Last full day at sea! And an early morning visit to the ancient capital, Trondheim, home of Norway’s national shrine, Nidaros Cathedral. Trondheim, formally known as Nidaros, founded in 997AD was the capital from 1030 to 1217.
But I am clearly fated not to visit Trondheim successfully. The storm on the way north meant we bypassed it entirely and today, having overslept, and with abject planning I set off for the aforementioned cathedral with what I thought was plenty of time before being back on the boat for breakfast and departure. As Nareesa will testify, forward planning is sometimes not my strong suit - I’m not very good at detail - so after walking for about half an hour I found myself still nearly one and a half kilometres from the damn church, with only about 45 minutes before sailing. It came down to see the cathedral and miss the boat, or miss the cathedral and get the boat. Even I’m not that stupid! The cathedral will have to wait for another day. Maybe if I had just looked at a map first and not assumed the centre of the city was a short stroll from the port - to be fair, as it has been in every other bloody port!
Oh, well, it has given me a chance to rant about my own shortcomings, rather than those of others. Talking of which … no, maybe not.
After leaving port (with me on board), we took almost 2 hours to reach the sea, sailing up the Trondheimsfjord, Norway’s third longest at 130 km. Very pretty with what I suppose in Norwegian terms are suburbs by the sea! Nice.
Talk on the boat this morning is of frustration at the northern lights and Hurtigruten's policy of offering a free voyage if you do not see them (in winter, obviously). Nobody on this boat had seen them until last night. An announcement at about 11.30pm told everyone on board that the lights had been sighted on the port side. Almost everyone rushed to the top deck to see the spectacle - by which time they had disappeared, never to return that night. But by announcing their presence, Hurtigruten had neatly avoided the potential 350 free voyages it might have had to cough up for! Me, cynical? Having said that, whilst I have enjoyed just about every minute of this, I am not sure I would do it again, with or without northern lights. So perhaps not many take up the offer even when Hurtigruten are forced to offer it. But my fellow passengers on this boat are not going to be offered the choice, anyway. The northern lights did appear, for about 30 seconds I think.
The rest of the day has passed uneventfully, with the ever present backdrop of beautiful scenery, about which I admit I have almost become blasé. Unfortunately the one remaining place I would have liked to have seen, missed on the storm affected trip north, is Alesund, supposed to be the prettiest town in Norway, but we visit at 1am and only for half an hour, so no chance to get off and explore, even if I could stay awake that long.
And so the voyage south is drifting peacefully to its conclusion tomorrow in Bergen. I might mange a short blog tomorrow morning before disembarkation. Then its meet Nareesa off the plane and a long weekend together. I worry for her - I have only used up my speaking ration for about 2 days in the last 14. Bring your ear plugs!