We arrived in Trondheim at 06:00 in horizontal snow but it improved for our walkabout around 9:00 a.m. Very little is open at this time of day, but with the quiet streets come the opportunities to linger and really see what the buildings, for example, are all about. An example of this on the Bryggen, is a former grain warehouse, later purchased by a leather and hide producer, which eventually became a Trondheim landmark shoe shop for more than 100 years.
Thor Falkanger located his leather factory here to use the salt from the fishing industry to cure his hides. By means of inter marriage of Trondheim families, the shoe making industry became successful. In the companies shoe shop today was a book about its history. The Englishman had to purchase that.
The Bryggen is an early example of agglomeration where services and industries that rely upon each other are located together. The grain and the fish, for example, needed shipping and unloading and the leather manufacturer needed salt and ice, hence this waterside location.
It is thought that in 997 AD King Olav Tryggvason landed on a sandbank here and established his farm. For whatever reason Leifur Eiriksson visited the king before setting off to find what became known as America. Statues of this person are to be found on the waterfront and remind people of these epic adventures before Columbus.
The Nidarosdomen Cathedral is the largest medieval building, and the most northerly Gothic building in Europe.
We set sail at 11:55 and now, after dinner, are in the Norwegian Sea bound for Bergen.
