Eric wouldn't take me to see the Museum which was the power plant making heavy water during WWII, the subject of a sabotage attack that is the basis for the film "the Heroes of Telemark" one of my old time favourites but he did take me to Lillehammer (originally with the thought of doing some snowshoeing, but unlike last year there wasn't any snow yet) where I desperately wanted to go in 1994 to the Winter Olympics. No wonder the Norwegians can ski so well; the cross country ski area also has paved runs where we saw fit folk rolling on roller skis that use the same movements as cross country skiing = they were very good and very fast. One fellow was even skiing uphill up the footpath to the ski area.

We walked down the main street of Lillehammer at 4pm in the afternoon and it was night time dark. The Christmas lights were on so it gave it a festive feel, but being late on a Saturday afternoon many of there shops were closed or closing. However, Cath found a stitch shop that was open, and got a lovely Christmas tapestry as well as some yarn, I think. It's best not to ask. Resistance is futile!

By this hour the town was eerily quiet. Everyone in Lillehammer was at the Olympic Arena, or at home watching the TV, for the hockey match between arch rivals Lillehammer and Storhamar. Perhaps the rivalry has to do with how to spell hammer or is it hamar. Anyway, Lillehammer won 3-2 so everyone except there Storhamar fans, were quite jovial later.

It seems that the Norwegians can't quite decide on their own history - there is a little bit of Viking and then there are the various Harald's, Olaf and Haakons who became kings but whose hereditary line died out in the 1300s. Then there is the name of their capital (was Kristiana) and the capital itself - which seems to change every 100 years or so.

We are currently in Trondheim, which for most of its life was Nidaros, having been the village of Kaupangr, then Nidaros then Trondhejm (sic), then back to Nidaros and finally to Trondheim in 1931. It was the capital of Norway while Viking Olaf united the country and thereby became king. Later Olaf II was declared a saint (because his hair and nails grew after death) and made Trondheim his capital. Until it wan't anymore. Even poor old Alfred Nobel was given a hard time, I gather, by the Swedes for giving one prize distribution out of five, to Norway - but at that time Norway was a joint country with Sweden under a joint King - so he was really just being kind to the poor cousins.

And yet Norway declares itself fiercely patriotic: it has Nansen and Amundsen of course and hosted the 1952 and 1994 winter Olympic Games where the Norwegians won basically all the skiing races and they did introduce figure skating to the world with megastar Sonja Henie. We know this as there is a Norwegian Olympics Museum in Lillehammer. More than Australia has who also makes the grade for hosting the Games.

Then of course they declared themselves neutral in WWII, got invaded anyway, underwent a difficult and oppressive occupation and had to fight in any case - mainly in intelligence, communications and special operations with the British. We are staying at what was the Mission Hotel right in the centre of Trondheim which was - you guessed it - the Gestapo Headquarters during the war…

One thing that keeps popping into my head is the TV show Foyle's War which we love and the police sergeant Paul Milner who lost his leg fighting at Trondheim with the British forces. Its the sort of quirky detail writer Anthony Horowitz is so so good at - a relatively unknown battle for a key part of the story.

Early on the first morning we were in Trondheim we drove about 10 minutes to the suburb of Stavne and visited the small Commonwealth Cemetery plot behind Stavne Chapel. It was -6C and very frosty, but the sky was a deep, clear winter blue. The cemetery is well maintained and there were some wreaths indicating some kind of recent observance of Remembrance Day. There are 155 graves most of them RAF airmen shot down over central Norway during WW2. There are 5 RAAF airmen. One of the RAAF graves had some knitted poppies on the grave stone covered in frost. None of the airmen were older than 28. There are some RN sailors, some of whom were killed on 8-9 April 1940 when Norway was invaded by German troops. There are 26 graves of unknown airmen, soldiers, sailors or merchant seamen. It is a very moving and lovely place.

Later we visited the Cathedral (Nidarosdomen) which was begun in the 11th century and has been burned, rebuilt, added onto, and restored over the past 900 years. It was built as a Roman Catholic Church and burial location of Olaf II, King of Norway and St Olaf, patron saint of Norway. Since the Reformation it has been the Evangelical Lutheran parish Church of the city of Trondheim. The interior of the church retains the style of a gothic cathedral but stripped of the ornamentation of the catholic tradition including opening the separation between the nave and chancel. Within the cathedral precinct is the medieval archbishop's palace and it is also the home of the Norwegian royal crown jewels, however, these were closed on the day we visited. We did have a delicious and warming bowl of Pilgrim soup at the cafe.

Afterward we visited the new Roman Catholic Cathedral building, St Olav. It was built in 2016 as a basilica and is a lovely modern building.

Oh, did I mention the construction. The historic town square in Trondheim is presently a very ugly and unpleasant hole of construction. The stated rationale for this abomination is the glorious transformation of the square into some kind of modern and relevant space in the centre of the city. An English language informational sign noted that construction began in October 2017 and will be completed by June 2020. By the look of the site I would say 2022 at the earliest. I think it is a consortium of the same companies building the Sydney light rail system and the Westconnex.

Trondheim has been great if somewhat icy. I'm not really adjusting well to the minus temperatures and frost staying on the ground all day despite the sun. But we have had a good day.