July 28 - This morning we had our city tour of Trondheim. We started out by doing a driving tour of the city, and then going to a lookout where we had a view over the city
We went back down into the city, and the bus dropped us off for the walking part of the tour.
The Thomas Angell House
We walked through the Bakklandet area of the city again
The old city bridge
The old wharf
Here our guide was explaining the Sykkelheis - bike lift, to us. On one of the steep hills in the city, they have this apparatus to make it easier for bikers to go up the hill. They put their right foot on it, while remaining on their bike, and it takes them up the hill.
We didn't eat here, but I thought this floating restaurant patio was very cool
Next we visited the beautiful Nidaros Cathedral
The west front of the cathedral is very impressive, with the stained glass rose window and many statues.
Here is a picture that is actually from the next day, July 29, which was St. Olav's day - they put a wreath on his statue
This was our guide for our Cathedral tour.
Photos were not allowed inside, but here are a couple of pictures from the internet.
In the square of the Archbishops Palace next to the cathedral, was the historical market - tent booths and activities going on for St. Olav's Festival. We enjoyed walking around seeing it all.
They also had various craftspeople demonstrating different trades
Stained glass
Metal working
Stone carving
Making little pewter figurines
Various entertainers would perform here during the day - we especially enjoyed this music group.
We headed back to Bakklandet for lunch, at the Baklandet Skydsstation
It was a really cute place, and reminded me of a grandma's house
We tried the fish soup there, which was tomato based
After lunch, Mike and I decided to walk to the Ringve Museum, which was about a 45 minute walk each way. On the way we passed the Lade Church, which is such a charming little old Church.
The Ringve Museum is located on the estate of Christian and Victoria Bachke. They both had a love of music, and collected old instruments. Victoria opened the estate to the public as a museum in 1952, and after her death left it to Trondheim to continue operation of the museum, as she and her husband didn't have any children.
When I was looking up information about the museum to write this post, news stories came up that said there was a fire at the museum on Aug 3, a week after we were there. How incredibly sad! They said most of the instruments were able to be rescued. I hope the damage wasn't too bad. The manor house was beautiful inside.
We started out by doing the self tour of the exhibit in the barn
I loved these musical birds!
The exhibit in the barn consisted of many different musical instruments, including exhibits about the history of different kinds of music, and instruments from around the world.
Clarinet, Oboe and Bassoon from the 1800s
Hardanger Fiddle
Next, we had a guided tour through the manor house, in which many more musical instruments are displayed. Mike and I were the only ones signed up for the afternoon English tour, so we were able to ask lots of questions. The guides here have to be very musically talented, as they play several of the instruments throughout the tour to demonstrate them for the guests. Our guide also sang an old Norwegian song for us. This was such a neat tour - I loved it!
Photos were not allowed in the manor, so here is a picture of it from their website.
There is also a botanical garden on the estate, so we walked around that after our tour of the manor.
That evening we had our farewell dinner with our tour group at the hotel, and then took a group picture.
This is us with our tour director, Mari Anne. She was amazing!
And one for the random files - I am not quite sure what is up with this, but here is a giant vacuum that was across from our hotel.
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