July 29, 2023 - Trondheim, Norway

July 29, 2023 - Saturday - Trondheim, Norway

Today we set out to explore Trondheim on our own. Our plan was to visit as much of the old town as possible including a return to the cathedral we toured in 2004. The walk away from the ship followed the shore to a pedestrian bridge over the rail yard. as we approached it we spied a saucer that a mom had just been spinning for her children to ride. As they left we drew closer to take a picture when from behind us two adults arrived to die it a try. Much to our delight they were captain Antonio and Cruise Director Emily. They delighted us with a few joyous twirls and were off. We watched them walk the bridge as we followed. Youth triumphed in speed but with our consistent pace, we made it too. 

The local lady at the dock offered information as to where we could find the Information Office. he told us a route to take and even said it was across from the elephant statue. We set off looking for it when we crossed the bridge. Try as we might we could not find it. Finally, Alice asked a young man on the street where it was. I learned at an early age from my father that a guy never asks a JoJo for directions. This young man had just arrived in Trondheim three days earlier. He was determined to help us and used his phone to find the info office. So, I plugged the request into google maps and we were soon on our way. We followed the directions to the letter and after walking a square block ended up two store lengths away from where we started with the young man (JoJo #1). There was no info office in sight on either side of the Street. Time for JoJo #2. We went into the Mcdonald's across the street from where the office was supposed to be. The young lady at the counter consulted with a colleague and told us where to walk including turns. Then she said it was across from the elephant. We were confident that this would get us there.

Again we followed the directions. After walking farther than we thought it should be, we walked into a jewelry shop. JoJo #3. The jeweler looked up from working on a ring and said he did not know where we had to go, but perhaps his customer did. The customer came over and listened to our tale of woe. He did not know about the elephant. He searched on his phone and gave us directions that took us back across the street from Mcdonald's. 

This was the third strikeout for this corner. We concluded that the office had either closed or relocated. All of this was further frustrating because we had been dealing with a language barrier. Only the first JoJo spoke good English. That is because he was from Sweden. The others spoke only a few words, but every one of them went out of the way to help us.

At this point, we had lost a lot of time and experienced a lot of frustration. So we decided to load the Trondheim Cathedral and set out on our own. We arrived a short time later. To our surprise to celebrate St. Olaf’s day, there were craft booths set up all around the cathedral. We visited the restrooms in the cathedral bookstore and made our way through the craft booths. We had toured the cathedral on the Norwegian Coastal Voyage in 2004, so we decided not to go in again. We left the booths and headed to the Old Town with Google’s guidance. Soon we were passing the church cemetery. When we stopped to take pictures as we always do in old cemeteries we spied a commotion near the church. Gloria a passenger we met at boarding on the first day, told us earlier today that there was a lady operating inside a 15-foot-tall puppet walking from a church to the cathedral around noon today. I saw the head of the puppet above the crowd. This lady was Ukrainian and was touring Europe promoting peace. We made our way through the crowd to get closer. Eventually, we made our way with her back to the front of the cathedral. There we watched her moving performance. Then we headed back to the old city.

Google Maps took us through a neighborhood to a bridge over the river leading to the sea. All along the river on both sides were buildings that had once been warehouses for the exchange of goods entering and leaving the city. These buildings have been carefully restored and now house restaurants, bars, and dwellings. It was a pleasure to walk through this area and admire the properties as we made our way back to Pursuit.

When we got “home’ we were tired, but we were very satisfied with our peculiar wanderings and outstanding sightseeing. The friendly people who tried very hard to help us were the frosting on the cake. What a wonderful day.