I went to Trondheim for the weekend, with a family gathering the main reason. I managed a few hours on my own, however, walking the streets of my youth in the fairly decent weather. Most of the shops and cafes are gone – I bought a pair of shoes at one of the few remaining old fashioned stores next to the fish market in Ravnkloa. 
Nostalgia aside, the town has become better in many ways. The city centre, which was dying out a few decades ago, does not have empty shop windows any longer. Despite the climate, it is much more bicycle friendly than Oslo. And they have made a lovely area out of the once very run down neighbourhood Bakklandet, just across the bridge from the centre.Here at Bakklandet you find the most interesting pub in town, Den gode nabo - The Good Neighbour. It started as a fairly humble place, but it has now expanded into the next door premises, so it can seat hundreds of guests. Lost of nooks and crannies, though, so you can have a private chat as well.
The Neighbour is located in one of the old wooden warehouses on the riverside; it is nice to see this part of the architectural heritage being used in such a way. And, for the smokers and for the rare sunny days, they even have a barge in the river where you can get fresh air with your beer. The menu is limited, you may have pizza and burgers, but there are also some selected dishes available from the more upmarket restaurant next door if you want something fancier.The beer list is very extensive for Norway, being far better than, say, Beer Palace in Oslo. They are experimenting with cask ale from Nøgne ø, and they have a wide selection of beers, both imported and from Norwegian micros. They have even had Nøgne ø ales on cask, which is truly a rarity in this country.
I had a very nice chat here with fellow beer blogger Anders, whom I have only met virtually before. We were also joined by his wife Magni for a while. Good beer and pleasant company. To a large extent we discussed strategy for how to modify the Norwegian legislation stopping micro breweries and pubs from listing their beers online. I will come back to that later.