Jul 28 - Summer in Trondheim

Since getting back from my quick trip to see the midnight sun, life has been rather quieter. On Sat 5 Jul, I was invited to a picnic on Munkholmen (an island in the fjord off Trondheim) with some friends. So I caught the ferry over after lunch to join Sarah and Sigmund (pictured), who play with the Trondheim Symphony orchestra, and Rachel, who's doing postdoc at NTNU. The sun came out, so though the wind was a bit chilly it was quite a pleasant afternoon. Sigmund was playing for a wedding reception that evening, so he'd brought his Hardanger fiddle (Norway's national instrument) with him (pictured). It has a second layer of strings which resonate in sympathy when the top strings are played. A very pleasant and full sound. He played a bit for us which was great.

On Sun I went to the Ringve music museum on the Lade peninsula to the east of town. The guides play a number of the instruments as they take you round, as they want it to be a "living" museum. The rooms are arranged with themes tracing the development of instruments through time, with a particular emphasis on keyboard instruments. Its very interesting.

The following couple of weeks were quiet, but very pleasant as summer had definitely arrived. Most of the days were sunny, with temperatures in the mid-20's, with the odd cloudy day between. It was very nice going out for walks. Most lunchtimes at work I sat outside on the grassy slope sunbaking for an hour, very pleasant and relaxing.

On Sat 12 Jul I walked from Lian to Grønlia and back with Lynda and Michi. Along the way I kept diving off into the bush to try and find some of the Tur-Orienteering posts which the local club has put out. Found 10 of 11 looked for, so was quite pleased. There's over 100 posts in a number of areas, and I'm hoping to find a reasonable number of them on subsequent walks. Its a good excuse to go to different areas.

On Sun I headed to Lade again to sample some more of the bathing areas (can't really call them beaches, they just don't have real sandy beaches here - mostly either rocky shores or pebble beaches). I started at Devlebukta on the SE side, and then walked back to Ringvebukta (pictured) along the walking track about 1km N. Spent some time enjoying the sun at each, and also went in for a swim - first time in the fjord - and it wasn't too cold! In fact they're having a very warm summer here - longest run of "warm" (over 20C - they don't know what warm really is :-) days in several years! Still, its very pleasant.

During the following week, I headed back there most evenings, sampling Korsvika (on the west side of Lade) on Mon, and Djupvika (on the northern tip) on Tues and Thurs. Wed I went to the BUL meeting at Lian as usual, though that was extremely quiet this week - no dancing at all unfortunately.

On Fri evening, 18 Jul, I spent 4 1/2 hours walking the area around Granåsen, searching out more of the tur-orienteering points. I managed to find a total of 16, so was very pleased with myself. On my way back I had a quick swim in one of the lakes as I walked past - very pleasant.

Then on Sat, Lynda and I drove to Røros and back for a day trip. There was some lovely scenery on the drive there. Røros is an old mining town, and is very picturesque (even if it did decide to rain for a bit whilst we were there). We enjoyed walking round the old buildings. Then continued our drive on a back road to return to Trondheim - an enjoyable day.

Sun I spent walking round Bymarka, just to the north of the Skistua road, hunting for more orienteering points - was less successful as I only located 7 (and failed to find 4 more, a bit annoying). Still some lovely scenery. Then that evening I went to the monthly Anglican service in the Chapter House by the Cathedral. That was enjoyable as always, and I did the Old Testament reading.

Another sunny week, with several evenings spent sunbaking and swimming down at Djupvika. On Wed 23 July, the Cutty Sark Tall Ships were all in port, after racing over from Aberdeen in Scotland. So a group of us met and walked along, admiring the boats, and then listened to the very enjoyable "Tango Accordion" band from Selby (not far from Trondheim). I was back at the port on Thurs and Fri to see more of the ships and the entertainment - though generally headed home before too late as we were getting evening showers.

On Sat 26 July, all the Cutty Sark Tall Ships left town in a massive 2 hour "Parade of Sail". I was perched up on the cliffs on the Lade peninsula to the east of town with some friends, and we had a marvellous view. The ships looked great - was just a pity the weather clouded over. Still very enjoyable. The Norwegian boat "Statsraad Lehmkuhl" lead the fleet, with the Russian sail training boat "Sedov" at the rear. The other boats were read between, with the smaller boats on groups between the large class A boats. A great spectacle.

On Sun, I went and did a mammoth 7hr walk in Trolle (hills to west of town) and located 20 of the tur-orienteering points I've been collecting (and only failed to find 1 other). So I was pretty pleased with myself, but very very tired when I got home. Unfortunately it looks like the warm summer weather is over - back to more normal overcast and drizzle. Ah well, it was very pleasant whilst it lasted.