January 1, 2011

---

New Year! Slept well and woke with one hangover between us (Yvonne). Slept a bit too well as we had missed a good two hours of the ship’s stay in Trondheim. However after a quick breakfast egg or two we set off in the wintery wastes of Trondheim docks to walk into town to see what we could see. Insofar as we had any specific objectives they were to find the place Cillian worked and lived 35 years ago and to see Nidaros cathedral. We achieved both of these which was just as well as Trondheim on New Year’s Day is as closed as a closed town can be.
Kjopmannsgate was Cilian’s old address and it was obligingly close to the docks so we found it easily enough. The houses that formed the site of the Trondheim excavations of the mid-1970s are long gone and replaced by a bank of all things but we found the space where the dig took place and the fire station and the library were still there. Everything covered with snow and it was really icy underfoot. The drop in the temperature from yesterday is really noticeable.
Back on the ship for yet another meal…..lots of crab and lobster legs and claws and then a quiet afternoon writing this and having a Long Island Iced Tea.
Actually it was not quiet because we were interrupted by a rescue helicopter arriving and hovering over the ship for half an hour while a man rapelled down and a sick passenger was put in a stretcher and winched up to the copter. It was bitterly cold and sleeting a bit so the impressive operation was even more impressive in the strong icy wind. The ship had one of its rougher passages across open sea but we were fine as it only lasted two hours or so.
Apart from writing this, eating dinner and reading a lot of our books there was little else to report on New Year’s day.

---