For this final post covering our day in the Norwegian city of Trondheim as part of our 2025 Ambassador Ambience cruise into the Arctic Circle I’ll mostly just share some of the sights as we headed back towards the port after a few enjoyable visits to Trondheim Art Museum then Nidaros Cathedral and nearby museums too. Sure, we’d already seen art and we’d already seen a fair bit of architecture but there would be more. A good thing we like them.
We passed a few distinct areas, architecturally, as we made our way towards the central public square of Trondheim, Torvet. Further out we’d come across more modern structures while the centre of the city favoured that more traditional Norwegian look with lots of exterior wood panelling in a range of colours. Always, though, you can see that the storeys in Norwegian buildings are quite high and there’s a strong leaning towards upright rectangular windows. If you’ve met many people from Norway then you’ll understand the reason for this: they’re not a short people.
We didn’t spend very long in Torvet, largely because of that persistent weird rain that I’ve mentioned previously. Just enough to be irritating, not enough to get you actually wet, although the ground seemed to maintain evidence of its presence.
There was a very puzzling but aesthetically-pleasing, squat cylinder prominent over a small raised area in the square. It looked like some brutalist hangover from the 1960s or 1970s during a secret communist takeover of Trondheim, but it’s far more modern – 2014 – and is actually a public stage with integrated functionality, a light system in its wonderful canopy, and a delight for the eyes. The backdrop of a McDonalds and a crane, perhaps somewhat less so.
Torvet also contained a tall monument featuring an obelisk, atop which stood a sculpture of Olav Tryggvason, king of Norway from 995 to 1000 C.E. and founder of the city. More interestingly, although I didn’t spot it at the time and so didn’t photograph it, around the base of the obelisk there is a sundial marked out allowing the shadow of the monument to act as a timepiece, although only during the winter months due to its calibration, and therefore only when there’s less sun around.
“Let us raise a monument to the city’s founder that will also be functional, Sven.”
“What a wonderful idea, Eivind. How functional should it be?”
“Not terribly.”
Because of the weather and because we had a destination in mind as we were walking and because we’d not spotted it on the maps before visiting Trondheim and because the maps didn’t really make a big deal of it while we were in Trondheim… deep breath… we failed to realise that there was a place just off the square that would have been of interest to us if we’d known about it. It’s the wooden building below and it’s called Stiftsgården, the official royal residence in Trondheim, and one of the largest wooden buildings in Scandinavia. However, all that being said, the building wouldn’t have been open during our visit to the city – it has a small viewing window in summer – and there’s no photography allowed inside which is the sort of thing that puts me right off places like this. However, should we return to Trondheim in the warmer part of the year then it’s a possibility.
The destination we’d had in mind, coming as no surprise at all to people who know us or who’ve read any of our other visits to places around the world, was a craft ale bar, and in this case it was Habitat. The place was a little sterile in terms of decor and atmosphere but we’ve come to expect that in northern Europe. For cold climates they don’t really embrace cosiness at all. The beer was varied enough and good enough to warrant us staying for three pints each, although that not-quite-drizzle weather certainly helped to persuade us to remain inside too. However, the actual dampener on the occasion was the overall genuinely unfriendly attitude of the staff. A very disappointing surprise as we tend to try to be friendly, ask about the beers, get any recommendations, that sort of thing. No, not here. It felt like we were intruding on the practically empty place. Perhaps they don’t like tourists, and perhaps it was just one of those days. We are due to return to Trondheim in both 2027 and 2028 so we’ll likely give them another chance to not make us feel quite so unwelcome because, after all, craft ales are craft ales.
The river Nidelva runs through Trondheim and there are a few canals off it, one of which we needed to cross to reach the port and bring us in sight of Ambience.
There were a few interesting public art pieces down by the cruise port area of Trondheim. I’m pretty sure the shoes and socks weren’t part of this cultural experience, and I don’t want to think too hard about the implications of just finding them beside a bridge over the water too much. The yellow structure, though, is called What Does The Fjord Say? and it’s a 2015 piece by Stale Sorensen. You can step inside and listen to the sounds of the wind as it’s picked up by the listening horns although we didn’t realise that so didn’t find out for ourselves. Next time. There’s always a next time.
Ørekonkylie is a piece by Ole Rosén and Mari Røysamb and it’s similar in a way to the yellow submarine-inspired artwork nearby with its theme of listening to the sea.
One of the last buildings we passed before getting back aboard our ship was Rockheim, a museum dedicated to Norwegian music. This had been a place on our radar if the weather was too bad to really give Trondheim a good explore simply because it was close to the port and would be something to say we’d been ashore and checked out Norwegian culture. We didn’t visit it on this trip. We might see what it’s like on a future trip to the city but we’re not huge music fans anyway, and that goes doubly so for that of foreign countries. If music is your thing, however, then this looks to be a very convenient tourist option about a minute from your ship if you’re cruising to this part of Norway.
And that wraps up our first time in Trondheim. Museums, a cathedral, some weird rain that never quite got us wet, and craft ale in an unfriendly bar. We liked that it was a pretty flat city so with two more planned trips to Trondheim over the next couple of years we’d like to explore a little more; there’s an old bridge, a small hill, a fortress, and former Nazi submarine bases that we had already earmarked as options for this visit and I’m sure we can find more.
Back on Ambience it was back to the regular relaxation routine of enjoying the sailaway and enjoying some food, drink, and entertainment aboard.
The next post in this series will be a very brief one as it’s a day spent at sea, one highlight of this chance to rest and read being the first sighting of properly snowy mountains in the distance.