Category Archives: norway

Norway 2011: Munkholmen

Today, once again, started with a lovely breakfast of bread rolls and apple juice and this time I made more of an effort to notice what else was on offer. Slices of watermelon, huge chunks of pate, pouring yoghurt in all flavours, rings of pepper, cucumber, tomatoes, muesli as well as the stuff I managed to notice yesterday.

I was at the jetty by ten, ready to get on the boat. The sky had cleared and it was warm and sunny. I had a nice trip out on a ferry to Munkholmen. It was the first boat of the day so the island wasn’t yet unlocked. It’s a tiny little chunk of rock out in the fjord, surrounded by unclimbable stone walls and only one entrance.

Inside there are little cottage-like buildings which were apparently prison buildings back when the place was a prison. I spent a very pleasant two hours circling the island (takes about twenty minutes to do a whole circle, even if you walk really slowly and keep stopping to sit on the picnic benches and look at the view. It’s miniature.)

I saw two Hurtigrute boats go out – one the big modern ferry I saw yesterday and one much more what I’d imagined. I saw oystercatchers (which make the most incredible whistling squeaking noise) and grebes (which make an “ooooh!” noise) and eventually worked out how to get onto the beach. It’s a little grey beach with shells and rockpools and it’s lovely.

Then I came back, walked through town a bit and came across my church. And behind it, Amnesty International were celebrating their 50th birthday and there was a band playing. I sat and listened and filmed five songs. They were great – sort of like if Them Crooked Vultures were Norwegian teenagers and had a trombone, ukulele and accordian.

Then it was back to the hotel for food before I went out again. I went back down the pedestrianised shopping streets where I came across a concert band. I heard the last thirty seconds of something nice, found a place where I could get an unobstructed view to film the next piece – and it was Colonel Bogey!

I meandered down to Ting again, bought my Moomin bowl (and will not be doing any more shopping in this country!) and then, since it was sunny, went back down to the harbour. Despite being surrounded by water, it’s surprisingly difficult to get at the fjord here. Everywhere’s harbours or marinas or in some way, the seafront is inaccessible. But down by the harbour there’s a lovely view. I sat on a boulder and took photos of Munkholmen, the fjord and the mountains until it started to rain – that heavy droppy rain that generally doesn’t last long. I came back via the Garden Hotel.

I intended for that to be all I did today but then I decided to go out again, this time heading west towards the hospital. It was founded 13th September 1277 and is bright pink. I went down by the fjord, or as close as I could get, then back to the river, across a bridge, along the south bank of the river. I met some ducks who are friendly enough to get out of the river and climb up the bank to come and say hello. I walked down to a pretty yellow bridge (I have now crossed every bridge in this city) and then I wandered the back streets and go lost. Not properly lost. There’s a limit to how lost you can get in a city this size. I found my way back to the main street and then went to the square to take a photo of the friendly lady statue.

Tonight I plan to have a shower (they cleaned my room today. Took away my towels. Didn’t give me any more. I had to go to reception and plead for some), pack and then go to bed. My plane leaves at 11.05am tomorrow. That means I have to be up early and be waiting for my breakfast when it opens at 7.30. I have my boarding card – there is a computer with printer downstairs, so I checked in up here, emailed the boarding card to myself and printed it when I came in earlier. I have even looked up the bus times. It leaves – from right outside the door – at 8.15 or 8.45. Now I just have to find out how long the journey is so I can decide which one to get.

(And also, that rash I had on my hands in Lithuania? All the way up to my elbows here)

Norway 2011: Trondheim 2

I am cross because I just spent the best part of an hour writing this and it decided to sign me out. I am not rewriting it properly. You don’t get any of the detail that was in the original.

I kicked the low ceiling at least four times last night, as expected. It hurt.

I had a nice breakfast of bread rolls, as much apple juice as I could drink and a little chocolate cake while I read a Norwegian newspaper called the Aftposten. I couldn’t read much but I could at least see what was in the news – the price of the dress Kate wore to meet the Obamas is apparently relevant to Norway’s interests. Also available was meat, both hot and cold, cheese, fruit, dried fruit, nuts, cereal, orange juice, milk, tea, coffee, lots of jam, white eggs and lots and lots of various types of bread. This is somewhere where I will definitely be returning for breakfast.

After breakfast I went down to the harbour, looked at the boats and the station, then went along to the docks where there was a big shiny red and white ferry. I went to the seafront where I could see the fjord and Munkholmen, tomorrow’s trip, hopefully. I came back into town via several bridges, lots of flats and a shopping centre. I found shops where you can buy canoes, hiking boots of all shapes, gas barbecues, Moomin plates, decorative coat hooks, rubber ducks, books in English, comic books and swords. I resisted the temptation to buy Roald Dahl in Norwegian but may have bought ducks. I passed the Radisson Blu Garden Hotel, which is built in the style of the wooden warehouses it apparently replaced. Every other one is a big glass greenhouse and presumably all the rooms overlook these gardens, rather than the outside world.

I came back to the hotel to shelter from the drizzle and to eat some bread and cheese and then I went to the cathedral. It’s very nice and has quite an intimidating front and a little man lurking in the doorway in his lovely red robes and his trainers very visible underneath.

From there, I crossed a bridge and wandered by the river, watched the swallows do acrobatics above the water, found a little secret shingle beach, crossed the Old Town Bridge and took the obligatory photos of the colourful old warehouses. It was very pleasant. It was still grey but the rain had mostly stopped and it was beginning to brighten up and it was nice to wander along the river, looking at the cathedral on the other side, the various birds, the trees etc. Then I walked back to the cathedral along the north bank of the river, past the Pilgrim Centre and back to the hotel via the cathedral, the theatre and the shopping centre that is apparently behind and below the hotel as well as next to it.

Tomorrow’s plans are to visit Munkholmen, which is an island out in the fjord which has been used as an execution site, a monastery, a prison, a fortress and a customs house. Trondheim is very nice but it’s also tiny and I’ve seen pretty much everything. Kristiansten Fortress, which is the Sight, doesn’t open until next week but I can see the outside of it from my window. I also may well buy a Moomin bowl to go with my mug. There doesn’t appear to be very much in the way of either Vikings or trolls here.

Norway 2011: Trondheim

The coach trip up to Gatwick was uneventful, apart from the man in the seat behind me who grunted and sighed every ten seconds for the entire four hours.

Check-in was uneventful.

I had breakfast in Giraffe – toast and orange juice – and then went through the brand new shiny gate to security – there are lots of machines and you scan your own boarding card just like on the Underground – obviously, there were many people who had major trouble doing this.

Security was slow because the machine wasn’t working properly but I achieved getting through without being searched and then escaped into departures where I found Dixons and spent five minutes playing with an HTC Flyer (which is *beautiful*) before setting off for my gate. The plane was delayed ten minutes but we got on – big queue because as usual, the people in the front few rows were determined to get on first and spend forever putting their luggage away and blocking the aisle completely. Most of the flight was uneventful but as we descended over Norway, fields and pine trees and mountains and lakes became visible and as we came down over Trondheim, there seemed to be nothing but water with big rocky cliffs around the edges. I knew we weren’t actually going to land in the fjord but I hadn’t realised how close the airport is to the water – we were almost skimming the surface and it turns out the runway does slightly stick out into the water so even when we were nearly touching the ground, we were right up against the fjord.

Got through border control, got through baggage reclaim, found my bus, got on it, bought a ticket (doesn’t need validating!). The journey was lovely – 20 or so miles of pine trees and water and the occasional lump of bare rock and four tunnels. The first tunnel was Hell Tunnel – very long, quite dark and had at least five phone boxes in it. Out in the fields, there was farmhouse after barn after farmhouse – all rectangle, wooden, painted dark red and straight out of Mrs Pepperpot.

Obviously, there had to be a slight misadventure with getting to the hotel. In this case, I hadn’t realised there was more than one Thon Hotel in the city – I jumped off at Thon Hotel Gildevangen, not Thon Hotel Trondheim. I took my reservation inside, told the lady at reception I seemed to be in the wrong place and how do I get to this one? She gave me directions – turn right, turn left, follow that road until it ends at the main square, turn right again. There’s a statue. 8 minutes walk. Foolproof. I walked along the seafront – I now know exactly where to go in Trondheim if you want to buy a drysuit or a rubber dinghy – and followed the road round to the main square and there was the correct Thon Hotel.

It’s exactly as hostelly as I should have expected but it’s nice. My bed has a sloping ceiling over it which slopes so low I’m likely to kick it all night. The windows have clips so they only open half a centimeter but the clips are very easy to undo and there are hooks outside so you’re clearly allowed to open them wider. My view is mainly the roof of the shopping centre next door but behind that, there’s a nice church (which doesn’t just dong, it plays music on its bells. If I’m in at 6 tomorrow night, I’ll try to film it) and behind that, I can see the city on the hills.

I went back outside to find some food. There’s a supermarket in the shopping centre, literally two doors down and they have bread. I have cheese slices although they’ve apparently suffered during their flight. Never mind, there’s not enough real cheese in them for much harm to be done. I have chococolate milk which I’m trying to drink slowly over a few days and I have very strong sour cream and onion crisps which I’m probably not going to have finished before I get home because they are so very oniony.

I had a quick look down the road. There’s a McDonalds between the hotel and the supermarket. There’s a Burger King round the corner and next to that is another bigger supermarket. I went down to the harbour, took a photo of a drain cover on the way – no doubt the Norwegians don’t even notice them but I do – and tomorrow I’ll go and explore properly.

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