The snow-covered land of the Vikings

Getting to the land of the Vikings was rather traumatic as we had to leave Jerusalem at 2am in oder to get a bus to Tel Aviv and have enough time to get through Israeli security to get our early morning flight to Norway. It was truly awful and by the time we got to Trondheim via Vienna and Oslo we were both fairly tired and in my case rather fragile. I beeped throught the security gate at Oslo which is odd as I hadn't had a peep through the many previous security gates and instead of going through it again, I got the full body frisk by a young security guy. Normally I probably would have been rather amused but with little sleep it rather shocked me I must say and they also confiscated our duty free alcohol so we were pretty grouchy about Norway when we finally got to bed in Trondheim.

However the view of the snow-covered landscape was so quaint in the morning and the hotel buffet so good, that I was soon restored to full strength and was itching to go outside and play in the snow. It was great fun although the layers of coats, hats, scarves and gloves takes a little bit of getting used to. Trondheim is a very pretty town on the mouth of the river Nid and at present looks just like a Christmas card scene but obviously without baby Jesus and the stable. It is famous for having the most northerly cathedral in the world which is also a pilgrims destination due to the matrydom here of St Olav, who tried to introduce Christianity in the 11th century. He had a lot of trouble as most people preferred to continue their drinking and toasts to the God Thor. Who can blame them in this climate?

We are very lucky to have a private organ recital in the beautiful cathedral later that night and a most interesting talk by the female acting Dean of the Cathedral. The organ is one of the earliest Baroque insruments still in use in Europe and it is very moving to hear Bach's famous toccata and fugue for the organ played here. However it is quite terrifying making our way back to the hotel along all the slippery,icy roads and I'm glad my feet are in better working order than they were last year. The conference is full of famous eccologists and it is a treat to meet so many interesting people.

Trondheim has lots of colourful restored buildings and some lovely shops but as everything is precisely twice the price of things at home it is a little depressing. So I use the chance to catch up on my writing and my studies on Ancient Greek and go only to the supermarket for food instead of to expensive cafes. See I can be frugal! Luckily our hotel is a groovy modern building built over the river with a wonderful view of the town from our window so it is quite nice to be all snug and warm, drink hot chocolate and watch the snow falling outside. Rather different from Israel and certainly different from home.