Norway 9 -- Trondheim again

So this time we arrived in Trondheim again early in the morning, but we had a scheduled city tour by bus and then a visit to the Nidaros Cathedral.  We actually drove to the area we had mistakenly walked last week -- there is a fortress there stemming from the time when Norway was defending itself from those warring Swedes.  The city was like a ghost town, it being the Easter holiday and almost everyone goes out of town to their cabin in the mountains.  One might find a cafe open but all the shops and even the grocery stores were all shut up tight.

Then we stopped at the cathedral.  It is an incredibly imposing stone structure in the gothic style constructed of soapstone.  It had spectacular stained glass windows and stone carvings.  These were first done by European masons as Norway had had no history of stone work when the church was started.   (No inside pictures allowed.) But the most important feature of the building is a magnificent Wagner organ, which is actually the first of two organ in the church -- total of 11,000 pipes.  Unfortunately, there was no music during the short time of our visit. That would be something worthy of a trip back to Trondheim.

The scenery has changed remarkably.  The mountains are more rounded, there is no snow at the lower levels and there are now trees again on many of the slopes.  Population density has increased and there are many more farms and flat places along the shore.  There is now an abundance of small watercrafts with marinas in most centres.

On a 'thank goodness' note, the captain spoke last evening and told us that up in the north where we were just a few days ago, storms have continued and snowfall is so great that most of the roads are closed, avalanche threats are everywhere and many of the small ports are closed.  I think I am glad to be on the southward journey.