Chapter 8: Trondheim
For the neighborhood, it's a BIG CITY
07.26.2023 - 07.26.2023 70 °F
View Fjords on paulej4's travel map.
Chapter 8: Trondheim
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Around 200,000 people live here in Norway’s third largest municipality, a picturesque city located midway up the coast of this very long, spoon-shaped country at the mouth of a 78-mile-long fjord. Norway’s King Harald V and Queen Sonja stay at their 18th-century palace when here even though it is built of wood rather than more traditional palace-building material. Speaking of kings, it was King Olav Tryggvason who settled this place in the year 997. Today it thrives as a university town, home to three institutions of higher learning, and has been called a place that is “almost as fun as Oslo.”
What I don't know is if they ride around in any of the many Tesla Taxis I found here.
The river Nidelva forms an “S” shape as it makes its way through town, particularly inviting near the cobblestones of the Bakklandet neighborhood, a three-hundred year old area full of cafes and private homes. From here one gets the best angle of the multi-colored wharves across the water. On a morning walk, about two miles from our ship, I came across the red bridge called Lykkens Portal—translated loosely as the gate of happiness. A bit farther down the road, the city becomes more and more interesting. The food scene here is said to be amazing but, as cruise passengers, we fail to obtain first-hand knowledge of that. I suppose that is the primary drawback to "seeing the world" from a cruise ship: you don't get a chance to taste it that way. One docks before breakfast but there are ample breakfast opportunities--all included in the fare--aboard ship. Most excursions are timed to either return to the ship in time for lunch--included in the fare--or timed to depart after you've had your midday meal aboard. And, with precious few exceptions, you depart before dinner and cruise overnight to the next port.
If there is a Michelin starred restaurant in the port you visited, you would never know it. Speaking of restaurants, after being told over and over and over that no reservations could be had at Silver Dawn's premier extra-cost fine-dining restaurant, La Dame, and after applying pressure to whomever would listen to secure a reservation, our butler, Blaise, was finally able to convince someone to allow us the privilege of dining there last night. Our coveted 7:00pm slot would, I was certain, deliver us to the least desirable table but, no matter, we got in and could see what all the culinary fuss was about.
When we arrived, right on time, there was one other party seated at a window table. The rest of the restaurant was empty. The Maître d'hôtel greeted us warmly and said we could choose any table in the restaurant. Pleased and surprised, we grabbed a window table farthest from an eight-top that I knew, once occupied, would be noisy. Such is the case with large parties as someone on one end of the table must raise their voice to be heard by someone at the other end. Our view was very nice.
At 7:30, one other two top was taken as was a six top. At 8:00, the large party arrived for the eight top and actually spilled over to become a group of 14. A pair of four-tops filled. By 8:30, it became clear to us that the room was not going to fill. When we left at 9:15, one six-top, one four-top and one two-top had never been occupied. The amazing thing about this is that we, along with others we spoke with, clamored for reservations and were told, "La Dame is sold out; no tables are available." I know that back home, many restaurants have opted to not fill all their tables because of a lack of staff--both in the front of the house and the back of the house. That is surely not the case here. Silver Dawn is overflowing with staff. I am unable to figure out what they are doing but I intend to inquire to sate my curiosity if nothing else. Trust me, Paul in his charming way, made it very clear to the powers that be that the reservation situation was not consistent to the standard expected on a 6 star line.
Our next cruise, by the way, for those interested in that sort of thing, is really two back-to-back sailings aboard the Cunard Queen Elizabeth, both of them departing from and arriving at Barcelona. The first week is September 18-25 to Naples, Rome, Ajaccio, Corsica, France and Palma de Mallorca, Spain has a few cabins left. The second week, September 25-October 2 to Nice (Villefranche), France, Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy, Ibiza, Spain and Valencia, Spain, is sold out. We will have no dining problems there as were a splurging on Queen's Grille accommodations which offer premium dining nightly. Cunard is very different from Silver Sea as it is sublimely British with many formal nights for tuxedo-wearing along with high tea every afternoon, an orchestra for ballroom dancing and much more. Paul doesn't know it yet but we're going to take a dancing lesson or two aboard ship! The Queen Elizabeth is also four times larger than the Silver Dawn, holding 2,116 passengers when full. That means there is lots more to do and the quality of the entertainers, lecturers, etc., will be greater. As a side note, to those who think, "Oh, 2,116 passengers; that's a lot of people," I would counter with the fact that all these ships have virtually the same amount of square feet per passenger and a similar ratio of crew to passengers.
Tonight we are invited to the Silversea Loyalty Program Venetian Society cocktail party with the captain at 6:45. Then, we are invited to dine with the Future Cruise Manager, Nicole App at La Terrazza at 7:30. I thought it would be similar to attending a time share sales pitch. But it wasn't at all--just great conversation with Nicole, the Guest Services Manager and a lovely couple from the north of Ireland. After that, the ship's jazz pianist entertained at Silver Note and after that we descended on Dolce Vita to have another 90 minutes of fun with Mark, the 'pop' pianist, wrapping up around 11:00. We have to get up early tomorrow--a first for us on this trip.
We had fun in the 70's; now were having fun in our seventies. Who'd a thunk it?
