Europe 2023

  A bit of a slow day today with a walk around town and then a visit to Trondheim’s major place of worship, Nidaros Cathedral.   The cathedral, named after the old city name of Trondheim, was built in 1070 and is the most northernmost Gothic cathedral in the world.  Originally built over the burial place of St Olav, the Viking King who converted Norway to Christianity from Paganism, it was originally designated Roman Catholic.  This however all changed in 1537 during the Protestant Reformation and became Lutheran from then on.  With major rebuilding works and restoration recently completed (from1869 to 2001!) as a building it’s absolutely stunning both inside and out and nothing like anything else we’ve seen here in Norway.  One of the more outstanding features here is the rose window depicting ‘The Last Judgement’, it’s magnificent!  

  Yesterday we’d bought a 24 hour bus/tram/train ticket and so this morning we jumped on the tram (there’s only one tram route in town) and headed off up to Lian in the hills.   Lian itself is a bit of a mixed area with grasslands, hills and woods, and a couple of really nice lakes up there as well.   We were hoping to do some hiking once up there, however, once there we realised that the 200 metres difference in height between there and Trondheim makes an enormous difference between having, and not having, any snow!   Although a lot of the ice on the lakes had begun melting, the snow on the paths between the trees was still too deep to make for comfortable walking.   Back into town we decided that as we’d previously been to ‘Godsterminal’, in Bodø,  we’d pay a visit to the other end of the scale and go to ‘Hell’.  Only a few kms out of town by train there really was nothing to see there apart from some quite nice railway station buildings but it was w...

  An early start today as we docked into Trondheim at 06:30.   We did manage to score brekky though before leaving the ship and so it wasn’t too early before we reached our accommodation.   Although only hoping to drop our bags off we were able to actually check-in into what is a lovely little cottage that once was the owners grandmothers milk bar.   Apparently in the 1920’s the local farmers would drop off milk here and she’d sell it to the locals. The cottage is in a great spot, on the edge of the old town, just a short walk to the river, and some nice views from the decking. It’s great. Off to the train station for tickets this afternoon and when getting there we were both in utter amazement about what we could see.  Not only was the layout the same as a station we’d been in recently but the shops were the same as well. Even when we were outside the old fishing sheds along the river were very, very similar.  It was only when comparing fishing guild shi...

  This was our last full day on the MS Richard With and we’ve had a great time.   We’ve had quite a bit of ‘downtime’ and so there’s been a fair bit of reading and lots of time on the decks taking in the scenery.   However, we’ve also attended a few really interesting lectures on subjects such as the history, wildlife, and geology of this part of the world which we really enjoyed.   We did have one stop today though and so went for a walk into Brønnøysund. Not the most interesting of towns but it does have some quite nice houses and views of the coastline.  This week has been really enjoyable, there have been some great sights, and the food’s been good. However, without the organised activities we’ve experienced on previous tours, seven nights is probably enough for this sort of tour. 

  There’s been a few short stops today, however, our ‘big’ activity was taking an excursion out for a bird ‘safari’, the main purpose of which was to see if we could track down some white-tailed sea eagles.   It was a bit of an unusual start to our outing as we had to hop on to a smaller boat without either vessel stopping.  This actually involved our ship opening a ‘side door’ and then us climbing onto the other boat, in theory a little bit ’James Bond..ish’ but in reality not quite as exciting.   Once on to the ‘safari’ boat though it wasn’t long before we’d seen our first eagle that had obviously been attracted by the fish one of the crew was throwing out as ‘bait’.  These birds are just magnificent and, with a body length up to 1m and a wingspan of up to 2.5m, it’s the largest of all eagles found in Europe.  Over the next couple of hours we were to see many more (34 according to the captain) and, although the temperature was bitterly cold, we had a f...

  Our ‘get off’ location today was Hammerfest.   Not a particularly interesting town as most buildings are relatively newish. The reason for this was due to the ‘scorched earth’ policy instigated by the Germans when retreating from here during WWII.   We did have a bit of a roam around though and found some Reindeer wandering through the streets.   One interesting thing we did see though was a survey point and memorial (the UNESCO listed Meridian Column) to Frederich von Struve who, in the early 1800’s, used these to establish the exact size and shape of the earth (see here ).  Top/Centre: The Meridian Column 

  Two (get off) stops today as we turn around and start heading back south.   Kirkenes was our turning point but it’s also the only town in Norway where East meets West as it’s on the Russian border.  There’s not a lot to do or see here (a border crossing with Russia? It’s not exactly ‘Checkpoint Charlie!’ 😊 ) and so we went on a beach hike around a local peninsula.  It was a lovely walk, with much snow and no sand, and stopped in a community built snow shelter for warmth and snacks.  Vardø was our next port of call, and, although we didn’t have a lot of time here, it was nice to just have a wander around town for a while.  Street Art A memorial commemorating the trial and execution, in 1621, of 91 people for witchcraft.