St. Olav's Well and the Kristiansten Fortress

We spend another day in Trondheim enjoying the interesting ancient city and its wonderful scenery. Today our route was like this:

In two maps as Google can only use 10 locations in a map!

 

The day begins

I wake up at 3.30am, Indian food is very tasty and a long time favourite of mine, but it is also quite gassy and it is the gas that gets me up. But as I'm up I continue with Wednesday's blog post and finish it at 4.30am, subject to Drew's review pre-posting. 

We are still not able to access photos from the camera as the computer and camara are still not speaking to each other. But this should be resolved today as the electrical shop is opening at 10am.

Drew wakes at 5am and I make us both a cup of Earl Grey, it is that or English breakfast tea and that would be to conventional for us. 

Breakfast

We head down for breakfast at 6.30am it is much quieter today than yesterday. 

Drew began as he usually does with fried sausage, bacon, egg and potatoes, with Orange Juice and Coffee.

I have my new regular yogurt, seeds, hazelnut and fruit.

I then have oatmeal

and then the delight of pickled fish and vegetables

Drew having a second fried breakfast, now finishes with fruit and chocolate brownies. 

There is also a VY driver at breakfast good to know they stay and eat well between journeys. 

Laundry - Second Attempt

We go upstairs after breakfast and I upload the blog entry of Wednesday, which Drew has now reviewed. I then name and upload to Flickr photos from Saturday. Between real time, blog time and Flickr time I seem to be in three time zones at once and the zones separated by days not by a few hours!

We leave the hotel at 7.50am to head to Marthes Renseri Laundry where we arrive at 8.05am.

What a relief, yes they can do it, and yes they will. It is 7kg worth and at their prices of 162Nkr per kg it won't be cheap, but would be a lot less expensive than sending it out via the Hotel, with a price per item, or buying new clothes. 

Midtbyrunden - Day 2

As the laundry is in Solsiden, where we started the day yesterday we thought it would be a good idea to walk in the opposite direction along Midtbyrunden - the city centre trail, so that is what we did. 

The route takes us past the Central Station, where we leave from tomorrow, and along the shore past a lot of boats and old buildings. Until we come to the statue entitled - The Last Viking. This is a memorial to a book in which this character is the primary protagonist. We then walk along Sandgarten, a more urban environment. This leads to Skansen Bridge which takes the train traffic over the river. From there we come to Skansen Station, which is small, but well laid out. Slightly above the station, on a hill, is Ilen kirke (St. Ilen's Church) but it is locked so the only images are from outside. 

This video captures some, but not all, of the photos, the others can be accessed via Flickr, starting here and following.

We then continue along the Midtbyrunden route which has now become synonymous with the Pilgrim route (Pilegrimsleden) and the signs mark both until we reach the cathedral.

We pass the Cathedral Workshop as we are on this route, not all the statues are of saints!!

We come to St Olav's Spring, just below the Cathedral. It is modern but built on the place where a spring appeared to mark St. Olav's death.

Back to the Cathedral

As we come back to the Cathedral we stop to view a monument with different sports being represented. It is the monument to those Norwegian Sports Men and Women who lost their lives in the 1940-1945 war (note the war started a year later in Norway than elsewhere).

Having left the hotel at 8am, even after this walk it is only approaching 10am. So, after we leave the well we decide to revisit the Cathedral coffee shop as it has a good strong coffee as well as the cheapest we have seen, plus it enables as many refills as you want for one price. We arrive at the café at 9.58am, it opens at 10am - perfect. 

Returning to Vår Frue Church

We leave the coffee shop at 10.50am and return to Vår Frue Church, which was closed yesterday. The main reason for our return visit was the entertainment of reading the rantings of a Trumpist:

"It is such a beautiful place to worship but it was transformed into such a disgrace 😔. To paint Jesus's pictures in rainbow 🌈 color. That in this sin world significant (LGBTQI+ community) it is against the principles of God's creation. I have been visiting many churches in Europe but i have never seen something like that."

With that kind of comment we had to go in and in keeping with our good luck this morning we arrive at 10.58am and the church opens at 11am.

This is the offending image by the artist Sverre Bjertnæs:

It seems very mild and respectful to me! 

While it was the comment on Google Maps that brought us into the church, we were so glad we came, as the other images in the church are quite striking.

Up to Kristiansen Fortress

From the Church we walked down to the river and took more photos of the lovely converted warehouses that seem to be one of the images of Trondheim. 

From here we go on to the Gamle Bybro - the Old Town Bridge. 

This is where we move on to the second of the maps above. 

Across the bridge is the part of Trondheim called Bakklandet, an area free of traffic, laid with cobblestone streets and colourful little houses.

From here we walk up the hill to the Kristiansten Fortress, this provides some amazing views across the city, the Fjord and the mountains.

The Kristiansten Fortress 

The Kristiansten Fortress is not just a place to look out at the city, but somewhere with an amazing history in the city's and Norway's life.

The fort was built after the great city fire of Trondheim in 1681 and stood guard over the city for the next 100+ years. Most important to its history is that it saved the city, and Northern Norway, from conquest by Sweden in 1718. This history is well represented in the fort.

Given that by 1816 Sweden was in charge of Norway, the fortress was decommissioned by king Karl XIV Johan (Karl III Johan i.e. Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte). 

The fortress was again used by the Nazi forces during World War II. The site was where 23 Norwegian partisans were executed by the Nazi forces inside the fortress.  

Here are some of the images from both inside and outside the fortress, there are more of Flickr, follow on from the link above.

Down the Hill

We walk out the back exit of the fortress area and down a steep path that leads through a forested area and into a residential part of the city. 

The path then leads towards the Bakke Bridge which brings us to Olav Tryggvason's Gate and the shop called Kjell Electrics.

Kjell Electrics

We arrive at Kjell Electrics and Drew talks technical stuff to the shop assistant, yes they have such a device in stock, yes it is a reasonable price. She goes and collects it and we walk out of the store very pleased with ourselves. With our laundry experience, this experience and the perfect timing of our arrival at the Cathedral and Our Lady's Church earlier this is clearly one of those blessed days when all goes as well or better than planned.

Afternoon in the Hotel

Walking back to the hotel takes the whole of 2 minutes, we arrive at 112.45pm and I start drafting a blog post and sorting the photos from the mobile phone, so that they are in order before I download all the new ones.

At 1.40pm the cleaner arrives and we go downstairs to the sitting area which has coffee and tea available. It is a pleasant area and we have a few cups until we decide to go back upstairs. at 2.15pm and where I complete the Flickr upload of the photos I took at Fagn on Saturday. 

At 3.30pm we trial the device Drew has bought and it works perfectly. We have 1182 pictures from the last 5 days, so it is time for me to get busy - Yikes. 

I complete the Flickr uploads from yesterday and today before starting on the newly acquired batch.

Yesterday we had booked tonight's meal for 7pm and tempted as I am to keep going with the photos we now have in abundance I decided food is a greater priority and I have time to do the photos tomorrow. Having gone left after leaving the hotel yesterday, we go right tonight. Leaving the hotel at 6.50pm we arrive at Osteria Moderna at 6.51pm, it is less than a minute, essentially one building, away from the Hotel.

Dinner

Drew starts with a Zenzero mocktail with ginger beer, cordial, mint and Lime; while I keep to the old favourite, sparking water, but here, it is one of my favourite waters - San Pellegrino. 

We then share a Pane 

I'd been expecting Foccacia, but it was a delicious Italian sourdough bread, which was equally welcome.

I then started with what is our normal go to meal on a Saturday night at home - Fettuccine al Ragù

the pasta was al dente and it was served with slow-cooked minced meat ragù and rosemary. It was warming and comforting and brought back many memories of beautiful pasta dishes, many cooked by myself, but equally those cooked by the parents (in all cases the mothers) of my school friends. One of the advantages of a Catholic school was having friends whose mothers cooked Italian, Portuguese or Spanish foods and I was always willing to try them.  

Drew opted for the Carpaccio di Osteria 

the thin slices of beef were marinated in ponzu oil, arugula, pea cream and sun-dried tomato cream and served with Parmigiano Reggiano (36 months old) and crispy fried shallots. Of course, Drew made the old joke about it being a bit underdone 😉.     

Drew's main was a pizza, but what a pizza. It was called Pizza Nduja e Prosciutto 

and had an intense pepperiness from the Nduja that Drew loves. The Italian pizza base with tomato sauce had mozzarella, Prosciutto from Modena, ´nduja, gorgonzola and pecorino. Drew was very pleased with his second Pizza of the holiday, the dough was crisp and crumbly, like Italian pizzas should be and the gorgonzola added a piquancy to the whole pizza that was an unexpected delight. "A great example of the genre" according to Drew.

My mains was Ippoglosso in Guazzetto 

that is Halibut cooked in tomato and garlic-infused fish stock with cherry tomatoes, pickled onions, mustard and capers, served with smoked potato puree and salad leaves. I love a Guazzetto and think Halibut is a wonderful fish, so what could go wrong with this treat - nothing. It was delightful, it brought close to an end a really excellent day, when everything went so well.

Drew's dessert was Il Mango 

it had really sharp citrus jellies around it with a very fruity sorbet. The mango itself was crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle it brought a wonderful texture to the dish. 

My delights were to continue when they brought the plate of Formaggi 

there were four Italian cheeses - Pecorino, Asiago, Gorgonzola and Canestrato - all lovely, lively cheeses that sing on the lips and tongue - oh what a wonderful day. 

We returned to the hotel by 9pm and were in bed by 10.30pm, at the end of a day full of treats and delights, who could ask for more.