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Where am I?:^mistymornings-->Cycletouring-->2008-->Norway.-->Day 24

Day 24-1. Trondheim to Græsli.

Distance D 102.11 km Max 58.0 km/h Time 7.13:11 Average 13.8 km/h
Distance S 102.6 km Max 55.0 km/h Time 6.50:23 Average 15.0 km/h

The day started bright and early, by eight we were up and about getting ready for breakfast. We'd had an excellent night's sleep in our second room and were raring to go. Looking out of the window we could see that we were going to start cycling in glorious sunshine. More importantly, today we were going to start our tour down National Cycle Route 9 which was rather exciting.

It took us until ten to get ourselves out into the car park putting our bags on our bikes. We'd started the day with a relaxed shower and breakfast in the main cantine before returning to our room to pack up. Our stay at the youth hostel had turned out fine. It was nice to stay within walking distance of the centre of town and have a safe place to put our bikes. The staff were pleasant and efficient and the facilities were all good. We left with clean clothes and refreshed from our stay.

We realised that the first part of the day, navigating out of the town, would probably require a bit of patience. We had sussed out the day before that we'd need to follow signs to Dragvoll and had found a sign in the centre of town. We hoped that the signs would continue once we'd left the built up area of Trondheim. Although this meant losing height we decided that this was preferable to a half hour getting lost in the pleasant leafy Trondheim suburbs.

A quarter of an hour later we were on our way first plummeting down hill from the Youth Hostel towards the Nidelva. We cycled through the cobbled streets of Møllenberg, past the cycle lift and the Gamle Bybro, towards our first sign. We were a little cold after the short descent but started warming up quickly as we turned left at the sign and started the first climb of the day. Those leafy suburbs looked lovely in the summer sun and the signs turned out to be quite good and clear. It was clear that the citizens of Trondheim liked their cars as we passed first a 1950's American stock car racer and then found a lovely clean split screen VW panel van, apparently still in use by a local paint shop.

The cycling, so far, wasn't strenuous and we made our way slowly but surely out of town. There wasn't much in the way of traffic which, when combined with the good cycle route signs made the start of our day easier than we'd expected. Three quarters of an hour after we'd started the landscape flattened out and we realised we were out of the suburbs and cycling through farmland.

As a child, Damae had spent many hours at the 4H club in Powell River, learning all sorts of skills that would have helped pioneer wives to keep their family clothed and fed. A little to our surprise we noticed a large farmhouse with a sign outside saying 'Voll 4H farm' and other things. We had a laugh and carried on our way. The views down towards the Trondheimfjord were just lovely reminding us a little of Sweden (on the Ginstleden) and Denmark and reminding me of middle England.

We hit our first navigation hiatus at this point. The road started descending a little and we weren't sure if the signs in the distance pointed us in the direction of Dragvoll or not. I took out my camera and took a picture of the sign on full zoom. It was just possible to make out the words, so another good reason to by a posh camera with a 20x optical zoom. Instead of going straight on we took a right turn a bit earlier. Although this had its own sign it was not visible until we got closer.

This cycle path took us up to a big junction with lots of modern buildings. It turned out to be an out of town campus, part of Trondheim university with blocks of student flats. We dithered here again for a few minutes, and managed to get a bit in the way of some commuters on mountain bikes travelling downhill at some speed. We probably added to the excitement although I got the impression they'd have preferred a peaceful cycle to work.

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