May 8
Unlike the France and many of the other countries on the continent, Norway wasn’t liberated during the war. It wasn’t part of the invasion plan in 1944 and remained occupied until the end of the war. The surrender was signed on May 7, 1945, and word got to Norway on the 8th, 73 years ago today. So, instead of being liberated, the Germans laid down their arms and went home. We found all of this out today when we visited the Resistance Museum in Trondheim. Actually, we hadn’t planned to go there but it was in the same compound as the Norwegian Crown Jewels, and it was free. It was basically the same stuff we saw in Oslo, so Lynn walked through pretty quickly and found a comfy place to sit and wait for Peter to visit at a more leisurely pace.
As we mentioned yesterday, we rented bikes today. It worked out quite well, much better than in Utrecht last month. There we were competing with about 5,000 other people on bikes where here we practically had the bike path to ourselves, except for the school kids. We picked up the bikes at the hotel across the street from where we’re staying. Then we headed to the harbor where tomorrow we’ll pick up the cruise to Bergen. We hadn’t gotten any information about when to board, so we decided to check it out while today’s ship was still in port. Once we got that info, we rode down the harbor path. We were following a tourist walking route on our map. We did a little backtracking as we didn’t always know where to turn but we eventually got to where we wanted to go.
At one point we had competition for the bike path from about 2500 school kids. The route took us past the Trondheim Stadium where the kids seemed to be having some sort of sports day. We think every kid in Trondheim was there. We also ran into some construction that took us off our desired route, but we managed to get back on track.
After riding for about 2 hours, we stopped at the Nidaros Cathedral. It is an 11th century church built over the burial site of St. Olav, an 11th century king of Norway. It was a major pilgrimage destination and because authorities were afraid of people taking relics, no one knows for sure exactly where St. Olaf is buried. The best guess, though, based on scans and X-rays, is that he is buried under the high altar. Like the cathedral we saw in Oslo, this one is very simple with a mix of modern and old. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside but here are a couple from google. The Cathedral is where the kings/queens of Norway are consecrated. Since the early 20th century, they no longer have a coronation but a religious consecration ceremony.
After the Cathedral, we went to the Archbishop’s Palace which has an archeological museum and the Crown Jewels. The archeological museum had lots of artifacts from the Cathedral and original Archbishop’s Palace. Finally, we visited the Resistance Museum which also had weapons and uniforms from the different periods of the Norwegian Army.
Then it was time to get back on our bikes and head to the hotel. By this time, it was almost 3pm and we were a little tired. The bikes are easier on Peter’s ankles than walking but are not so great for Lynn’s knees. But, overall, we did quite nicely.
We stopped for drinks then headed back to our hotel for a rest before dinner. Not sure where we’ll eat tonight but there are a ton of restaurants within a stone’s throw of the hotel so I’m sure we’ll find something.
Tomorrow we’re cruising south to Bergen. We’re taking the Norway in a Nutshell tour that we booked several months ago. Here’s a link to the website so you can see what we’ll be doing. While it’s called a “tour” it’s not guided so we were able to add as many days as we wanted to several different stops. We choose to add one night in Trondheim and another night in Bergen. Then we’ll head to Oslo via a train, bus, 90 cruise through the fjords and the Flam railroad. It should be beautiful. We probably won’t post again until we hit Bergen, so we’ll fill you in then.
Here’s a video from yesterday’s train ride. It was so beautiful!
Love to all from Trondheim.