Trip to Trondheim

Finally we’re getting a few nice summer days.  Saturday (the 14^th of August) I drove to Mosjøen and took the train to Trondheim.  I saw a part of Nordland and Nord-Trøndelag that I hadn’t seen before.  About 50 or 60 miles from Trondheim I began to see fields of golden barley.  It hadn’t occurred to me before that barley can’t grow so far north in Nordland.

I had to laugh at myself: as the train was coming into Trondheim I thought, O wow, Trondheim is such a big city.  I’ve been in Sandnessjøen too long.  I need to get out about once every 4-6 weeks.

Sunday morning I went to Ilen Church (busman’s holiday).  The organ there is from the 1880’s and is the model on which the organ is Sandnessjøen is built.  The only difference is that the acoustics in Ilen are much better.  I met Øyvind Kåre after church and we went to Hospital Church to see the 1841 Albrechtsen organ, recently restored.  Unfortunately the humid weather wreaked havoc with windchests and there were constant ciphers.  We then went to Hoeggen Church to see a modern replica of a small French choir organ.  Very beautiful.  From there we went back to the center of Trondheim, picked up John Mosand (who recently lost his wife, Gayle), and went to a restaurant called Tavern near Sverres Borg.

Monday morning I did a bit a shopping and caught the 4pm train back to Mosjøen.  The road between Mosjøen and Sandnessjøen is very narrow in places.  It’s only about 60 km in distance but you can’t drive fast on hairpin-curved roads.

The weather is still very nice.  On Wednesday it got up to about 80 F.  You could certainly tell who hadn’t used deodorant.  On Saturday I took a hike up to Åsen – The Ridge which divides Sandnessjøen into the sea side and the mountain side.  (Sandnes, the name of the settlement on the mountain side, goes way back to the Viking Age.  Sjøen or sea, is where the fishermen lived.  When the two communities grew together the area was renamed Sandnessjøen).   The views from “The Ridge” are spectacular.

I woke to rain on Sunday morning.  But it didn’t really matter.  It stopped about noon.  Two services: one at 11 and one at 4 on the island of Austbø.  Attendance at the 11 am service in Sandnessjøen was about 50.  Three people came to the service on Austbø.  Wherever two or three are gathered together….

Sunrise on 22 August is at 5:10 am, sunset at 9:15.  It’s now completely dark at night.  I hope to see the northern lights soon.