Thursday, Oct 3

Today we flew from Leknes on the Lofoten Islands to Trondheim on the mainland.  We are officially leaving the north of Norway behind. I didn’t realize until we got further south, just how far south we were headed.  As soon as we left the airport the landscape was much different. Gone are the full autumn colors, trees here are mostly still green, although some have changed.  There are also a lot more evergreen trees and more flat land that has been plowed for fields.

Trondheim is a much bigger city than we were expecting.  It feels good to be back in a city for a bit. We parked the car and have been walking instead.  People here dress more like city-folks. The coats they wear are more fashionable and less simply functional.  Our only real excursion in the city for today was to the famous Rosenborg Dampbageri (bakery). I had a really nice little pizza on really fresh, fluffy bread dough.

Our flat is the 6th floor of a really old building (my best guess is that it was built in the 1700s).  It’s been renovated recently so the finishings are modern. There are cool nooks and crannies, it’s built into the roof line, so slanting ceilings and skylights in all the rooms.  There is a nice little windowed alcove for the dining table that I’m sitting in now with views out over the lower buildings below. Since Norwegians never seem to close curtains/blinds at night, we can see at least 8 different TVs in various apartments around us.  Most were all watching the same show when we looked. Somewhat disconcerting is the fact that the building shakes and you can feel it wobbling from time to time, possibly when a large truck drives by on the street below.  

Friday, Oct 4

We spent some time this morning just wandering around the city center of Trondheim, and doing a little bit of shopping.  We stopped first at the Tourist Information Center and picked up some brochures. I’ve got one with some articles about the city that I’m excited to delve into.  We stopped for a little snack at Dromedar Kaffebar where I had a really lovely pistachio roll and a rich dark hot chocolate. I bought some jeans at a Trondheim jeans store (this is their headquarters) called Livid Jeans.  I probably paid too much for them, but they’ll always be my Trondheim jeans. 🙂

For lunch we stopped at Godt Brød bakery.  I had another mini pizza with super fresh ingredients on a fluffy bread base.  Rob had a large skillingsboller (cinnamon roll/knot). After lunch, we walked along the Nidelva river.  We stumbled onto some very old warehouse buildings painted in bright colors. One was in such disrepair that it was slumping downward, ready to crumbled into the river.  We crossed the river at the Gamle Bybro (Old Town Bridge built in 1681). Everyone on the bridge seemed to be a tourist, taking selfies and other photos. On the other side of the bridge is the Bakklandet neighborhood.  We wandered past lots of old houses. They seemed to be the typical style of house from early Trondheim history. They were 2 stories tall, built one right next to the other with no land in between, with 3-4 windows per story.  Each one painted a different color than the one next to it. The neighborhood seemed to be full of students walking about at 1:00 on a Friday afternoon. From there, we took another bridge across the Nidelva River and made our way back along that side of the river and eventually to our flat.  It felt good to do some walking again. We’ve been pretty sedentary these last few weeks, averaging less than 5,000 steps per day. Today we got in 13,000.

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