The City of Saint King Olav the Second

A little history

King Olav II Haraldsson is also known as Olav the Holy, Hellig-Olav, Sankt Olav and Olav the Great. His conversion to Catholic Christianity in Rhône, Normandy, France took place late in 1013 or early 1014 when he with other Normans (North Men) were ruling the land to which they gave their name. The difficulty about the date of his conversion reflects the prevalence of Lady's Day (March 25th) being celebrated as New Year in much of Europe at the time. This means that the months of January, February and most of March have a different year numeral than do the rest of what we now call the year. So by current counting it would have been 1014, but by ancient counting 1013. (France only changed to the 1st of January in 1564.)

Olav reigned from 1015 to 1028 and brought Christianity to the people of Norway, how many took on Christian practices in the heart and how many did what was needed to keep their status but continued with the old gods is hard to know, but it is of interest that the first time the stories of the old gods are written down is in the two centuries after Olav, so those doing the writing would have, at least publicly espoused Christianity.

Olav became king, but was finally deposed by Canute the Great, yes him of turning back the waves, who ruled a large part of England by then. Olav had fought alongside Canute in the conquering of Wessex and was sent back to Norway by Canute to restore order in the country which had been attacked by the Danes. Canute felt Olav was becoming to uppity, so it seems he was deposed in 1028, not because of his religion, but because he was going his own way from Canute. However, from the moment of his death, which most likely was at the hands of his own followers trying to gain Canute's support in 1029 or 1030 , the idea of his sanctity and love of the Lord Jesus, grew and grew and by 1031, a year or two after he died, he had been canonized (declared a saint) by the Anglo-Saxon Bishop Grimkjell who had been his advisor at court and had represented him to the Archbishop of Hamburg-Breman who had direction of the Norse mission from the Pope. Olav quickly became venerated as the patron of Norway and Norway's 'Eternal King', meaning he was seen to reign over Norway from heaven, consolidating the nation of Norway as a Christian kingdom. 

King Olav reigned, and was killed, in the town that was then called Nidaros (mouth of the River Nid). Devotion to him grew up in the church beside the river and the, now, astounding Nidaros Cathedral began to be built where he had died and been buried and devotion spread about him through the whole of Norway and the other Scandinavian countries and Northern Germany. It is the German form of his name, Olaf, that Disney used for the snowman in Frozen.

Enough history for now, let's get back to the earlier parts of the day.

This map shows our route for the first part of the day: 

Breakfast

I woke at 5am and started work on the blog post for Bergen - one of the busiest days of the holiday, so it kept me busy blogging. 

Drew woke at 5.30am and I made us a Nespresso coffee each and half an hour later an Earl Grey tea. 

At 6.30am I begin my ablutions in our huge bathroom. Then Drew goes in as I complete the blog. 

Breakfast starts late here at weekends, at 7.30am and it is clear that it builds up the number who turn up right on time, like us. There were 50 people all arriving at the same time, making the beginning of breakfast more frantic than it might have been, compounded by the fact that the layout here was very different from the breakfast layours in previous hotels. 

Breakfast is on floor 3 here, so unlike Bergen, where we had our room on floor 3 and breakfast on floor 7, we are reversed here as we were in Oslo.

I start with yogurt fruit and seeds

Drew goes straight in for the cooked.

I have some of the delicious oatmeal.

It is herring, pickled veg and prawn eggs for me.

Drew finishes with two pancakes.

Laundry - First attempt

After breakfast we go back upstairs at just after 8am and make another coffee, we then leave the hotel at 9 for a visit to Fjordgata Vaskeri (which translates as Fjordgata Laundry), this should have been the second launderette stop of the holiday. Before we went I had noted this in my notes app - this laundry visit comes just in time, as I am wearing my last clean shirt this morning (I have spare pants and socks as I always pack a few more than needed!)

It turns out that my last comment was highly relevant as though the launderette had machines available and plenty of space, the payment machine wouldn't accept British Credit or Debit cards! (Though perhaps it would accept no cards at all, as the place, the only Launderette in the whole of Trondheim was empty.)  We tried multiple ways and with many cards but none worked. The machine said 'card not recognised' but Drew thinks they were saying - 'are you local' - these are local machines for local smalls!!

[Co-pilot's note: "Edward, Edward, they want to wash their smalls"; "Mucky smalls aye, perverts"]

We went back to the hotel and identified a dry cleaners who do clothes washing and drying, it is likely to be a lot more costly but 6 days without clean clothes is to much for us. It opens at 8am tomorrow and we'll be there.

 

So we left the case with our dirty clothes and tried starting the day again, leaving this the hotel time at 9.30am. 

Walking the City Trail - Midtbyrunden

Having legs that were in a sitting position for 7.5 hours yesterday on the coaches, we decide walking would be a good plan today, to allow the legs to get back to a reasonable condition.

We follow the Midtbyrunden - City Centre Loop provided by Trondheim Council.

We begin in Solsiden (sunny place) walking over bridges along the river, back across to the 'island' of the City Centre (a promontory really, only three sides are surrounded by water) down to the location of the original church in Trondheim. From there we walk across to Vår Frue Church - Our Lady's Church, closed on a Sunday, so we will visit again tomorrow. 

From Vår Frue Church we walk into Trondheim Torg Square, where Drew, as a 'treat' for me, spots that Olav's (Olav I) statue acts as a sundial, so he takes the photos of the numbers in a randomised order, to keep me quiet while editing photos, as I'll relocate them in the right order - I'm to retentive not too! The photos can be seen in Flickr

Nidaros Cathedral

We walk from the square down Munkegata - Monk Street - to Nidaros Cathedral precinct. It is our visit to the Cathedral today that prompted my brief history of Olav II at the beginning of this post. 

Having taken photos of various memorials in the Cathedral grounds, and some gargoyles on the roof of the building at 11.50am - See them here and click forward

We stop for a coffee in the Cathedral café and buy our tickets for the visit.

At 12.20pm we walk across to the centre where they retain the Royal Regalia and Jewels - Kings and Queens of Norway are consecrated (they used to be coronated, but that doesn't happen any more) in the Cathedral. The Cathedral remains the religious centre of the country, even though the capital city moved south from here centuries ago. The building had opened at midday, so our visit was well timed. 

Sadly much of the display here was behind this sign

Though the images we did take in the other areas can be seen here. 

As well as the Royal Jewels, there is an exhibition of the coronations of the Norwegian Kings (they have all been kings so far, no queens) since Norway was handed to Sweden by the Danes after their defeat by Napoleon and Napoleon's General - Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte became King of Sweden and Norway. In 1818 he restored the tradition of being crowned King of Norway at Nidaros (after his coronation as King of Sweden in Stockholm). This approach was followed by all the kings and continued when Norway gained its independence and Prince Carl of Denmark became King Haakon VII of Norway and his wife Princess Maud of Wales became Queen Maud. Two years later the Storting changed the constitution, so now monarchs are blessed/consecrated not coronated. The consecrations since: King Olav V in 1957 and King Harald V and Queen Sonja in 1991 are also commemorated here. 

We next visit the  Archbishop's Palace where we discover a lot more about the Cathedral and see lots of the old stones and statues associated with the Medieval Cathedral. Flickr photos start here. The current cathedral's statues were all created as part of the 1869 to 1989 reconstruction of the Cathedral and one section of the museum introduced us to those who were involved in that reconstruction - including the architect who sculptured himself, with the heads of his deceased antecedents in a bag on his chest (second from the left in the first photo). 

And the sculptor who gave Saint Michael the face of Bob Dylan to recognise Dylan's anti-Vietnamese war stance.

On a Sunday, with worship at 11am, the Cathedral doesn't open for visitors until 1pm. We left the Archbishop's Palace just after 1pm, so were able to go straight into the Cathedral.

Wow, what an impact. The cathedral may be an artefact of the 19th and 20th centuries and in parts its modernity are clear. But those involved in its development also attempted to represent the tradition upon which they built. Therefore the Cathedral has lots of evidence of Catholic traditions which would have been well known in medieval times, but come as a surprise in a Lutheran Cathedral - indeed I'd suggest it is a Catholic Cathedral run by Lutherans! These items include a great deal of stained glass and statutory that you wouldn't see in other Lutheran places of worship. 

There are far to many photos to capture in one of the Google Videos (plus my access to those are limited at present as I am writing this blog at sea on a Hurtigruten Ferry) with its limitations on connection. Again for those who like images, they can all be seen on Flickr, starting here and progressing forward (NB - they will make more sense if you have the 'Date Taken' view chosen on Flickr as they will be in the right order - if you have date uploaded selected they will be messed up as the camara and the phone photos upload in batches, based on file names, not on date/time order.)

Other faith traditions

On leaving the Cathedral we note that this part of town must be the religious quarter. Opposite the Cathedral is the Jewish Museum, just along from that are a Baptist church, the Salvation Army Citadel and St. Olav's Catholic Cathedral. 

Back to the hotel

We walk back up Princengate, past the electrics shop we will need tomorrow, it turns out it is only two blocks from the hotel.

We arrive back at the hotel at 2.55pm and spend a quiet afternoon reading and catching up with the blog and Flickr messages. 

Sunday Mass

I leave the hotel again at 5.15pm for 6.00pm Mass, the English language Mass in Trondheim.

 

The route followed the dotted route in the below:

I arrive at the lovely modern church at 5.35pm time for some prayers before Mass.

As ever in this town, St. Olav has pride of place.

Mass is said by a Cameroonian priest with great enthusiasm. In his homily he takes three points - Possessions, wealth (from today's gospel - Luke 12: 32-48) and heritage (from today's psalm 33 (32 in the Vulgate)). He invites us to ask ourselves where are our treasures, what is our heritage. He says we have in Jesus the promise of baptism, not trust in money, riches, houses or other signs of wealth; but the heritage of a fruitful life, lived in communion with God and with others - leading to eternal life.  

Mass finishes at 6.55pm and I walk back to the hotel and having got there at 7.10pm we walk back out for dinner at 7.15pm.

Dinner

Back in 2023, my friend and regular blog commenter, Lloyd had noted in his previous visit to Norway, that it has as many, if not more Indian restaurants than the UK.

Now weirdly a lot of my research on good places to eat in Oslo kept referencing Indian cuisine. Not sure of the connection, but there does seem to be a colonial piece (similar to the UK) when Norway was part of Denmark and they were trading/occupying that part of the world.

One of them Namaste Norge which is just a short distance from our hotel. Indeed we can see it from the room, 

So based on Lloyd's positive feedback of similar places we headed there walking the few metres to the restaurant.

It was wise advice that we were glad we followed.

We began with Pappadums and Pickle

Very crisp Pappadums with a spicy pickle, more spicy than many Indian places at home.

I opted for Chicken Samosa, I was a bit disappointed to see Ketchup on my salad rather than a salsa, but the samosa itself was delicious - plumb, lightly battered and with a good balance of minced chicken and minced peas inside with a lemony sauce. 

Drew opted for Onion Pakora and liked its crispness and crunch and especially its onion flavour.

For his main Drew choose Lamb Biryani - which had a light hint of spice, damper, more juicy, than those at home. It has a good full flavour and the lamb was lovely and moist. As far as he was concerned it was perfect and well matched with his garlic naan. 

I opted for Lamb Vindaloo, an old favourite of mine, I was warned by two members of staff that it would be spicy, but in truth it was as good as a true vindaloo, with the vin (wine) and aloo (garlic) tastes coming through as the Portuguese who took this dish to Goa must have intended. Of course, like all vindaloos it was highly spiced, but that is what I love.

It was served with long-grain Basmati rice, which softend the flavour somewhat and was cooked el dente, which I like. 

Drew, as mentioned above, had a garlic naan bread I had a keema one:

We walked the few feet to our hotel, this photo is from the front of the restaurant, we are staying on the top floor to the right of the alley ahead of us. Right in the heart of Trondheim.

The one problem with the meal is that I can't stop singing this 

for the rest of the evening and following morning - Dr. Olden is not impressed 😂🤣 [Co-pilot's note: The echo of Vindaloo from the shower was something that you wouldn't inflict on your worst enemy!!]

Steps and Photos

My step count for today is 18,468, a distance of 13.92km or 8.65 miles. Very busy, but well worth the effort.

Given the inability of the camara and computer to connect since last Thursday, the photos are building up on the camara, there are now 997 photos to download, when I am able.