checking out Trondheim

A day in Trondheim

It was an nice easy start to the day – with breakfast on the verandah.  Already the sun was shining brightly and we made some plans for the day.

First I would be taken to the Ringve Music Museum, then onto the open air museum.  From there, Maggie and I would be on our to find our way back to the apartment…. 

Firstly the Ringve Museum was a very pleasant and well laid out museum – upstairs there were heaps of Norwegian musical instruments, but also some from far and wide.  I went on the tour of the historic home with the musical instruments in situ.  Apparently the owners of this home had now children and decided to bequeath the home to the ‘National Trust’ as a music museum.  After the man’s death, his wife travelled widely, researching and collecting pieces from around the world.  Her idea of a museum was that the guides would demonstrate the sounds of the instruments during tours.  So our lovely guide did just that, playing various pieces on harpsichord, organ and piano and also gave a demo on the pianola…  it was quite interesting learning about Norwegian history and how music has played a part in creating an identity after becoming independent from Sweden and Denmark.

Then onto the open air folk museum.  It is much much smaller than the Skansen in Stockholm, but nevertheless quite interesting, especially with the very old Stave church in its grounds.  It is quite a simple building and 50% of the original structure is still standing, with the rest renovated to preserve it.  The paintings within will not be renovated tho and they are quite faint now.  Its hard to decide whether it would be good to see them as they were – or not!

Then Maggie and I rolled down the hill – into the centre.  I made it to the harbour and rode past a very swanky eatery area – then got a tad lost – of course, before I found my way again and headed up the hill to the apartment.  The occasional left instead of right slowed my progress but voila!  Here I am, back where I started this morning – amazing.

After dinner, we walked up to the tower and caught the lift to the top and had a gander around the circumference of the platform.  It is nicely enclosed with outward sloping windows, which make it a tad unnerving.  The windows aren’t that clean so photography was a bit hit and miss.  But it certainly gave me an idea of the set up of the city and its surrounds. 

Munkholmen – an island that was once a monastery, floats out in the bay and the fjord is halfway from the sea at Trondheim – it still goes inland for another 120km… 

So now, try to get everything sorted for the new adventure, starting tomorrow.  All very exciting!