On the "roadtrip" portion of the trip Tina and I tend to concentrate on things we can do on our own based on references we find from tripadvisor for example. We don't do a lot of tours. But coming off the ship and being limited to 3 hours we decided to do a walking tour of the city. Our guide was a very knowledgeable local woman who was extremely proud of her town. Although we'd read up on Trondheim some while we were there, we learned a heck of a lot more in a 3 hour walk then we did from reading.
Leif Erikson was based out of Trondheim and was sent by the church to spread Christianity to Greenland. Later he managed to land in Canada roughly 500 years earlier than good ol' Chrissy Columbus supposedly discovered North America. They say there's archaeological evidence to prove it ... and since I'm in Norway, I'm leaning towards good ol' Leify boy myself. :)
This building was actually right beside the hotel we stayed at during the road trip visit but we didn't know what it was. The tour taught us it was Norway's rock'n'roll hall of fame. While rock radio stations in Norway are dominated by England and US music, we also heard enough Norwegian musicians to know they've got a lot of talent here. The hall of fame also allows people to use computers and recording equipment to make there own recordings. Pretty cool concept.
We had seen the local cathedral on our first visit but got a much closer look with the guide. Built between 1070 and 1300 (anybody still think the World Trade Center monuments took a long time to build? :) ) it was largely abandoned in the mid-1500's when reform hit Norway and the country was transformed over to Protestant Lutherans. Fortunately in modern time the country realized the historical significance of the building and undertook a major effort to restore it to it's original beauty.
The west side of the building has 60 statues of saints, local hero's, and monarchs of the country.
The final part of our 6 km walk brought us by the old river front (as opposed to the canal front I had pictures of in the first visit). The warehouses on the right have been completely refurbished to latest codes and most are now rather exclusive apartment buildings. The ones on the left have not been rebuilt to those standards and since they still pose too high of a fire risk they are restricted to businesses. Don't ask me ... I just report the news! :)
Anyway, as in most of Norway, almost all buildings are completely wood structures. In fact back in the 1500's the entire town of Trondheim burned completely to the ground except for major portions of the cathedral which were built of stone. At least they got a chance to redo the streets which had been very narrow and winding.
Back on the ship we proceeded ahead to a town called Kristiansund. We only had a half hour there, but I was feeling adventuresome and talked Tina into taking a short trip onto land.
Throughout all of Norway the flowers are still tremendous. It's surprising given how relatively cool it feels to us, but they somehow keep them healthy and blooming.
The town had a large harbor with a ton of private sailing and motor boats.
About 10 blocks away from the ship we were looking for a shortcut back to the docks when we came across this business rebuilding an old wooden ship. The workers said we were free to climb up and inspect it if we'd like. Well ... of course we'd like! :) Can you imagine some business in the US taking the liability risk of letting somebody climb up your scaffolding?
So we're up on the scaffolding looking down into the boat here when we hear our ships horn. The ships horn goes off when you have somewhere around 5 minutes to get back on board. 5 minutes ... 10 blocks ... ... ... and off we were running. I was running ahead to at least hold onto the ropes and refuse the ship to leave. I'm yelling back at Tina trying to encourage her on ... and Tina's yelling at me that she should have never listened to me about getting off the ship. Truth be told I think Tina's still yelling at me about it, but she only does it in private now. :) If you ever wonder why Norwegians might think Americans are slightly off kilter, watching the two of us running and yelling to each other might just explain it.
Anyway, we made it and the loading ramp was being pulled up within 30 seconds after we got there. That's PLENTY of time in my book. The next day would be our last on the ship so we had to get everything packed and ready to continue the road trip.
PS - don't listen to Tina. She loved the adrenaline rush we got in Kristiansund. :)
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