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. 

Having a fun day in Bergen -- The city among the seven mountains.

 

Bergen seems to have collected names for itself over the years. The one I choose for my blog title - the City among the seven mountains. 

The playwright Ludvig Holberg whose square we visited today, felt so inspired by his visit to the Seven hills of Rome that he decided that his home town must also be blessed with a corresponding seven mountains. Sadly, which mountains belong to the group is unclear! Apparently the list always includes Ulriken, 643 metres (2,110 ft); Løvstakken, 477 metres (1,565 ft); Fløyfjellet, 400 metres (1,300 ft); Damsgårdsfjellet, 317 metres (1,040 ft) plus three from the following list: Askøyfjellet, 231 metres (758 ft), Blåmanen, 554 metres (1,818 ft), Lyderhorn, 396 metres (1,299 ft), Rundemanen, 568 metres (1,864 ft), Sandviksfjellet, 417 metres (1,368 ft). But whichever you choose to get to the mythical number seven you certainly feel deep in a valley below the mountains when you walk through this seaside city.

But more of our walk later, first back to the beginning of the day.

Breakfast

I woke up at 4.11am feeling wide awake, I began editing the photos from the last two days, not something I'd had chance to do before. 

Drew woke up at 5.30am and I make us Earl Grey Tea, the tea making faculties here, like in Oslo are excellent.

I do my ablutions at 6am and Drew gets up at 6.30am and does his ablutions while I upload the edited photos to Flickr.

Today we travel up not down to breakfast, the hotel floorspace at ground level is one unit's width, while the floors above cover three spaces. At ground level those spaces are used by a McDonald's and a restaurant called Egon. 

It is on the seventh floor that we have breakfast, taking the gentle approach and not arriving until 7.15am. Though as we anticipated the hotel is much quieter than the Oslo one and is  very quiet at this time for breakfast, there were only five other guests in the room at the same time as us.

While the selection here was less wide than that in Oslo, it was still an excellent breakfast.

We go back up to the room at 8am watching the rain pour down outside. It is part of the impact of Storm Floris which is quite extensive and having an impact in the UK as well as here. 

Walking in Bergen

We leave the room at 9.30am and exit through reception with our macs firmly on. This was a close estimation to our route for the day, though Google Maps don't pick up on the Funicular, it assumes we walked up the mountain and we didn't. Also, as Google Maps only allows you to select 10 locations it doesn't show the ferry trip across the fjord and walk back to the hotel.

Fishmarket

Given Bergen's location between the mountains and the sea it is no surprise fishing plays a large part in the life of the city. 

The two fish markets, the open-air market and the covered market, make this clear. 

The open-air market has stood in the same place in Bergen, where the Fjord narrows enough for it to be bridged, since the 1200s. It has a wide range of fish available on its stalls, including shellfish, salmon and anemones. It also has a wide range of caviars. [Co-pilot's note: WHALE STEAKS!!, you forgot to tell them about the Whale Steaks.]

Restaurants stand between the stalls and provide opportunity for the fishing folk and their families to feed their customers on site.[Co-pilot's note: with Whale Burgers! Reindeer Hot Dogs! etc.]

Mathallen, the indoor market, opened in 2012 and provides similar range of products in a more formal setting. The restaurants in here seem to be more formal than the tent like arrangements in the main market.

Along with the two markets, the Fish Market area provides great views of the boats in the Fjord.

  

Ludvig Holberg Square

Opposite the Fish Market is a statue of Bergen born Ludvig Holberg. The statue has stood here since December 3rd, 1884, when a grand event market its opening, with specially composed music by the Norwegian Composer, Edvard Grieg.

Holberg, a Danish-Norwegian poet, playwright, philosopher and historian was a famed professor at the University of Copenhagen and lectured in universities across Europe including at Oxford and Cambridge. He was born in Bergen in 1684 and died in 1754, straddling the 17th and 18th centuries, a great time of renewal in the thinking and studying of the great European Universities of which Copenhagen was one.

We pass the school where Holberg learnt Latin later in the morning. 

The church of the Holy Cross - Korskirken

At the other end of Holberg's square is a large church, known as Korskirken or Church of the Holy Cross. Its name was a dedication to the devotion to the Holy Cross which developed in the later Roman Empire following the Emporar Constantine's mother, St. Helena, visiting Jerusalem and finding the site of Jesus death. Later in its life the church continued to be known as Cross church as it developed a cruciform shape. The church was built in a Romanesque style in the 12th Century (Started in 1130 completed around 1150), but was extended post-reformation to take on its current shape. It was built on the dock as the seafarers church, but land reclamation over time has meant the sea is now much further away. The church wasn't open when we visited, but had great external information signs.

Bergen Cathedral - Bergen Domkirke - St. Olav's Cathedral

One building many names, the Cathedral in Bergen was first built as a Parish Church for the city. The Cross Church looked after the docks and fishermen, St. Olav's Church for the wealthy townsfolk. 

While there is no recorded date the original church must have been built before 1150, as it is recorded in the history of King Sverre Sigurdsson (Who lived 1145 to 1202). It was adopted by the Franciscan's in the 1200s who developed it and built their Friary around it. In keeping with the Franciscan style it was a plain church inside. 

When the Reformation came to Norway, the first Lutheran Bishop, Gjeble Pederssøn, made it his Cathedral and it has retained that title since. While very austerely Lutheran in style the Domskirke is an attractive, prayerful church. 

Fløyen Funicular Railway

On leaving the Cathedral we walk along some fascinating streets with steep alleys climbing up to the mountains and down to the town on either side of the road.

This leads us to the Fløyen Funicular Railway, a popular tourist trip up the Fløyen Mountain. The journey up to Fløyen, which is 320 meters above sea level, takes just 5 to 8 minutes. The Funicular is more like a modern train than a traditional funicular, but is quite fun.

Viewpoint of Bergen

The top of the Funicular gives great views of Bergen, but as we arrived, so did the promised rain clouds associated with Storm Floris - the flag was blowing like crazy and everyone was struggling to stand up in the wind, let alone get close to the viewing platform. 

Thankfully it eased a little and we were able to take views of the city below, all be it views impacted by rain on the camara lens!

We then came to a children's playground with a Troll with whom Drew made friends. The troll pointed the way to a number of his relatives in the Troll Forest.

Troll Forest - Trollskogen

The promotional blurb for Trollskogen says:

Here children can go on a journey of discovery and use their imagination, while along the path several different troll creatures appear and small obstacles that must be overcome.

I wish to demure, it isn't just children who can have great fun in this well planned and risky, but secure environment. We loved our time finding and seeing the various, varied, members of the Trollskogen family. 

Hanseatic Museum 

Drew is convinced that I am obsessed by Hanseatic history. I can confirm that since our visit to Boston, Lincolnshire, and King's Lynn back in 2022 and our subsequent visits to many places with Hanseatic connections in Germany, Latvia and Estonia as well as the great Hanse market hall in Norwich. I have been interested in this trading power, which was as, if not more powerful than many of the political entities (like the Holy Roman Empire) of its time. Indeed, it overlapped such entities. 

Drew's sense of my obsession has been enhanced by my friend Robin, who has also travelled to various Hanseatic places in the low countries, sharing his photos on Flickr as he goes. The deep sigh that comes across the room when Drew notices Robin is on his travels, indicates that I might be lost in this period of history while I look at his latest photos. 

 

So, of course on coming back down from Mount Fløyen it was the Bryggen area of Bergen with its long Hanseatic connection to which we head. The main Hanseatic Museum is currently closed for renovation [Co-pilot's note: Oh dear, how sad, never mind!] but has some well developed notice boards on the hoarding of the repair - they can be seen here and the next few images. 

It also has the reality of buildings built as storage spaces all along the sea front in Bryggen.  

Also, the museum has a series of Assembly Rooms from Hanseatic days in the Schøtstuene building, which are still open for a visit. The idea of a society and proto-nation built upon trade and commerce is fascinating. As someone with a degree in Economics and a Masters in Business, of course this era of mercantile political power fascinates me. So, perhaps I do have an obsession, well if so Bergen is a great way to feed it.  I'll let the photos show the details of the well preserved assembly rooms, where traders gathered to eat, buy and sell, and to vote on the policies of the league. 

Bryggens Museum

From the Hanseatic Museum our next stop was the City Museum of Bryggen with its large statue of the wonderfully named Snorri Sturluson.

Much of the history of the town itself focusses on the great fire of 1702 and the two 20th century fires in 1916 and 1955. 

Bergenhus Fortress

From the museum we walked the short distance to the Bergenhus Fortress - the oldest and best preserved fortifications in Norway. 

Central to the Fortress is the commanding Rosenkrantz Tower. Of course the name puts me in mind of the text from Shakespeare's Hamlet where instead of the king's letter asking his English friends to kill Hamlet, Hamlet amends it to lead to "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" which Tom Stoppard then built on in his play of that name in the 1960s. The prosaic truth is that the tower is named for another Rosencrantz, the governor of the fortress in the 1560s who gave it its current form building on the remains of the residence of King Eirik Magnusson, who was the last king to hold court in Bergen who died in 1299.

The fortress also contains the first Bergen Cathedral. The original site of Christ Church, which was built by King Olav Kyrre during the period 1066–1093 is now an area marked out by trees. The importance of the area for both royal and episcopal rule led to it having the relics of Saint Sunniva translated here in 1170. Bergen during this time was the the capital of Norway. In addition to  Christ Church and the King's residence there were several other churches, the bishop's residence, and a Dominican monastery in the area. When the Lutheran Cathedral was established where we visited this morning, Christ Church was knocked down and the area was further fortified. 

Beffen Ferry

Just a short walk along the port from the Rosenkrantz Tower is a small ferry that takes people the quick way between this side of the city and the other, with the bridge being a good distance further off. It also provides some great views of the city from the boat.

It only takes 5 minutes and we are outside the Nykirken, the new church which was built to accommodate the town as it expanded onto the south side of the Fjord.

Espresso House

As we left the Ferry and began to walk back to the hotel, the rain changed from being drizzle to a full scale pouring. We made our way back to the coffee shop opposite the hotel and stopped for an Americano and Latte while we dried off a bit. The nearest coffee shop to the hotel is an Espresso House, our go to brand in Scandinavia. 

Back to the hotel 

We arrive back to the hotel at 2.15pm and I spend the afternoon blogging about earlier parts of the holiday. 

Tonight is our second 'poncy dinner' of the holiday, so that will be the topic of my next post.