Lazy Sunday in Trondheim, Norway

Zagan the motorhome has moved himself back a row in the car park in Trondheim (N63.42580, E10.38215) … all will be revealed why later.

Last night we got chatting to one of our neighbours, Colin from New Zealand and his wife Christina, who was originally from Glasgow. We spent a good few hours swapping stories and places to see as they are going north and we’re heading south. This morning, when we finally stepped outside, they had already gone, possibly heading to Hell after we told them about it. On our step was a note with some tablets to turn the water in our fresh tank into drinking water even if it is from a dodgy hose (these will be very handy for Morocco) and a New Zealand key ring. I don’t what it is about motorhomers, we only meet for the most fleeting of moments, but we leave life-long friends.

The overnight rain had eased and, as we’re parked next to a sports stadium and about 10 metres from a running track, there was only one this for it this morning, a jog around Trondheim. As we jogged along the rivers and through the streets we were accompanied by a symphony of church bells and ferry horns, it sounded like there were several coming or going as the blasts went on for ages. Just over half an hour later we were back, and I was regretting having pretty much stopped running for the last month or so. It felt like I was back at square one. With our Runkeeper app programmed to train us for our half marathon in Marrakech in January, we’re now officially back on it.

I cooled down by supping a wine glass of water while wandering around the car park. It was then that I spotted that we weren’t actually in one of the motorhome parking spaces, instead we were in a spot that you should pay for (according to the sign at the end of the row), but on the ground it was marked out for motorhomes. As the motorhome parking bays were now almost empty we reversed back a row, and settled into one of the 12 motorhome spaces that are free for 24 hours. As we had technically just arrived in the motorhome parking, we decided to stop another night and have a lazy Sunday.

I’m sure this tells a story of some sort

After showers and a huge toasted club sandwich rustled up by Jay for brunch (as it was now gone noon) we set off for a slightly slower look around the city along with Charlie – who for some reason opted to stay in bed rather than come for a run. We retraced our steps back to the main square where I nipped into McDonalds as I was curious about the prices. Eating out in Norway is expensive, drinking out is ridiculously expensive. We haven’t eaten out for ages and I love to eat out. We’d been told things get cheaper as you go south, but even the cheapest of cheap food (McDonalds) is 100 Nok (£10) for a Big Mac meal – so imagine how much it is in a restaurant. Needless to say, we’ll stick to cooking in the van a little while longer.

King Olav keeping an eye on the redevelopment of the main square

Just up the road from McDonalds was Burger King, Starbucks and numerous other outlets you can find in any city around the world. The only difference is that here in Trondheim across the road from Burger King is the Royal Residence. Just across the road, no barriers or anything. The Stiftsgården is Scandinavia’s largest wooden palace, sitting quietly amongst the shops and houses with its back garden open to the public it seems like the royals are much closer to the people here.

Stiftsgården – the Royal Residence right in the middle of town

Crossing a bridge into what was once the working class neighbourhood, we were welcomed with cobbled streets now lined with people eating and drinking in the Sunday afternoon sunshine. The views across to the colourful Bryggen are my favourite part of the city though.

On one side of the bridge, normality…

…on the other side you step back in time

Sunday lunchtime relaxing in the sun

Heading back towards Zagan we stopped by Nidaros Cathedral and gawped at the figures lined up on the west face. Biblical statues stand side by side with Kings and clergymen from Norway. We spotted Adam and Eve, but had to resort to nipping into the Cathedral shop and sneaking a peek in a book which lists them all to know who most of the others were.

Nidaros Cathedral

The cathedral is built on the grave of St Olav (who was King Olav until he died at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030). St Olav’s grave became the northern religious compass point for European pilgrims with Rome in the south, Jerusalem in the east and Santiago de Compostela in the west. Neither of us are religious, but we only need a trip to Jerusalem to get a full set.

An amazing sign to see as a pilgrim

We got back to Zagan as the skies started to cloud over. The rest of the afternoon has been spent watching the last two episodes of a brilliant documentary called The Jinx (it’s real life, so if you plan to watch it don’t Google it as it’ll give away the explosive ending!) and looking at maps and guidebooks. So far Norway has been pretty easy in terms of planning, it’s been thin and the main sights all lined up for us. Now it is spreading out before us and we need to do a bit more work to decide where to go and what to see or we’ll end up wandering around the fjords for months.

Ju x

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