A Norwegian Christmas is filled with many celebrations and traditions, old and new. As the snow falls, the white landscape is the first sign of Christmas and Norway starts to prepare for their long season of juletid.
November
As the snow comes, Norway enters the Christmas season early with a series of Christmas parties. Work, clubs, schools [...]

Towards the water in a beautiful pocket of leafy oak trees is the Byneset Church.

During excavation work on the site of the new public library in Trondheim, archaeologists found the ruins of what is thought to be Olavskirken (Olav’s Church), a church dating back to the mid-12th century.  Olav was a Viking who went to England and was converted to Christianity.  He returned to Norway to convert the heathen, [...]

Luciadagen (Saint Lucia Day) is on the 13th of December. It is traditionally a feast day from the Calendar of Saints which comes from the early Christian custom of commemorating martyrs on the anniversary of their death (or birth into heaven). Even though Norway recognises the other feast days in the Catholic Church, only St [...]

Nidarosdomen – Nidaros Cathedral
Nidaros Cathedral is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Norway. It boasts a textured Medieval history that began with the adventures of St Olav, the fierce Viking who was converted to Christianity and became King of Norway. The Cathedral has been under construction from the early ten hundreds and was [...]

Mefjordvær is a little fishing village on north-west Senja. It boasts a panoramic view of a mountain wall that plunges into the ocean. Mefjordvær has medieval church history and wooden artefacts that resemble St Olav which are kept at Oslo University.
Ten points if you can guess what the poles are for!
Updated 18/11/08
Good try!  (I would [...]

From the west, a wall of stone Saints and Prophets will confront you. All sides of the Cathedral are very textured and deserve a long walk around. You’ll see gargoyles and gothic arches, thick wooden doors with rusty floral art and Anglo-Norman/Romanesque bits and pieces ’stuck on’ that intensifies your ground view. However, the outside of Nidaros Cathedral is even more intriguing when you know the history.

Nidarosdomen (Nidaros Cathedral) stands tall and proud near the mouth of the Nidelva river in Trondheim, Norway. It owes its name to Trondheim’s medieval town which was called after the river: ‘Nid’ and ‘os’ (meaning river mouth). Nidarosdomen has all the stats to impress (biggest this, oldest that, and most ‘northernest’) but that is not [...]