Two Days in Oslo (and a Mystery Sandwich)

Sorry yet again for the delay – I haven’t had much time (or have been too tired after full days of sightseeing and/or travelling) to write blog posts. While it seems a long time ago now, it’s a bit strange to think back and say “Oh, two weeks ago I was in this other country”. Anyhow, I am now in Amsterdam for one more night before beginning the Russian part of my trip.

I’ll pick up where I left off: 

Oslo

Having just spent several days surrounded by amazing natural scenery and in smaller towns, it was strange to be in a larger city again. Oslo isn’t huge by any means, but compared to other Norwegian “cities”, it is giant. It is also more expensive, and it was in Oslo that I began my tour of India. No, I didn’t fly to India, I just began eating a lot of meals at Indian restaurants, which, while sometimes more expensive than Thai restaurants, still were reasonably priced (i.e. only 1.5x what I would pay in the US). I like spicy food as well, and Indian food certainly delivers.

Upon arriving in Oslo around 11pm, I found (read: deliriously stumbled) my way to my hostel (Oslo Hostel Central) and went to bed. Strangely, it was only me and two other people sharing an 8-bed dorm. After a good night of sleep, I woke up and got started wandering around the city. As I said, it was a bit strange being back in a city, but one can only enjoy fjords for so long before they all start to look the same.

One thing I learned quickly about Norwegians is that they love putting giant boats into museums. If they find a boat that won’t fit inside a building, they’ll find a bigger building. If they find an empty building, they’ll put a ship in it. Since it was supposed to rain most of the day, I figured I’d try to get all the museums out of the way first, then wander around later. I started by visiting the Viking Ship Museum which housed 3 original funerary Viking ships that were unearthed in burial mounds. Two of the ships were still in excellent shape, while the third wasn’t nearly as complete. The museum essentially had 4 wings, 3 of which held ships, and one of which held the various archaeological finds from the ships and surrounding area. The museum was nicely presented, and wasn’t completely overrun with people. I don’t think Oslo’s tourist high season had begun yet, something I am quite thankful for.

I later bought a shirt with this ship on it

Full view of one of the ships

Chariot found buried in one of the ships

My next stop was the Kon-Tiki museum, and… Can you guess what was inside? If you said ships, good job, you’re catching on. This time, the museum contained the Ra, a giant ship built of reeds according to Egyptian hieroglyphics and depictions of seafaring Egyptians from ancient times, and the Kon-Tiki raft, built out of materials available to ancient South American people. Both were the creations of Thor Heyerdahl, who wanted to test whether it was possible that ancient civilizations could have had contact with each other. The Ra was built to test whether the Egyptians and ancient South American civilizations could have had contact with each other, and the Kon-Tiki raft to test whether the South American civilizations could have had contact with Pacific Islanders (such as those on Easter Island). It was very interesting stuff, and also quite fun to read about the reception of his experiments. The museum also had a collection of artifacts from the Pacific islands… Even if it doesn’t sound that amazing, it’s definitely worth a visit. I wasn’t originally planning to go, but I decided at the last minute to give it a try, and I don’t regret it. Unfortunately my camera died during my visit to the Kon-Tiki museum, so I had to rely on my phone from then onward.

The Ra in all of its glory

Kon-Tiki Raft

Awkward Easter Island selfie

After finishing at the Kon-Tiki museum, I had a terribly overpriced panini and went across the street to the Fram Museum, which, surprise, surprise, is home to yet another ship: The Fram, a ship built to explore the polar regions and to withstand extremely cold and harsh conditions. While a lot of the information and displays were not that interesting, following various Polar expeditions and explorers through their journeys was quite neat, and actually being able to go onto the ship was also a lot of fun. The ship is ridiculously huge, and honestly I have no idea how they managed to get it inside of a building, but like I said, if there is one thing Norwegians know how to do, it is definitely how to put ships inside of museums. By the time I finished my third ship museum, it was closing time, so I wandered around for a while, then caught a bus back from museum-land to central Oslo. The hostel was really dead when I went back, so I wrote a bit of a blog post and went to bed.

Blurry selfie about to board the ship from the third floor

Neat lighting effects

The next day I visited the fortress overlooking the city, which contained the Norwegian Resistance Museum and the Royal Residence. The Resistance Museum didn’t have any big boats, but it did have a lot of fascinating information on some of the darkest years in Norwegian history – The Nazi occupation of Norway. 

One of the underground resistance newsletters

After a sobering hour or so in the museum, I headed for the Royal Residence, which was modest compared to many others that I have visited. There were some nice tapestries and a crypt, but it didn’t have the same over-the-top extravagance as many other Royal residences. I found it refreshing actually. 

A few tapestries in the medieval hall 

The reception room

Mirror selfies in richly decorated rooms will become a common theme

After that, I wandered around for a few hours before meeting a friend for coffee. We talked for a couple hours, and then he had to go, so I caught the tram over to Vigelund Park, home of a bunch of insane sculptures. Some of them were creepy, some of them were funny, some of them were disturbing, and all of them were crazy. It was a beautiful green space with sculptures scattered around, although many of them were concentrated around an obelisk at the center of the park. It’s tough to describe most of the sculptures, but hopefully a few pictures will do. Visit the park though, it's awesome.

The famous man-being-attacked-by-babies sculpture

 

Seriously, the babies are evil. I agree.

At the center of the park

Self-timer? Yes, I do believe so.

The next morning I woke up ungodly early to catch my flight to Reykjavik. Since I was missing breakfast, the hostel kindly offered to prepare a to-go bag with breakfast for me, which I accepted. When I looked inside though, there was a yogurt, an orange juice, and a mystery sandwich. The mystery sandwich looked rather terrifying, and I decided I didn’t want to start my day off with mystery meats and god knows what else. I took it with me anyway, and on the way to the train station, I figured I’d try to give it to one of the homeless people whom I had seen digging through trash cans looking for food the day before. I found a guy along the way who was weeding through a trash can and offered him the sandwich… He took it, looked at it, sniffed it, and threw it in the trash can. I guess I probably made the right call to not eat it, but I definitely should have taken a picture of it.  Anyhow, I’ll pick up next time with Reykjavik, and hopefully that won’t be too long from now – I need to get caught up with my trip!

Final thoughts on Oslo:

Lodging: Oslo Hostel Central – the hostel was very conveniently located and easy to find, and the facilities were impressive. Everything was very clean, the breakfast was great, the dorms were big, and the staff were friendly. Unfortunately, there weren't many younger or solo travelers staying there, so it was fairly dead socially.

Duration: 3 nights, but only 2 full days – I thought 2 full days was enough for Oslo, especially since I had just come from fjord country. The Oslo fjord isn't that impressive, and since I was not interested in doing any further fjord cruises or something similar, 2 days was enough to visit some of the interesting museums and wander around the city. I suppose I could have spent a third day in the city and been occupied, but my wallet thanks me for doing otherwise... Oslo is so expensive.

Hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll start to catch up on my trip. I have posts written for Reykjavik and Scotland, but I haven't sorted through the pictures yet.

Western Norway: Fjord Country

Sorry this has taken so long to post, I'm having trouble finding any time to do much blogging because I'm busy exploring each city! I'm pretty sure most of these posts will be very picture-heavy, especially this one. I took an absurd number of pictures during this part of my trip, and I still haven't fully sorted through them. Honestly though, it's impossible to capture the natural beauty in a picture. Before this past week, I thought all the pictures of various fjords must have been taken by professional photographers on a perfectly clear day, but having visited these fjords, this could not be further from the truth... Even with my camera that fits into my pocket I managed some great pictures, and the landscape really is as amazing as it looks in some of the pictures. I took a number of videos as well, although I don't know if I will include as many of those.

Through Oslo, I had not spent more than a single night at a hotel. Even in Copenhagen where I was for two nights, I split my time between two places, and otherwise I have spent one night in each place I visited. It is exhausting doing all one-night stays, and I really wouldn't recommend it for very long... It's not practical to unpack anything, and doing laundry is borderline impossible. Even spending two nights in Oslo felt like a luxury: I had to restrain myself from taking over the entire dorm room while unpacking my stuff!

Anyhow, I'll pick up around where I left off: Leaving Snasa

Getting to Alesund

I started in Snasa, and by the end of the day (after 11 hours of trains and buses), I made it to Alesund. My journey began with the train back to Trondheim, which was scenic, but familiar. After 30 minutes in Trondheim, I boarded my train to Dombas. The beginning of the ride was nothing special, but the scenery toward the end was fantastic. Once in Dombas, I had an hour or so before my next train, so I wandered down into the small town. There wasn't much to see or do, but it was nice to walk around for a little while, especially since I was spending so much time sitting on buses and trains.

Dombas Hotel -- No, I did not stay there

I headed back to the station a few minutes before my train to Andalsnes. The train ran alongside the Rauma River going through various fjords, and the hour-long ride flew by.

When it arrived, I transferred to a waiting bus to get to Alesund (after having my passport checked by a policeman -- apparently I look sketchy. I even shaved before I left!). At this point, pretty much everything could be called "scenic"... The bus went through fjords and plenty of other landscapes before dropping me off across the street from my hotel.

Ugh, that smudge on my camera is pissing me off

Since I was the last person on the bus (riding it from terminus to terminus), the driver asked where I was staying and simply dropped me off there. By that time it was around 10:30pm, and after I checked in, I set off in search of dinner, finding a bar/restaurant that seemed adequate enough. I walked around the city for a while after dinner while it was still light outside (around 11:30pm), exploring most of the center within a relatively short walk. I wandered down the ferry pier for an unobstructed view of the water and surrounding area at dusk, and found a few nice canals to relax on for a few minutes. About half past midnight I headed back to my hotel, the First Hotel Atlantica (booked via Hotwire -- Very central, good breakfast, and adequate WiFi) and went to bed.

Geirangerfjord

I woke up early, left my bags at the hotel's reception, and met the bus to Hellesylt at the bus station across from my hotel. After an hour in Hellesylt, I'd board the ferry which cruises through Geirangerfjord, eventually dropping me in the small town of Geiranger at the end of the fjord. I was one of about 6 people going to Geiranger, and there were far more Norwegians using the bus than members of the "tour".

Now, "tours" in Norway are a misnomer. When you book a tour on a Norwegian website, it is not a tour. It is a series of public transit tickets. I actually enjoyed this, since I am allergic to being herded like a giant flock of sheep, but it was a bit unexpected at first: There is no tour guide, and especially no signs. The no signs part would later lead to all sorts of fun. 

The public buses are far more glamorous than they sound. They are essentially coaches with air conditioning and comfortable seats. Some of them even have power ports at each seat. As before, all of the ride was beautiful, except for the part where I stared at the walls of an 8km-long tunnel. Only in Norway would there be roundabouts in tunnels. Anyhow, part of the bus ride was on a 10-minute ferry (considered part of the bus route!) where we could get off and take a few pictures. God only knows I needed even more excuses to take pictures... My poor Dropbox can't handle all of this!

After the ferry ride, the bus dropped us at Hellesylt, where it was windy and raining quite heavily. In my never-ending brilliance, I left my rain-jacket in the room and had brought sunglasses instead. I was cold and wet, but I'd sooner be dead than let my eyes get blinded by the super-bright rainclouds. I think I deserve a Darwin award.

I wasn't going to let any rain or wind or sunglasses stop me though, so I wandered around for a few minutes, then found a warm and dry place to eat. Such an adventurer I am. Hey, at least the restaurant had bright lighting, so I put my sunglasses to use. After lunch, I boarded the next ferry which made the spectacular cruise up Geirangerfjord. The ride lasted about 80 minutes, and it flew by. There were waterfalls everywhere dotting the mountains, along with crazy farmhouses built way above steep cliffs, hundreds of thousands of trees, giant fjords, and snowcapped mountains. It's rather difficult to do it justice in a picture, so I'll try 3.

Eventually the cruise had to end though, and we were dropped in the small town of Geiranger at the end of the fjord, where we had about 3 hours to visit. The "Fjord Center" with a small exhibition was somewhere up the hill, but it seemed silly to stare at pictures of fjords while standing at the end of one of the most beautiful ones. Google can tell me the rest later. I followed some signs to a small trail that led to a large waterfall, and I climbed the stairs to the top. Apparently I was actually very close to the Fjord Center, but I had no idea. The waterfall was nice, especially framed by the mountains and fjord.

Afterwards, I wandered back into the town and perused one of the tourist shops selling cheesy T-shirts for $50-$80. Instead I did my usual and picked up a small rock alongside the fjord. $0, and one more rock for my (small) collection from various neat places I have visited. After all of this, I still had over an hour to kill, so I walked along the main road leading into the town, giving fantastic views of both the fjord and the town.

After my walk, I returned to the city where I met the bus back to Alesund. The bus drove up the Eagle Road, a series of 11 switchbacks climbing up one of the mountains. At the top, we made a brief photo stop overlooking both Geiranger and the fjord.

Geiranger at the end of the Fjord

Notice the tiny boat going through the fjord for perspective

After the photo stop, the bus dropped me back in Alesund around 7pm.

Hurtigruten: Alesund to Bergen

Back in Alesund, I had dinner, walked around the city a bit more, and went back to my hotel to get some work done before the ferry departure at 1am. Around 11pm, the Australian gentleman, John, who was on the Geirangerfjord tour with me happened to walk by the hotel, so we chatted for an hour or so (turns out he is a travel agent and tour operator in Australia -- he has led some pretty awesome tours!) before heading toward the ferry docks. Docks. Plural. DOCKS. Maybe you see where this is going?

See, there were no signs. He asked the reception at his hotel and was told one place, and the reception at my hotel told me a different place. A site online mentioned a third place on the opposite side of the town (this is why islands and peninsulas can be annoying). Google was no help, so we figured we'd try one dock and if that didn't work, we hoped we'd either find other people going on the same ferry or we'd be able to spot the ferry arriving around 12:30am. I was very glad not to be doing this alone, and when we reached the first dock, it was completely dark and practically closed down. A short distance away, however, there were a few people: A young Russian couple and a Norwegian couple. The Russians were just as confused as us, and the Norwegians were not very confident that we were in the right place. The Norwegians had a car they were bringing on the ferry, which turned out to be very useful.

... Around 12:30am, we finally spotted the ferry coming into our side of the harbor, which was encouraging. We were, however, rather discouraged when it sped right past the dock we were waiting at and eventually docked further into the harbor. Of course the direct pathway to that dock was blocked by several gates, so we had to go back out to the street and find a way to reach the other dock. Remember, no signs anywhere. The Norwegians went ahead to hold the ferry for us while we tried to find a path that would lead us to the right dock. Eventually we found a dark alleyway that connected, and we met the ferry about 5 minutes before departure. At one point the Russians said that it was worse than Russian transit... At least there they had a sign or two.

The ferry is basically a cruise ship, and it runs up and down the Western Norwegian coastline. Being a cruise ship, it had cabins with beds and stuff... Not that I'd know: Getting a cabin was over 3 times as expensive as traveling without one, and for a 12-hour trip, I figured I'd survive. Relieved to finally be onboard the ferry, I spent a short while on my laptop in the lounge, then found a small bench/couch to lay down on. Using my jacket as a pillow with one of the sleeves as a blindfold (it got bright outside before 4am and there were no shades in the lounge!), I went to sleep. I actually slept for over 7 hours, waking up after 9am as the ship was going through a narrow strait. As usual the scenery was great, and I spent most of the remainder of the trip reading Stanford stuff and watching various islands and small houses go by.

My moderately uncomfortable bed

Very overcast in the mid-morning

One of the many islands we passed by

When we docked in Bergen there was some problem with the disembarking process, and, along with about 150 other people, I waited to leave the ship. After an hour (and the room becoming hotter than Florida), we were finally let off. While I had originally planned to have a half-day in the city, by the time I got to my hostel, it was after 4pm... Leaving me very little time to actually go inside any tourist attractions. I walked around the town for a while, eventually returning to the hostel after some Thai food (what a surprise).

One of the alleyways off of Bergen's main street

Sunset! I guess I was finally far enough South.

Eventually I got to talking with a few people at the hostel, and one of the people was an Australian street musician... Later that evening a few other people and I went to watch him perform (and chase off hoardes of angry Polish and Romanian immigrants trying to steal his audience). It was an offbeat but fun way to spend my evening in Bergen, and it seemed to fit with the strange sequence of events over the past day and a half. I went to bed before midnight, trying to get in a few hours of sleep before my extremely full day traveling to Oslo.

Norway in a Nutshell: Hardangerfjord, NoSleepEverfjord, and getting to Oslo

Okay, maybe not the second one, but my sleep schedule definitely left a lot to be desired. I woke up at 6am to go to the bus station to meet my "tour" which would eventually take me to Oslo: The Hardangerfjord in the Nutshell. The first bus left at 7:45am, and I eventually reached Oslo around 11pm. Essentially the day was a daytrip to Hardangerfjord which would connect me to the Bergen Railway reaching Oslo.

Like the other daytrip, the scenery was incredible. I have seriously given up on trying to describe it because there's simply no way I could do so. This time the boat trip was over 2 hours, which offered even longer to absorb the surroundings (and take enough pictures to overload my Dropbox account). Onboard the ferry I met a group of students from Texas who were finishing up studying abroad, and I spent a lot of time during the trip talking with them.

We got off the ferry and boarded a bus to Eidfjord, where we stopped at the visitor's center for a dizzying presentation of flying over the fjords (a neat idea that was poorly executed), and a stop at a very high lookout point over a waterfall and the surrounding area before heading back to meet the ferry.

Almost everyone on the trip was returning to Bergen the same way they came, but since I was going to Oslo after the roundtrip bus tour of Eidfjord and the surrounding area, I only took the ferry back one stop, where I met a bus to take me to Voss, where I'd meet a train. I had to carry my bags around with me the whole time, but fortunately I was able to leave them sometimes during a short part of the trip. I probably could have left them in the middle of the street and thrown all of my cash on the street around them and they still would have been safe, but I digress.

After an hour in Voss (where I was starving and left with no option but a gas station for lunch), I returned to the station to meet my train to Oslo on the Bergen Railway, one of the most scenic rail routes in the country which reaches its highest elevation at over 4000 feet. A few stops before that though, the Australian guy, John, happened to board the train. Not only was he on the same train (which we originally thought was the case), but he was also assigned to the same coach. He had an empty seat next to him, so I switched over for most of the ride. A few hours in, we went to the dining car and each tried the Reindeer stew. It didn't look great, but had a nice gamey flavor. Eating Santa's transportation never tasted so good.

The train was delayed a few minutes due to construction work, and eventually I arrived in Oslo at 11pm, meaning I spent roughly 15 hours traveling. I went to my hostel and slept VERY well.

I'll try to write a short post on my time in Oslo, as well as a much longer one on Reykjavik so I am caught up on my travels. I am currently writing this from my train from Inverness to Edinburgh, where the weather is extremely warm compared to Reykjavik and Norway!

Copenhagen, Trondheim, and Snasa

Warning: This post is image-heavy!

Copenhagen - Day 2

After my first day wandering around Copenhagen, I retired to my very comfortable bed at the First Hotel Mayfair. The hotel included breakfast, which was a bonus in a city like Copenhagen which is rather expensive. I checked out and left my bags at the hotel, since I was moving to a hostel for my second night. They were a bit surprised when I told them I'd be back around 9pm for my bags, but it turned out to be fairly accurate.

My second day I started out by going palace-hopping. First up was Christiansborg Palace, which had two parts: The Royal Reception Rooms and the Ruins. I did the Royal Reception Rooms first, and after putting on bright blue shoe-coverings, I entered the rooms. Many of the rooms were full of "typical" palace riches, however, the great hall stood out as unique (and seriously awesome)... All the walls were covered in brightly-colored tapestries detailing over 1000 years of Danish history. The tapestries were only recently woven (within the past 15 years, I believe), and they are stunning. They cover everything from Danish Viking history to the black death to the reformation to the Nazi occupation, all in a gigantic rainbow tapestry. In my opinion, the great hall was worth the price of admission alone.

Tapestry-filled Great Hall

Tapestry!

Tapestry and me!

Christiansborg Palace

One of the classier selfies!

Next up was the ruins, which were interesting, although sadly not very well preserved due to the fires which created the ruins in the first place. The ruins included the infamous Blue Tower (now a small, indistinguishable pile of rubble) and some various other relics from the old palaces dating back to 1167. I joined the tour of the ruins a few minutes late, and I highly recommend it -- The ruins themselves aren't that much to look at, but the stories behind them are very cool.

The remains of the Blue Tower

Leaving Christiansborg, I caught the bus to Frederiksborg Castle, which houses many of the royal storerooms, including the Crown Jewels. Again, much of it contained typical palace riches which were very neat, but the room housing the glass collection, as well as the coronation chairs were both especially nice. I also took a lot of selfies in all the various highly decorated mirrors:

Frederiksborg Castle

Fancy Mirror Selfie

One of the storerooms at the castle

Crown Jewels!

After touring the Castle and Crown Jewels, I continued into the adjoining park, which was packed with people -- Mostly Danes enjoying the weather. Across the street at the far end of the park was the David Museum, which houses a collection of Islamic art from the 8th century to the 19th century. The collection is extensive and well-presented, and I stayed until closing time at 5pm wandering through the exhibits.

When I finished, I headed over to Malmo, Sweden to meet up with a fellow Stanford Class of 2018 member who lives there. We spent a few hours wandering and talking, then I headed back to Denmark to check in to my hostel. Unfortunately, before I could go back I had to buy a train ticket, and of course the machine didn't accept my chip+signature card (I'm working on getting a chip+pin card, but I don't have it yet unfortunately) and since I was only popping over into Sweden for a few hours, I didn't have any Swedish Krona, only Danish Krones. Eventually I found an ATM and all was well though.

I had dinner at a Thai Restaurant (a.k.a. traditional Danish food) which was excellent and reasonably priced, then picked up my bags and went to the hostel. After checking in, I spent several hours talking with a few fun people from the hostel, and eventually went to bed.

Copenhagen Day 3

My final day in Copenhagen was spent wet and amused. I started in Nyhavn, wandering around the harbor area before running into (ha, no) the Copenhagen Marathon, around which a massive crowd was gathered.

Marathon passing through Nyhavn

The harbor

I watched for a while, had lunch, and then decided to go to the Danish National Museum. The museum is easily accessible by bus, but is not near any metro stations. Naturally, because of the marathon, all the buses were running significantly behind schedule -- I decided a 1km walk in the rain wouldn't be as bad as waiting 30 minutes for the bus to potentially (never) come. Shortly after I committed to the walk, it started raining heavily, and I got drenched... Fortunately both my jacket and my Stanford-shirt were both made of quick-drying material, and the museum was interesting enough to distract me from the awful wet and damp feeling. I only covered from prehistory to the Viking Age, but the exhibits were neat. By the time I left the museum, I was mostly dry... Just in time for more rain while walking to the Ny Carlsborg Glyptotek for more ancient stuff.

Runestone at the Danish National Museum

Again, since I was short on time (5pm closings are rough!), I decided to start with the Ancient Egyptian collection, then continue into the Greek and Roman collections. The museum's Egyptian collection was pretty good, with a massive relief of Ramses II, multiple false-doors, and several mummies, including one from Roman times without a traditional Egyptian head-mask. Though their Greek and Roman collections were lacking, sadly. I'm probably just spoiled from having visited both Athens and Rome relatively recently, but aside from their massive collection of busts, the Roman and Greek portions left a lot to be desired (read: a head, in the case of the many headless torsos, and a body, in the case of the many torsoless heads).

I bet this is what France looked like during the revolution

So, I was wondering how to make my walk through the Roman collection more fun, when I realized that I had an opportunity to do something completely tasteless but fun: Selfies with the busts. Many of the rooms were fairly empty since it was later in the day, and I managed to take a bunch of selfies. I posted them on my Facebook, but I'll spare you the horror, since I am too lazy to collect them into a single collage at the moment.

When I left the Ny Carlsborg Glyptotek, it had finally stopped raining, so I stopped by the Thai restaurant again, then headed to the hostel to get my bags and go to the airport for my evening flight, which was completely uneventful... The approach to Trondheim by air is awesome, and while it isn't exactly bright at midnight, it was still plenty light enough to enjoy the scenery. Get a window seat and leave your electronic devices in your bag... I know I should have.

Final Thoughts on Copenhagen
Copenhagen was a fun city to visit, and I felt like I chose roughly the right about of time to visit -- 2.5-3 days was enough to cover the major sights, visit some museums, and still have time to wander around and enjoy the city. If I could, I might add another half-day, but otherwise I think ~3 days is a good amount of time to see the city.  I stayed at the First Hotel Mayfair for my first night, then at Copenhagen Backpackers on my second night. My favorite place was the Christiansborg Palace, primarily because I absolutely loved the tapestries.

Trondheim

Trondheim airport

 The airport bus passed through a city apparently called Hell:

The weather is pretty good in Hell

We also passed by Trondheim fjord shortly after "sunset"

I got to my hotel, P-Hotel Brattora, just before midnight (a.k.a. dusk). It is the closest hotel to the train station, and was a nice base for visiting the city the next day. They also have a great outdoor sun-deck with tables and chairs, and I was able to get a lot of work done with the great weather and fantastic views of the harbor to my left and the fjord (and train tracks) to my right.

Panorama taken without getting up from my seat

My first stop in the morning was the Nidaros Cathedral, a large stereotypically Gothic church, and the Northernmost medieval cathedral. Normally I am not a church person (usually I believe once you've seen a few, you've seen them all), but this one was different for some reason. I can't place why, but I really liked this church -- I think it might have been because of the archaeological exhibits alongside the church, in addition to having the place mostly to myself. The West end has been restored and has a variety of religious sculptures, and the interior is nicely decorated and again, stereotypically Gothic. There is a large sitting area facing the West end which is a great place to sit and relax and admire the architectural work, and next to the church is the Archbishop's Palace with the Norwegian crown jewels and an exhibit of the original sculptures and decorations of the church from 1050-1250.

Self-timer!

I spent a long time at the church and exhibits, then wandered around town for a while before heading back to an Italian restaurant in the main square.

On the Old Town Bridge

Houses on the Water

I had a pizza at the restaurant, and afterwards I felt like shit. Italian food and being active and sightseeing really don't mix well, and after doing a bit more wandering, I went back to the hotel to work for a while. The hotel had an open deck overlooking the harbor, so I spent a while working there until I had recovered and completed a few of the Stanford forms. I found another Thai restaurant rated highly on Tripadvisor, and I set off. The food was great as usual, and I realized just how big of a difference it made when a few minutes later I felt good as new. I wandered down to the Harbor for a while, walked past a few barricades for some pictures, and then went back to my hotel around 11pm to pack and set my alarm for my early train to Snasa.

It was worth the barrier-jump!

Final Thoughts on Trondheim

I really enjoyed Trondheim, and again, I felt like I chose a good amount of time to visit. A day was enough to see the church and explore the city a bit, and I had enough time that I could have visited a museum or two if they were open. I'd happily go back to visit again and spend a few days relaxing, although that wouldn't be ideal for this trip, given my time constraints. My favorite place was definitely the Nidaros Cathedral... For a church, it is toward the top of my list of the ones I have visited.

Snasa and Public Transit Extraordinaire

I wrote this post while heading back to Trondheim on the morning train from Snasa, where I went to visit a friend. He was a great host, and we played bridge last night which was a lot of fun. It was my fifth bridge club outside of the US (the others were in England, Czech Republic, Austria, and Greece). The views from my seat on the ride both ways were/are great, and Norwegian farmland is quite picturesque... Everything is ridiculously green, and together with various fjords, it has made for very enjoyable train trips. I have a few videos from the ride, but I'll save those for when I have more robust WiFi than is available on the train. Here are a few pictures:

This train trip is the beginning of nearly a week of using trains, buses, and ferries to get around. I'll be spending all day from 11am-10pm today on trains and buses, but hopefully the scenery will be worth it (so far so good!)