TRONDHEIM TOUR
- Joelle McDonald
- Jul 22, 2022
- 12 min read
Oslo • Trondheim Central Station • Hagen Vegan Restaurant • Stiftsgården • Olav Tryggvason Monument • Riksregaliene (Norway’s Regalia) • Archbishop’s Palace • Nidaros Cathedral • Gamle Bybro • Kristiansten Fortress • Verde Vegan Restaurant • Run along Trondheimsfjorden
Our alarms go off disgustingly early on our first morning in Norway, having only made it onto our pillows around 1:00 AM. We are in our comfiest bed of the trip so getting out of it after less than six hours probably feels similar to how I imagine a baby bird would feel falling out of it’s cozy nest. The thing that gets us going is the knowledge that this is our first day exploring what we have heard is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Well, that and our strong desire to avoid repeating any of yesterday’s transportation struggles.
Train Ride to Trondheim
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Our itinerary today takes us far north of Oslo to Trondheim, the technology capital of Norway. The six and a half hour train journey through mountains, valleys, and farming areas will be beautiful according to our leader/translator from our bus ride last night, so we make it to Oslo Central Station with almost no grumbling about how exhausted we are. We can rest up on the train.
The train is true to its schedule and is gliding out of the station at 8:02. We, of course, have been on since 7:45 to ensure our day is drama-free. It doesn’t take long for Hannah to pass out in the aisle seat. I am doing my best to do the same as Oslo’s skyline fades to suburbs and nature. Once I figure out how to recline my seat and am still unable to manage falling asleep, I give up. Hannah and I switch seats so she can sleep on the windowsill while I soak up the views. After about an hour of mediocre scenery, we enter a valley with a perfectly turquoise river cutting a path at the case of tall green mountains. Vibrantly green fields extend from the side of the river to the mountain opposite it, interrupted only be farm houses, hay bales, and the occasional sheep or goat. I consider waking Hannah up to look outside, but she is passed out. We get occasional breaks in the clouds as we go further north, but don’t mind the clouds since it isn’t pouring rain.
By the time our train comes to a halt in Trondheim’s Central Station, I have planned a six part walking tour, found us a restaurant, figured out where our hotel is, and found a trail for my run this evening. I may not have gotten any sleep, but we are ready to hit the ground running. Good thing, because we only have 18 hours in this city before we are off on the next leg of our adventures.
Trondheim Walking Tour
Hagen (or Mat fra Hagen Midtbyen on Google Maps) Vegan Restaurant
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After checking in and dropping our bags off at the hotel (Hannah makes fun of me because I don’t even lower my suitcase handle before going back out) we are eager for our next meal. We walk down Thomas Angellsgate, a beautiful street decorated with colorful fake flowers hanging overhead on one section of rainbow umbrellas in rows on another. Hagen is a small restaurant will a pretty good vegan buffet. It is simple, a build-your-own-bowl style set up, but exactly what we need: no surprises and recognizable food. Bellies full, we are ready to begin our walking tour.
Stiftsgården
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Our first stop is Stiftsgården, which I think is a royal garden, but later research reveals it is actually the royal family’s Trondheim residence. After looking for a garden for at least 10 minutes (Google Maps said we were at the garden, but we only saw a building) we finally gave up and set off in search of the nearby Olav Tryggvason Monument instead. Ironically, I think we were looking right at Stiftsgården the entire time that we were trying to find it. Oops.
Olav Tryggvason Monument
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Olav Tryggvason is one of Norway’s most influential people in history. He was king of Norway from 995 to 1000 and most notably lead Norway’s transition from Norse religion to Christianity. Normally we don’t travel is search of statues of historical figures, but this one is impossible not to pass walking from Stiftsgården to our next stop. Funnily enough, though it’s impossible not to pass the statue, it is very possible to pass it without realizing it is there. The square that hosts the statue has construction crews building some sort of temporary structure and all but the perimeter is fenced off. Another complicating factor is that the monument, which is an 11.5 foot statue of Olav, is almost 60 feet above the ground. If you don’t look up you will never see it. All in all, we found the monument underwhelming, but we did learn a little history from reading up on it.
Riksregaliene
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Our next stop on the tour is the Archbishop’s Palace. In classic Hannah and Joelle form, we show up about 30 minutes before it closes and at what we think is the right museum. We already honed our skills in speed-tour castles so once we purchase our tickets, which are valid for two museums and the cathedral, we are off. It doesn’t take us long to realize that we are definitely not in a palace. Instead we descend down a set of stairs into a temperature controlled vault room where photography is banned. Oh! These must be the Crown Jewels! We weren’t expecting to see them, but they are astonishing. You will just have to take our word for it since we couldn’t take pictures and a security man was keeping a close eye on us to enforce the rule.
There is an art gallery upstairs that we briefly stop at before agreeing that art galleries aren’t really a priority for today. On our way out we ask the ticket lady what the other museum on the ticket is and she points just across the square. Apparently that is the Archbishop’s Palace.
The Archbishop’s Palace
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We arrive just 25 minutes before the palace closes, but looking around that doesn’t appear to be much of a problem. If you read our “House Hunting at Frederiksborg Castle” blog from Copenhagen you’ll know that Hannah and I love touring castles as though we are considering living there ourselves and that we have ranking of the desirability of the castles we’ve visited. On that list, this palace would rank below a dumpster. Why the harsh review? Well it turns out the Archbishop’s Palace should really be called the Archbishop’s Palace Ruins. The only thing remaining of the original building is the floor of the area where coins were made, which has to be routinely misted to prevent decay. At least a dumpster has a roof and doesn’t intentionally get you wet. It was interesting to see the ruins and some relics that had been excavated, but we were undoubtedly disappointed when we realized there would be no ballroom dancing today.
Nidaros Cathedral
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This cathedral, one of the most massive and intricate we’ve seen, somewhat redeemed the unimpressive palace next door. The building is constructed in the shape of a cross thanks to countless additions on the original building. The front of the building is decorated with an impressive 76 statues, which are mostly from the 1905-1983 restoration of the facade. Just five of the sculptures have survived since the Middle Ages. Inside, the first thing that really catches our eye is the stained glass. Along the walls, beautiful glass works send filtered hues of red and blue into the church, and once we reach the center of the church, we see a massive purple stained glass window fitted just above an even grander organ. Unlike many stained glass we have seen depicting biblical events, this glass is too far away to make much of, but we can make out the outline of human figures in many sections above.
The church offers visitors an opportunity to climb to the top of the church’s tower with a tour and get a view of the city from above. We are tempted but dissuaded by the fee, so instead we position ourselves right by the tour group that is just about to go to hear any historical context the guide might give on the church. The guide started in Norwegian then repeated himself in English, so we sat there a while before realizing he was just telling everyone to step carefully and to stay at the back if you aren’t physically fit.
Knowing we struck out on getting free information about the cathedral we prepare to head out, but encounter another private guided tour group with an English-speaking guide. We decide to “rest awhile” near the guide so we get a little bit of not-very-memorable information. I say not-very-memorable because I don’t actually remember any of it. The guide did explain why the Cathedral has two massive pipe organs, each in a different part of the cross shape, but I couldn’t tell you what he said. Hannah couldn’t hear a thing because of the echoey stone walls, floor, and arches, so I repeated the guide’s words in Hannah’s ears in whispers.
Outside the church, I drag Hannah into the graveyard. Hannah isn’t a big graveyard fan, but I am a proud member of the graveyard-nerd club. It is fascinating to see the birth and death years, see the names of people of different ages and cultures, try to figure out the relationships of people buried together, and calculate just how long each person lived. The graveyard is green and peaceful, a nice setting from which to walk around the outside of the Cathedral.
Gamle Bybro
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Next we are headed to Kristiansten Fortress via Gamle Bybro, or the Old Town Bridge. Only pedestrians and bikes are allowed to cross and the bridge is decorated with flowers and benches under ornate wooden triangular arches. Buildings are built on stilts along the water in the traditional Scandinavian style. The sight reminds me a bit of a Nyhavn-Iceland crossover.
Kristiansten Fortress
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On the other side of the bridge we being ascending a really steep hill. It is so steep, in fact, that a bike lift was installed so people can make it to the top without ditching their bike. The hill takes us through residential buildings, most smaller and painted in bright colors with beautiful gardens. I suppose when much of the year is cold, dark, and barren many people enjoy celebrating summer with flower gardens.
After about 10 minutes going straight up, we reach a little dirt trail leading to stairs to the fortress. Legs shaking we celebrate a little when we finally see the canons and fortress walls. The building at the Fortress is small, all white, and built with thick stone. It’s immediately surrounded by bare grass, then encircled by a complex of tall walls and canons. I can understand why a fortress was built here. We are so far above the city on all sides that nobody would be able to sneak up undetected in daylight.
*Paragraph content warning: Nazi crimes during WWII* Around the back of the fortress (near the bathrooms) we find a small monument commemorating the members of the Norwegian resistance who were shot and killed here. The bases of four wooden posts can be seen peaking out of the grass near one of the fortress walls. Before coming here neither Hannah nor I knew that Norway was occupied by Nazis during World War II, but marks of their presence remain to this day. I was curious about Norway’s occupation and discovered on Google that the Germans actually viewed Norwegians as racially superior to themselves and pursued a positive relationship with the country through propaganda rather than their strategy of mass extinction in other regions. Hitler actually loved Norway so much that plans were created to build a new German city right next to Trondheim to promote his ideal lifestyle and “racial pure” community. It is eerie to stand right in the middle of such a gruesome scene knowing you are only separated by those atrocities by time. If you want to learn more, there is a brief overview on Nazi Norway here: https://time.com/5885434/nazi-norway-history/.
Run along Trondheimsfjord
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After a long site seeing tour on a short night of sleep, I am not particularly excited to go for a run, but I never never in my life regretted one so I pull on my trainers and pull up my map. It is getting late, so Hannah is going out to pick up dinner (--- Map Point 12 ---) while I go on my run. Thank goodness for her. I don’t quite know where I am going when I set out, but I know the general direction and don’t feel like slowing down enough to verify I am going the right way just yet. After only four or so wrong turns I am on an industrial street along the water’s edge. Tall silos, buildings with machinery, and not a single person surround me. It feels a little spooky to be honest and I start coming up with scary situations in my mind and thinking about what I would do. Let’s call it half contingency planning and half scaring myself for no reason. My biggest heebie jeebies come from the industrial garage door flush with the cliffside. Clearly the rock behind the door has been dug out, but for what exactly? Best not to imagine it when running along near nightfall.
The only reason the street is scary is because—on TV—areas like there are where 50 percent of murder victims are found and because I am alone. In reality, it a beautiful street. There are two happy murals in the same style painted on buildings: One of a character writing ‘You make me smile’ and the other with a singing fisher who put his own heart on the (fishing) line. The sky is beautiful and the smell of the salty air is refreshing. Frankly I spend most of my time on this street reasoning with myself that I have no reason to be scared and trying to enjoy the peaceful scene. Eventually I see a dirt trail poking off the road and I take it. This is where All Trails said the route would start, so it looks like I didn’t take a wrong turn down a sketchy/happy road for no good reason.
The trail is wide and even, a refreshing change from some of the paths I’ve found myself on this month. I pass a few small sand beaches, one of which has a floating obstacle course, before climbing up a big, rocky hill to get a view of the fjord back toward the city. I’m surprise to see this hill, which I thought would be a detour, actually has a trail continuing on its other side, which I take. I mean, why not? This path keeps me along the coast for my whole run. The only catch: it is very not flat. The grade oscillates between extremely steep uphill and extremely steep downhill. Ahhhh, you’ve gotta love fjords. The ups and downs are actually exciting, breaking up the run a little while also killing my quads on the ups. A few miles in I pass a tiny rock beach that catches my eye for no particular reason. I feel like I just have to go down to it so I take a quick break from the leg beating hills to feel the water. It’s cold. My favorite part, however is the rocks. They don’t look like anything special from far away, but there are countless perfect shells scattered among the rocks of many vibrant colors. I have never seen so many shells that are so perfect. I suppose this beach is probably rarely visited so there have probably been decades for them to accumulate. I know the best tourists don’t take anything of the places the visit with them, but I can’t help grabbing a deep black rock, bright blue seagrass, and burnt orange rock for the road. The fact that I found so many colors on this one random, forgotten beach feels so special.
On the way back to the hotel, I keep my phone in my hand so I can take speed pictures of some of the artwork I passed on the way out. The level of creativity in this part of town seems high and I never would have visited here if it weren’t for running. This isn’t exactly on the beaten path. The last picture I take is by an apartment building that makes me think of Neverland, except more artistic. I pass a cool color blocked mural near the apartments, deciding not to take a picture of it before changing my mind and whipping around at the last second. Plunk. What the heck was that? Oh… a bird just pooped on my shirt. I can’t help but laugh. Had I turned just a second later or decided to take a picture from the start I would’ve missed the dive bomb but the universe had other plans. Chuckling silently all the way back to the hotel I consider how to humorously announce to Hannah that I was pooped on by a bird and that I found a super cool multicolored beach. Spoiler alert: she was much more interested in the bird.
Dinner and a Show
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Back in our cozy room with my sink laundry hanging up to dry (you didn’t think I was going to let that bird poop stay there, did you?), Hannah and I are eating our takeout and watching a new show on Amazon Prime. We have had so little time for any media-based entertainment on our trip, but it is amazing how much comfort a mindless show can bring after days of wild foreign adventures and constant decision-making. To anyone looking for a mindlessly entertaining show to watch, we are having a lot of fun with “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”
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