Train to Trondheim

So – off to the north of Norway – to Trondheim by train.  It’s all a bit of a culture shock after Russian. 

After a tad of huffing and puffing this morning, I got everything into the panniers and I released Maggie from the Luggage room and we headed off to the train station.  The plan being to find lockers, drop off my bags and then pedal off to the Museum of Decorative Arts to find that Baldishol Tapestry. 

  There’s a little creek that runs past the hotel and on checking on google maps, I see it runs all the way into the city centre – now why didn’t I see that yesterday.

why have I got sooooo much!

So we rolled down onto the bikeway and an easy 5min pedal almost to the door stop of the train station.  Amazing!  Found the lockers and for 50kr (nearly $8) the bags were dumped and away we went.  After only a little bit of fiddling around, the Musem was found – but it didn’t open till noon so I had 20mins to wait. 

Eventually the door was opened and a kind docent let me in.  He only charged me 30kr instead of the 50kr because I explained I only had limited time – that was nice.  He directed me to the gallery with the tapestry so up 2 flights of stairs and straight into the gallery and there it was.  What am I raving about?  

This is a fragment of tapestry, carbon dated from about 1040 – 1190.  It was found in an old church under layers of other rugs and carpets and there is no history of where it came from, who made it or anything.  But it is still so brightly coloured – limited colour scheme as was typical with natural dyes.  ‘They’ believe it is a fragment of a long panel of the seasons and this only shows April and May…  it is quite coarsely woven – say 4 to 6 epi – but it is a very lively piece and the techniques are quite advanced!  Ahhhh…..  it does gladden a weaver’s heart to see such a wonderful piece and am so glad I made the effort to get to see this…  J there were also Flemish type tapestries dated at about 16C – which are also my cuppa tea – and there were some later, flamboyant Italian/France looking things, that I don’t particularly like.  By then the weaver had lost control of the design and only had a cartoon to religiously copy – bah!!

cunning piece of wood carving on old hall-way cupboard!
see I do look at other things than tapestries!!

Anyways, back to train station and rescue bags and head off to the platform.  Phew!  There’s a lift down there….  So all aboard and away we go.  It doesn’t take too long before we are heading north and out of the city. 

Prosperous farmlands on the left and right.  At first a lake was on the right out my window, but then we must have crossed a bridge and it was then on the left for simply ages. 

Crops of ripened oats or wheat, rye starting to yellow – it seems that any land that could have a crop, has one growing!  This is such a contrast to Russia where farmlands were just abandoned and covered in hog-weed… 

I did end up with a quiet little companion, a young lad of about 12 – he got off along the way and was met by an older man – Farfar or Morfar I guessed.  So back to being on my own!  Yay!!

The landscape is beautiful.  Dark green pines on the mountains, bright green grass on the fields, grey-green birch leaves now that they have lost their bright green spring colour.  One river was colour pastel-green – something to do with minerals in the water…  and there’s rapids on several of the rivers – yep I can imagine some serious white-water rafting in this area.

I have seen some birds today!  Several swans, including a family group – parents with about 5 gosling paddling along.  I saw a trana (crane) flying low and landing in a paddock and have seen skarta, kaja and ringduva also.  So a day full of ticks!

Yep, am loving this easy passage through the centre of Norway.  Story could be a bit different when Maggie and me hit the road again.  Its apparently 27C outside, so even Norway is making me wonder why I brought those winter clothes with me.  Tho’ several have said that June was the coldest for many years.  July is making up for it by being extra hot!! 

Well, maybe not – somewhere we crossed a line – maybe after that tunnel that took us a fair way thru a mountain.  Suddenly there are no more pine forests, but stunted birch trees, boggy land with low growing ground cover.  And And!!  Snow!!!  Patches of it hanging on the bare mountains!!  And an even bigger AND! Just  awhile ago I saw a male and female älg!!  The male was lying down in the low shrubs and the female was jogging away!!!  Truly in Scandinavia now!!!  Of course I didn’t get a photo! I was too busy going Oh Oh Oh!!!

After awhile, we came back down to a lower altitude and the trees returned to normal size and the ground cover reverted to blueberry shrubs.  No more snow to be seen.  Not sure how high up the line actually went.

What a pleasant way to spend 6:30 hours – it felt like looking at a tourist brochure for Norway – the whole trip. 

The people I was going to stay with met me at the station, loaded Maggie and all her bags onto their bike rake and up the hill we went.  They are lovely people and even though it was past 9:30 they had waited for me before having tea – a yummy lasagne – home baked!  Something about home cooking, its just so much nicer than hotel food…..

After a lot of talking I went off to bed and totally crashed.

Tomorrow I will have a bit of a look around Trondheim before loading up and heading east on Monday!