The surprising delight of Trondheim, and our second road-trip.

Thursday, September 21

We wake up to yet another beautiful day - as in when have we not?- with sun slanting across the old roofs of the city

After breakfast we walk through the busy streets, a mixture of old wooden houses and modern office buildings

towards the impressive gothic Nidaros cathedral, where Norwegian kings have been crowned - and buried - until recent years. 

It was started in 1070 on top of the tomb of St. Olav, Norway's national saint and former Viking king. It has been in use ever since, and the altar commemorates WWII, and the 11,000 fallen in that war, with all their names inscribed in a book on display. We notice deacons, young men and women, dressed in long red capes, guiding groups of schoolchildren, some very small, telling the story of the cathedral in an engaged manner. There's something very acessible about this grand structure. It feels modern, alive, and we admire, for example, a Via Cruxis, commisioned from a secular artist, with collages of newsphotos of war and political suffering.  

When we leave the building, the great bells are ringing, and the sound accompanies us, as we head for the "Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum" - the 'National Museum of Decorative Arts', which turns out to have a fascinating collection of folk art,

contemporary glass art,

strange wall hangings,

and even a display of raincoats - from Marimekko to Burberry.

We're ready to find a place to eat and walk up Prinsens gade - Prince street - to the corner of Kongens gade - King's street (remembering, many years ago, a very different walk in Maputo on Av. Karl Marx, passing Av. Mao Tse-Tung and Av. Kim-Il-Sung) and find a nice looking restaurant, Frati.  We're surprised and pleased to be served a really superior Margarita pizza together with great glasses of homebrewed beer and ale. We're sitting on the pavement part of the restaurant, and the sun is so unseasonably hot, we ask to turn off the ceiling heater.  While we eat and chat, we admire the very tall column with King Olav on top in the middle of the city square.

After a stop at the hotel we head out to walk along the river. It's the rush hour and the cars are moving slowly, in a very civilized manner on the raised road behind us,

We're headed towards an area called Baklandet, a narrow cobblestoned street filled with cafés and bars accessed by a charming footbridge,

and looking down the river, we realize again how common a structure in Norway is a house built on stilts

People are sitting outside in the cafés and helmeted cyclists, presumably on their way home, are streaking down the road at top speed, causing us to jump aside. 

We intuit the smoother paths on the road are reserved for them and walk gingerly in the middle. Then we return to the hotel, where a pleasant Norwegian custom offers a free light meal at night for the hotel guests. We have an early train to Otta in the morning.

Friday, September 22

We're up before 6am to be ready for our 8.18 train. Norwegian trains are really great and run on schedule. We've booked a 'Komfort' seat in a quiet wagon for our 3-hour ride across the Dovre mountain. The sun is rising as we walk the short distance to the main trainstation, dragging our suitcases behind us.

My cousins have told me we should look out for Moskus - a sort of buffalo - which live only on this mountain, but alas, we see only spectacular landscape whizz past us.

When we get out in Otta and stand forlorn with our luggage on the platform, there is no sign of the Avis rental office. Asking passers-by, we find out it is a brisk 15-20 minute walk away, so off we go with our suitcases, past the cozy town centre and into an industrial area. Finally we see the red AVIS sign hung on the side of a car dealership. Once inside, everything gets better. Per-Erik is very helpful and decides we need winter tires, since we're going to drive over another mountain, the Sognefjell, where there's a forecast for snow. We wait another hour, but are then presented with a pretty red car, very new, and very safe.

We have a 3-hour drive ahead of us. First along the wide glacier-green Otta river, and then up the mountain reaching a height of 1.400m. The roads in Norway are smooth as silk and very clearly marked, still we manage to take a wrong turn and head up a wrong mountain. We're keeping an eye on our ETA, for we're expected at a family gathering in Sogndal at 7pm, where the rest of the guests for my uncle's party have now arrived. A herd of slow cows 

makes for an amusing interruption, and soon we're climbing, with moist mountain slopes on either side covered in golden autumn colors. Then clouds begin to gather and we have to drive more slowly again,

also because we're so overwhelmed by this differently dramatic beauty - the mountains are so huge and solid -

that we have to stop frequently and get out of the car to be able to see better and to take pictures.

The lakes are a deep blue and the mountain here black and white, so different from the fiery colors below.

As we crest and begin the downward ride, the mountain softens and we see again the multicolored plains,

and then we have a long final drive along the Lusterfjord, passing though colorful little villages and seeing a whole lot of sheep.

We manage to arrive in time for the party and thus begin the festivities to celebrate my uncle Arne's 90 birthday. We have brought a carefully wrapped painting from Rio.

It depicts a scene of sailing into the Bergen harbor and belonged to my grandmother, Arne's mother. It hung in her home where he grew up with it. I inherited it from my mother, and now we're bringing it back to Norway as our present to him, thus adding a new story to a painting that already has a long one.

Monday, September 25

After a wonderful weekend spent in the company of 37 family members, young and old,

and feeling particularly blessed to have been able to do so, we turn our red car - on another gorgeous day - back in the direction we came from. The car has to return to Otta and we will get the train from there to Oslo, where we'll spend the night before catching a dayflight to Rio. We feel like pros now, we know the road and we're going to see the mountains from the other side and in the sun. The drive around the fjord is spectacular, the still water mirroring the landscape above exactly.

As we begin to climb the winding road, up and up, it seems the colors have deepened in the three days that have passed. I look at the red, orange, yellow, mauve, brown, beige, and green and wish I could eternalize all those colors in an embroidery or a watercolor.

It's exhilerating to stand on top of these beautiful mountains and see the distant glaciers, molded in the crooks of those great heights

and the icy lakes. We stop so many times that we call the Avis person to say we may be a little late, because the sun is just too gorgeous. He laughs and says a couple of hours won't matter.

No sooner have I finished talking to him than we drive into a set of clouds, and from then on we can't see a thing. We have to drive slowly and focus on the road, until finally we are below the clouds and can see into the distance on both sides.

On my cousin Anne's advice we stop for lunch in Lom at a famous bakery next to a roaring waterfall complete with a rainbow.

Then we're driving back along the Otta river, emerald green in the sun.

This time the Avis person drives us to the station where we have a small wait. And we finally see a Moskus, since there's a stuffed specimen in the waiting room - poor thing!

By now we're pretty spent, and for the next 3 hours on the train pay little attention to anything, except the delicious baked goods we brought from Lom to have with our free coffee in the Komfort carriage. We'll spend the night in the Radisson Hotel across from the airport, enjoy a light dinner and a drink, have an early night, and then an early departure. We're flying KLM to Amsterdam at 9.20 local time, and we'll land in Rio at 7.30pm, which with the 5 hour difference is 12.30am for us - 15 hours away.

We've had a fabulous trip - we saw so much and we seemed to bring the sun wherever we went. And now, coming home, we have the great delight of seeing our lovely Zaffy, who's been waiting for this moment, as have we. 

As always, thanks for following us on another trip. It's been a pleasure sharing it with you.