The traditional Christmas scene that you see on cards, snow-globes and chocolate tins is that of powder-white pine trees, family gatherings and plenty of food and drink. Christmas 2012 will be etched in our festive memories as our first White Christmas and proper Northern Hemisphere celebration in the land of the Vikings - Trondheim, Norway. On this trip we stayed with Michelle and Marius, met our extended family, ate traditional food (including brown cheese and reindeer) and relaxed indoors next to a real pine Christmas tree whilst temperatures outside fell to -15 degrees Celsius.
Travelling to Trondheim
Our trip started off with a 3am wake up for a 6am KLM flight via Amsterdam. Breakfast was eaten at the airport, grabbing a quick coffee at Costa that unfortunately had some queasy side effects for Mei. Due to delays at the Heathrow runway, we reached the first stopover 30 minutes behind schedule. Thoughtlessly, we decided to stock up on bottled water not realising that we would need to clear security for a second time before the departure gate and the water went straight to the bin
Arrival via KLM sprinter service
Flight scenery
The flight into Trondheim was slightly bumpy with turbulence on the approach to the runway. However the scenery was a stunning white landscape with long fjords and pretty coloured timber houses on the hills. We landed in the early afternoon and waited by the conveyor belt for the arrival of our luggage - an unusual activity for us as we normally travel with only carry-on baggage
Snow covered Trondheim
Where are our bags?
After a wait of about 20 minutes we began to realise (along with a dozen other travellers) that no more luggage was being dispensed onto the belt. We then joined a long queue at the lost bags counter and luckily both Marius and Michelle had arrived. This made it easier to file the report and request an update in Norwegian. As it turned out, this was perhaps the best trip for us to have our bags lost as we were staying with family. KLM's hub flight model where 'sprinter' planes come/go from Amsterdam must experience many occurrences of lost luggage per week, as their process for online tracking the bags, mobile phone updates, home delivery services and complaint updates via Twitter is quite impressive. As it turned out, our bags never made it onto the flight to Trondheim and would be delivered on the next flight out of Amsterdam the following day.
Solsiden Shopping Centre
To pass time (and to buy a new set of toiletries), we stopped over at Solsiden (a local shopping centre) for a light lunch of pizza and watched the sun set at 2pm. Trondheim, located in the north of the country has a population of about 179,000 people, is the former capital and third largest city of Norway, dating back to 977AD as a trading post during the Viking era.
The harbour in Trondheim
A photo with the setting sun at 2pm
Olie very amused by the speed hump sign
Rudolph in the cooking potAfterwards we headed back to the house where Marius and Michelle had planned out a Norwegian gastronomic experience. That night we ate reindeer meat - Olie feeling a little apprehensive in eating red-nosed Rudolph's relative so close to Christmas time. The meal was accompanied by Christmas beer and afterwards we decorated a real pine tree - that happily dropped its needles all over the wooden floor. Norwegian pines are famous for their iconic Christmas Trees - one is donated every year for use in Trafalgar Square as a thank you present to the UK for their support during World War II.
Rudolph's relative being cooked
Tasty dinner
Helping to decorate the blueberry cake
Decorating the tree is such hard work!
Breakfast Time
The next day we received the good news that our bags had arrived and also that Michelle had cooked one of Olie's favourite meals - egg, rice and soy sauce. Each morning, we were lucky to try out new Norwegian foods like brown cheese, different types of local bread, gravlax (cured salmon) and mackerel with tomato that came in a toothpaste like tube.
Not traditional Norwegian food - fried egg, soy sauce and rice
Meeting the extended family
After collecting our bags at the airport, a refreshing shower and afternoon tea with Marius's parents (Christine and Fin), we headed to Steinkjer for dinner with Marius's sister's family - Hella, Eric, Mathius, Leya and Tonja.
Where did the sun go?
Testing out our snow boots
Afternoon tea
Fun in the Snow
The dinner included the festive meal of pinnekjøtt (stick meat - smoked lamb ribs accompanied with Norwegian pork sausage and mashed root vegetables). After dinner, we had some fun in the snow, using the drive-way as a toboggan run. Borrowing some snow overalls (it was -15 degrees), Olie raced with the kids while Michelle and Mei kept a lookout for motorists.
Dressed up for some outdoor fun
in -15 degree weather
Flying down the drive way
The snow bank makes a good landing spot
Watching out for cars coming up the drive way
Sightseeing in Trondheim
Day 3 was spent with some sightseeing around town, where we visited the local skii jump, explored the town centre, an old fort and walked around the Trondheim cathedral. Unfortunately a lot of shops were closed for the Christmas period as the cold weather made staying indoors a lot more appealing.
The ski-jump
Time for a nap, such hard work climbing up this structure
No one volunteering to have a go
Royal residence - Stiftsgarden
The world famous Norwegian pine
Christmas Eve
As it was Christmas Eve, it was important to dress up the tree and ourselves for the occasion. For dinner we were treated with roast pork with cloud berry sauce.
Our chef at work
Christmas dinner
Christmas presents from Australia
A real pine Christmas Tree
Our first white Christmas
First Attempt Skiing
Day 4, we headed to a nearby frozen lake where we tried out cross country skiing (a lot harder than it looks) and tobogganed down the hill with video footage showing Mei narrowly missing a collision with a kid walking back up. Dinner was the traditional meal of sod - fine meatballs with potatoes and carrots. Supper, much to Marius's amusement, was the left-over pork smothered in Nandos hot sauce. We entertained ourselves with re-runs of QI and Trivial Pursuit.
Visiting a local fort
Trying out cross country skiing
Sunset
Video of Mei tobogganing at the frozen lake.
Tasty sod
Trondheim Cathedral
Day 5, we headed back into town and walked inside the cathedral as it was less busy than pre-Christmas. The streets were still lined with snow, although for the entire time we had been in Trondheim, no new snow had fallen. After the tour, we headed back home to watch Chelsea FC play (the football team followed by Olie and Marius) and ate rainbow trout with sour cream and potatoes.
In the town centre
Trondheim Cathedral
Goodbye Trondheim
After a relaxing week of great hospitality, our last day was upon us. After saying goodbye to our hosts, we ended up hanging around on the plane for an additional hour as our flight was delayed due to the adverse weather conditions - it finally decided to snow.
Luckily for us, the Scandinavian countries are well equipped to deal with these situations (take note London Heathrow), with the pilot offering the option of take-off sans luggage to make the plane lighter (just our luck) before re-calculations were made about the thickness of the ice and grip on the tyres. Soon after we were on our way to the edge of the runway, de-iced with clinical precision by a pair of trucks bearing the words 'Ice Busters'.
We arrived back in Amsterdam with only 5 minutes to spare after the cut off point for the connecting flight back to London. This of course made us nervous again about the luggage situation, but thankfully both aircrafts were stationed at the same terminal and handlers had a distance of 20m to transfer our bags, all of which made it back to London as planned.
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The traditional Christmas scene that you see on cards, snow-globes and chocolate tins is that of powder-white pine trees, family gatherings and plenty of food and drink. Christmas 2012 will be etched in our festive memories as our first White Christmas and proper Northern Hemisphere celebration in the land of the Vikings - Trondheim, Norway. On this trip we stayed with Michelle and Marius, met our extended family, ate traditional food (including brown cheese and reindeer) and relaxed indoors next to a real pine Christmas tree whilst temperatures outside fell to -15 degrees Celsius.
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