With Trondheim we had reached a real city again, and a very beautiful one. We did some shopping at the outskirts before we drove fearlessly into the centre, parked the car on a legal parking and went to explore the colourful city.
A settlement was founded here in 997 as a trading post, originally called Nidaros which meant “Mouth of the river Nid”. It served as the seat of the king and capital of Norway during the Viking Age until 1217.
The Nidaros Cathedral and the Archbishop’s Palace are located side by side in the middle of the city centre. The cathedral, built from 1070 on, is the most important Gothic monument in Norway and was Northern Europe’s most important Christian pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages, with pilgrimage routes leading to it from Oslo and from Sweden. Today, it is the northernmost medieval cathedral in the world, and the second largest in Scandinavia.
During the Middle Ages, and again after independence was restored in 1814, the Nidaros Cathedral was the coronation church of the Norwegian kings. Today was the wedding of a happy couple, therefore the church was closed to tourists.
Somehow we ended in a bar called San Sebastian, which made us wonder, if it isn’t much better here than in Spain, with the Corona infection rate that low, that you don’t have to wear masks and no limitations of any kind?
Enjoying normal life, which at this time is going down the drain in most of the European countries. We discussed to which countries we might be able to travel next year. We probably have to wait and hope for the best. Tomorrow we will cruise the Atlantic Road, a beautiful route over little islands. More on our next post!