Local Festivals

Two festivals started this week in Trondheim. The first is the largest and it is called St Olav's Festival. It honors St. Olav who was a Norwegian king and the Patron Saint of Norway. The festival is centered around Nidaros Cathedral here in town which is also the northernmost Gothic cathedral. Interestingly people complete religious pilgrimages here to the cathedral during this week to honor St Olav. The festival itself is focused on medieval times so there is jousting and things like that. I checked out the medieval market and just wandered a bit which was nice since the weather was cooperating.

Nidaros Cathedral

West Facade of Nidaros - the wreath is around St James the Patron Saint of Pilgrims

Headstone in the Cathedral graveyard....very traditional names!

Stone carving demonstration in the Medieval Market

At the same time was the Trondelog Food Festival. It is about 2 blocks worth of tents selling various food products and in many tents you can taste things. It is interesting but not great since it tends to be crowded and Norwegians aren't really "courteous". Most of the food is centered around smoked sausages, cheese, breads, fish and vegetables. Some things are really strange or come from one farm. Others are things (and brands) I can get at the supermarket. It was a nice day in the Norwegian sunshine!

Dried Cod

In other news- we have 27 days left in Norway. We had two sweet friends help us post an internet ad to sell our car today (after we feed them migas and breakfast potatoes for brunch- yumm!) and we already have someone coming to look at it tonight! We also think we have a home for our all dogs beds -to a man with 5 rottweilers! And we were also able to sell our ski's and a few other things to some friends at a good price. Things are starting to come together!