All down the broken coast

The ferry left at 10am and so, using the no information they provide on their website, I walked out of my hotel and in the direction of the huge ships. Given that the ships are enormous and Trondheim is not that big, it's probably fair that they provide no indication of where you should board the ferry. Once I reached the pier it became clear pretty quickly.

Once aboard I disinfected my hands (they had a thing about that), stowed my stuff in my cabin and went outside to get some photos.

A Trondheim raven hanging out on the ship's bow. I thought it augured well.

For all their talk of 'partial to no view,' the cabin was pretty good; spacious and comfortable. I was as far aft as could be and there was a bit of engine noise, but I didn't plan to spend a lot of time inside.

The advantage to booking late and being stuck with the expensive cabins.

The ferry itself is a working boat and takes cargo and people along the coast of Norway, in and out of the numerous fjords. Trondheim was a long stop-over, and a number of passengers took the opportunity to get off and look around.

For me the ferry finally offered an excellent shot of the Lade peninsular. For those of you playing along at home, one of the major characters in the novel I've written is the Jarl of Lade.

This is Lade

My objective was to get some really great fjord photos on the trip. Turns out fjords are freaking huge, and while they are beautiful to travel through they are impossible to effectively photograph from or close to the water level.

So most shareable photos come from towns, like this one in Molde

Any time the ship stopped we were invited to step off and have a look around.

Thanks for the photo, random German nona!

Those parts of the country were all glacially formed. The mountain ranges are ongoing, continuing even into the sea. They pop up as islands all along the coast, or sit just below the water's surface. The ferries have to stay to very specific routes, or risk tearing open on the underwater ranges.

The landscape was breathtaking; towns and farms built onto thin strips of land between ocean and mountains. An American passenger quipped, "they must be very concerned about global warming."

The price of natural gas is what they're worried about.

"And erosion," I said.

"I think all this is pretty stable," he said, nodding to the mountains.  "But when it goes, it goes big."

Some things I saw while running in Trondheim

The river Nidelva

The Nidaros Cathedral across the river

I followed the river, as there are paths most of the way along both sides

Munkholmen; where I'm going now

A change of scenery

"This will be my first night train," I said to Bjorn, who was sharing my cabin.
"That's strange," he said. "Why?"
"We don't have them in Australia."
"Oh, I see. I've been making this trip now maybe thirty, maybe forty times. It has become very boring. Where are you going?"
"Trondheim."
He whistled. "Long trip. Been to Norway before?"
"No,"
"You will like it, I think."

Sweden from the train window. Very pretty.

We reached his stop a little after five in the morning. I spent the rest of the trip to Storlien snoozing and taking photos from the window of the train. The landscape did not change much as we travelled; nice houses on the edge of lakes and rivers, all very flat.

Lots of trees, also

Storlien itself was deserted; a ski town closed for the summer. The train to Trondheim took us to the border. The change was stunning.

Norway: not so flat

My supervisor had told me that the trip down the fjord into Trondheim was one of the best train journeys he had ever taken. It was easy to see why. The train followed a fast-flowing stream all the way down to the fjord. Mountains rose and fell away on either side. Small communities were built into the pockets of flat land against the slopes, between the water and the stone.

I hadn't slept well on the train and crashed a little when I reached the city. But the sun stayed up a long time, so there was still opportunity to explore.

This photo was taken just after 9pm

I found a lovely spot for dinner and tried a local specialty; fish soup.

It tasted exactly as good as it looks.