Touring Trondheim (Pronounced Tronime), Norway — September 2, 2026
We woke to heavy rain and resigned ourselves to a messy day, but Mother Nature changed her mind and we never got wet…there was not one drop of rain the entire time we were ashore!
We chose a Holland America tour — Trondheim on Foot and by Traditional Wooden Boat, and enjoyed both aspects of the tour. My only complaint would be that we had a few too many people (24) on the tour to always hear clearly, but our guide did a great job of waiting for the group to gather before he started his explanations. I did notice the same people always had to be first — closest to the guide, first to get on the wooden boat — you know the type. We did encounter the “firsties” several times during the trip, but I’ll share more about that later.
The walking part of the tour was first, and our guide met us on the pier just outside the secure area. No buses or vans needed! Trondheim is a beautiful university town, so in some ways (bikes and scooters) we felt right at home, and in others (scenery) we knew we were far away.
Our walk took us down St. Jørgensveita in a very old part of town, to Nidaros Cathedral, and on Gamle Bybro (Old Town Bridge) from which we could see the historic wooden buildings lining the Nidelva River. The colorful buildings were once warehouses and are now mostly housing.
We walked through Torvet, Trondheim’s main square, and admired Stiftsgården – Trondheim’s royal residence from the gardens outside. We were not able to get into the palace because the season was only from June 9-August 16, but because of the death of King Harald it probably would have been closed regardless. We were also not able to enter Nidaros Cathedral when we visited as it was open only to mourners wishing to pay their respects.
A short walk from Stiftsgården brought us to the dock where we boarded the wooden boats for the Nidelva River tour of Trondheim from the water. This was relaxing and enjoyable. At the end of the tour our boat dropped us off right at the ship!
A couple souvenirs and a great Norwegian raincoat later we were back on board relaxing and enjoying the abundant sunshine. Interestingly enough, while we were enjoying the sunshine and views, my phone told me it was raining. We really got lucky. Although there were rain showers all around during our visit, they were all somewhere we were not!
We had a beautiful sail out with rain showers around but not on us, and we went to bed early looking forward to a sea day, a “Behind the Scenes” ship tour, and a Pinnacle Grill dinner on Thursday.
