Sailing on the Hurtigruten

The Hurtigruten (literally 'fast route' and anything but fast) is a cruise ship that travels up and down the coast of Norway linking a number of coastal towns and villages.  While it carries some cargo between these far flung places, it is mainly a tourist boat filled with cashed up German retirees doing the whole stretch (and a few stragglers like me doing just a bit of the route). 

I did the afternoon/overnight section between Bodo and Harstad.  Bodo was flattened in WW2 so has since been rebuilt with almost only uninteresting high rise.  It looks better from the water than the street.

From there on the scenery becomes more and more spectacular.

To begin with the weather wasn't much good but neither that nor the snow capped mountains close by were enough to  stop some keen ones from an afternoon of sailing

 

There were a number of isolated places along the way

as well as a few pretty towns on the Lofoten Islands where we stopped to let down and pick up passengers

Note the racks for drying stock fish in the foreground of the picture below.  The stock fish trade has been flourishing along this coast line for about 800 years and it particularly took off once the Christians arrived as fish was (and is still) a food they could eat on all those days when meat's off the menu.  The weather is cold enough for the fish to dry naturally just on those racks out in the fresh air.  The harvest will be starting any day now.

Here are some of the passengers enjoying the trip

and here's some of the entertainment for the passengers (in case the scenery wasn't enough).  Yes, a visit from a Troll and a Troll maid who did a little dance and then served us Troll soup and a particularly odd Troll drink that could easily have been made from distilled Troll juice.

 
He looks sort of familiar I think.

 

As well as the Trolls, it turned out the prime ministers of Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark were also on board but they kept themselves out of view.  Their security bods didn't though

The highlight however was the scenery.  I clicked off a ridiculous number of photos. These are just a few (which once enlarged throws out the formatting ... too bad!)

This is as close as I got to seeing the midnight sun - it's there, right behind the clouds

And just because they are so beautiful, here are some more shots of clouds, water and mountains.  The first two, with the buildings in the foreground, give you a good idea of the size of these mountains

Trondheim, Norway

Trondheim is Norway's third largest city and was in fact the capital back when the Vikings ran the place.  Today there is a university and a bustling tourist scene and with a few more than 170,000 people living there, it's big enough to seem lively but nowhere near big enough be overwhelming.

On the day I arrived the weather was a bit grim 

but the view from my hotel room looked promising
 

Next day, the weather didn't improve so I spent a number of hours walking around, taking photos and generally trying to keep warm

While I walked past a few, I didn't visit a single church, museum or art gallery 

I did, however, see a lot of the town.  This is the old bridge

with the view south

and north from the bridge

Here are some pretty nineteenth century streetscapes 

and another view of the waterfront with the old warehouses left intact 

There is an almost uniform colour scheme right across the old parts of the city although not everyone is keeping up

Fortunately, I visited Trondheim for a second time a few days later when the sun was out so I saw it with a blue sky overhead.  This part reminded me of Kensington, Melbourne albeit with bigger silos

And here are some early twentieth century apartment buildings that I liked the look of.  First the elaborate

now the not so elaborate

and finally, the downright austere

Trondheim is, of course, not all olde world charm.  There is lots of new building work underway

and a number of modern offices, hotels, shops and apartments built along the river

As well as the building colour scheme, there are lots of street plantings, both public and private, to brighten the place up

 One of the most original was this bed of pansies planted into the handrail of the brand new pedestrian bridge

and at least one house has a meadow roof (just like I had seen in Ostersund)

Also in Trondheim, I came across the smallest car I have ever seen

possibly the last one of these still in existence

and a cute little pooch that reminded me of the Z dog

I wonder if I missed anything by not visiting the churches, museums and art galleries?