner. It was amazing! They had wonderful roasted vegetables, spinach soup, omelets, fruits, salads, pasta salad, breads....wow!! What a spread. And they had wine for drink! The chef was so nice she made me a vegetarian omelet - so tasty! I really wish I had not eaten that croissant. 

That is it. That is my day today. Tomorrow, not much to do as it will be more cold and somewhat rainy out there. That's okay. I am ready to go back to Oslo.