Trondheim, July 31, 2018

Wow, Trondheim is a big city. Cool, fashionable and very prosperous. They say the jet stream keeps them warm in winter so living here year round is good.

Trondheim is one of the original settlements of Norway. Built on the river, Nidelva, the town is famous for its wooden buildings from the late 1700's, and for the cathedral, Nidaros. Originally built in about 1035 over the grave of King/Saint Olav, today's cathedral complex consists of a series of additions, improvements, fires, replacements and renovations. Today, the church is a magnificent work of architectural art and craftsmanship and still conducts services in the Lutheran faith.

The cathedral is also the coronation church for Kings and Queens of Norway. In fact, the royal residence of the king and queen of Norway is only steps away. We visited the royal residence grounds but no flags were flying which indicates the royal couple was not in residence on the day of our visit.

Part of the cathedral complex is the Arch Bishop's House, now a museum and the building where the country's Crown Jewels are kept. Of course we saw them. I hope the photos do them justice.

Ok, we complete lost photos from this date and place. I'm so sad. I have downloaded a couple of photos from the web. No copyright infringement intended, I assure you. Readers, please know these are not my photos. they are merely borrowed to give you an idea of the sights we saw.

After visits to the cathedral and crown jewels house, we watched demonstrations in the courtyard of the Arch Bishop's house of craftsmen who work on the cathedral's perpetual restoration project. We watched stone cutters hammer and chisel granite; we watched artists cut and solder stained glass and we saw blacksmiths forging nails. All the crafters were employed by the restoration project but asked by festival organizers to perform demonstration of their ancient art as part of the current summer festival, "The Body." This festival is intended to demonstrate that we should not be afraid or ashamed of our bodies. Sadly we are going to miss this. I was hoping to get in touch with that side of me that does not jump back in shock when I see the sight of my aging body as I bathe each morning.

Near the end of our exploration of the city we saw a sign pointing the way to the fish market. I could not resist. I love to see local catch and see what people like to eat. We walked through and took photos. We paused at the tank that housed live octopus who put on a show for us. Squirmy but so delicious! He shall live another day!

Then just before heading back to the ship we saw a curious "art form" on the street. It was big, round and bright yellow. Its top heralded a collection of pipes and horns. We checked it out. It's big enough to allow an adult to enter and stand on a table. It had big tubes on the ceiling. We figured it out. We yelled into the pipes inside the big globe and the pipes and horns on the outside blasted the sound to the public. I tried to yoo-hoo, and make a fog-horn warning sound. Then I sang the first line to Patsy's "Crazy." Stan did his famous Tarzan yell! What a bunch of crazy old people we are!