Today was a city tour of Trondheim, Norway’s third largest city and home of the ‘national cathedral,’ the Nidarosdomen, built on the burial site of Norway’s patron saint, Saint Olav (King Olav Haraldsson, canonized in 1031).  King Olav was quite the christian zealot – apparently an adherent of ‘my way or the highway.’  The Norwegians of his time weren’t particularly inclined to conversion, but the axe and forced baptisms seemed to have changed some hearts and minds.  As the French say, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

The Nidarosdomen was begun about 1320 and is an excellent example of Romanesque, Norman, and Gothic styles.  Unfortunately we weren’t able to tour inside, but here are some photos from the outside of the cathedral.

We made our way back to the boat via the Nida river, with its many warehouse warfs, the oldest dating to 1750.  (The tour guide was quite distressed that none of the vast amounts of oil money Norway has amassed to be set aside to renovate this old shack.)

Trondheim is essentially the last time we can leave the boat until the voyage’s end tomorrow afternoon in Bergen.  Cruising today through more fjords – currently over Norway’s deepest at 600 meters.  Today’s weather is windy, gray, darkly overcast, and spitting rain.  I hope the soup at lunch is as good as yesterday’s; I need a good warm-up and this is perfect soup weather.