Trondheim, a Viking town and Norway’s Coronation City

Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim

06:00 – We arrived in Trondheim, Norway’s second oldest city. This was a major stop and we were here till noon. This was good news for passengers who wanted to do some sightseeing. Hurtigruten does a two-hour city sightseeing tour which costs NOK300. The walk into town takes about 20-25 minutes each way and we chose to walk as this is the opportunity to give our legs a good stretch.  There was a bus stop about 5 minutes from the pier but we didn’t have a timetable and neither did we see any bus go by on our walk.

With a map, or a good sense of direction, getting to Trondheim town centre was easy and once you are there, most of Trondheim’s sightseeing attractions were within easy reach of each other.  The road signs also point you in the right direction.

Trondheim is an important Viking city and after King Olav Haraldsson was canonized in 1031, it also became a pilgrimage city.  For more about Trondheim and its attractions, see our Trondheim visit post.

Trondheim’s most important landmark is the Nidaros Cathedral, but there was no time to visit the interior.  We had to head back to the ship and this time we returned via the colourful Bryggen area with its row of multicoloured warehouses.

Warehouses on Nidelva River, Trondheim..

Trondheim is Norway’s coronation city and we returned to our cruise ship happy that we’ve visited this city of vikings and royalty.

12:00 – We left Trondheim and within five minutes of our departure we passed the island of Munkholmen.  This island has been used as a place of execution, prison and monastery.  From here till our arrival in Rørvik tonight, there were no stops.One thing that you’ll see a lot of on this Norwegian cruise is interesting lighthouses and over the next part of the voyage we passed the Agdenes Lighthouse and the Kjeungskjaer Lighthouse.  Kjeungskjaer is a 20-metre tall octagonal lighthouse and is considered to be one of the most beautiful along the Norwegian coast.

Another thing we saw a lot of was Hurtigruten sister ships.  The Hurtigruten people are very proud of its fleet of ships and its history and the cruise director would always let us know when we were passing one of the sister ships.

16:15 – We went through the beautiful and narrow  Strait of Stokksundet.  The Strait was only 40 metres wide at its narrowest point and our ship was around 20 metres wide.  We were sailing in complete darkness so there was no room for error here.  Hurtigruten ships only go through this Strait if the weather’s good and we’re fortunate that it was today.

20:40 – We’re in Rørvik at the same time as the southbound MS Lofoten which is a heritage listed ship.  Built in 1964, Hurtigruten calls this ship the “Queen of the Coast”.  It’s possible to visit the MS Lofoten and there’s also an interesting folk museum in Rørvik but our stop here was only brief and at 21:15 we departed.

What an exciting day!