Trondheim to Bodo

Yesterday we visited Trondheim – a university town and Norwegian pilgrim site (Nidaros Cathedral houses the tomb of St Olav – Norway’s Patron Saint).

We started with a bus city tour pointing out various sites of interest and stopped off at a lookout point for a photo stop. This was the ideal place to testdrive my Sorel Joan of Artic Snowboots that took up so much space in my luggage. They worked perfectly – ankle-deep in snow and they did not even feel damp outside.

We then visited Nidaros Cathedral where a very amusing local guide told us the history of the building. The ongoing cleanup (as he says … every 100 years) did take away some of the atmosphere for me.  Maybe Gothic cathedrals just isn’t my thing. Anyways I purchased a rosary at the gift shop – to add to my collection of rosaries from Catholic Pilgram sites. We passed the “Bridge of Happiness” ‘s red arches (Gamle Byrua) en route back to the ship.

The balance of the day we spent lounging around the cabin reading, sleeping and Colin playing games on his PS Vita. we did go out on the balcony to photograph the Kjeunskjaer Lighthouse as we passed it. As Colin said the captain ‘showed off’ his navigation skills by passing though a very narrow gap between islands… quite impressive – even more so with the sunset in the background.

At lunch I gave in and eventually tried the reindeer. It is quite good, once you get over the idea of it being Rudolph’s cousin.

This morning just after 7am we crossed the Artic Circle. It does seem colder and greyer this side of it, although we have yet to strike temperatures under zero degrees Centigrade. I think we brought some of Cape Town’s heat wave with us to Norway.

For a laugh after breakfast we went to the quay at Ornes – just to take pictures. They bundled us back on the boat – as it only stopped here for 20 minutes and the rule is 10 mins before departure everyone must be back on the boat. We departed late as they had some issues with the cargo door closing. In typical Norwegian fashion they were very understated about it.

This delayed the Artic Circle ceremony, but somehow in his busy schedule Neptune still managed to fit us in and make an appearance for some photo shots. I joined in the fun and received a ‘blessing’ of ice water down my back – courtesy of our captain. I donated the sweet liquer provided to take the edge off the cold/ease the shock to Colin. It was all good fun and the clothes affected is hanging in the bathroom to dry.

We are now readying to dock at Bodo where some will go to see the Saltstraumen strong sea currents and whirlpools. Some will go on a winter hike in the area. We decided to skip both as we will have our nature experience in Kirkenes.

Tonight at 23:00 while sailing through the narrow strait of Raftsundet we will have fishcakes and drink Trolfjord snapps while maybe, just maybe the Northern Lights will appear, now that we are within the artic circle.