We arrived last evening around 5:30PM (I think…the day is still somewhat of a blur.) The drive from Oslo was gorgeous.  Lots of farms, small villages/towns, and lots and lots of green.  There was still snow on some of the higher elevations which made for some incredible water falls.  Most of the drive was on 2 lane highway (one lane each direction), with the occasional passing lane.  Lots of small motorhomes en route to/from summer holidays.  A wonderful lunch along the way, and a few cat naps for me!  We arrived in Trondheim around 5:30PM (I think…the day is still somewhat of a blur.) Settled in, had a lovely meal of stir-fried trout, salmon and veggies with rice.  Homemade rhubarb tart for dessert – Anil’s favorite dessert (besides chocolate which he considers to be a food group and/or necessity and not a dessert) is rhubarb. We sat outside on the porch and enjoyed catching up and relaxing.  I kept waiting for the sun to go down, and had to keep reminding myself that it wouldn’t really get dark.  That, coupled with good conversation, and a bottle or 2 of wine (ok, for those who know us well, it may have been slightly more than 2, but no one was counting!), made for a wonderful first evening. We nearly saw sunrise by the time we turned in for the night. The official sunset was 23:36, and sunrise was 3:06.

We slept in today and appear to have recovered from any remaining jet lag.  A late breakfast of waffles, and soon after we were on our way into town to explore.  First stop was Nidaros Cathedral, the most northern cathedral   It was built over the tomb of St. Olav, the Viking king and first national saint of Norway. Stunning stained glass windows throughout, and 2 organs.  The smaller has 30 stops and 1,809 pipes.  The larger has 127 stops and 9,620 pipes.  What fun our organist friends could have on these instruments! As it is an active church, no photographs were allowed inside, but I did take several from outside.

  View of the fjord heading into town

Nidaros Cathedral

From there we wandered to the waterfront and stopped for a bit of lunch. Anil opted for a pizza with smoked salmon, I chose the steamed mussels appetizer.  We both brought home leftovers!  A walk back to the car to digest our food, and just in time as the rain started on our way home.

Translation….”Thank you for walking.”  There was one on the bike lane that said “Thank you for biking nicely.”

Halfway through my mussels!