In 1584, access to the Baltic Sea was mostly controlled by Sweden, so the Russian Czar, Ivan the Terrible, founded Archangel (or Arkangelsk) as Moscow’a almost sole link to the sea, even though the navigation season was limited to just seven ice-free months during spring and summer. When Peter the Great arrived a hundred years…
Continue reading →Russia is a land of contrasts. In the Solovetsky Islands, six islands in the forbidding waters of the White Sea, just 100 miles from the Arctic Circle, the Solovetsky Monastery was founded in the 15th century as one of Russia’s most famous and holy monasteries and became a major pilgrimage destination. Conversely, in the 20th…
Continue reading →Our dear friend, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, told us about her time stationed in Iceland, when they were occasionally on alert for Russian military planes flying out of Murmansk, Russia. The largest city north of the Arctic Circle, this port remains ice free year-round due to the warm North Atlantic drift ocean current…
Continue reading →The Midnight Sun, when day and night are blurred, is a bit unsettling for those not accustomed to it. There is no darkness from mid-May to mid-July. The sun never drops below the horizon, but hovers there for a couple of hours, then begins to rise again. This is midsummer at sea, above the Arctic…
Continue reading →We are packed…finally. Ready to leave for Copenhagen, the starting point for our cruise up the west coast of Norway, which has always held a special place in my heart. Norway is the homeland of my father’s ancestors. As young college coeds touring a summer in Europe, my sister and I were hosted on a…
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