Raw beauty, extreme seasons, luminous summer night skies, dancing northern lights, and snow-capped mountains has, for centuries, drawn explorers, adventurers, royalty, and the curious to the northernmost tip of Europe. Standing atop the mysterious North Cape, the gusty winds, lingering fog and rain, and icy water are all that lie between this 1,000 foot-high steep…
Continue reading →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 →Hammerfest, Norway claims to be the northernmost city in the world, although the title is disputed by the same country’s city of Honningsvag. I think the validity of the claim depends on the definition of a city, which by Norwegian law requires a population of 5,000 to achieve town status. Though Hammerfest qualifies, to most,…
Continue reading →In Norway, it is said the locals believe that “Without Trondheim, all that would be left of the history book of Norway is the cover.” My longtime, dear friend once gave me a book she thought I would enjoy about medieval history set around the Trondheim region. It has since become, arguably, my favorite novel….
Continue reading →I was back in Norway again, seeing it from the sea this time, with many more years and experiences from which to renew my impressions of the “North Road”, as it’s name translates. It was an overcast and cool morning when we arrived at our first port, the Norwegian city of Ålesund, which means “urban…
Continue reading →The airlines held us hostage. Then, they tossed us around, and threw us out in Copenhagen, exactly one day late. But when we finally arrived, a little beat up, the city was surprisingly sunny and warm…actually unseasonably hot. We were now down to just a half day to see the sights before we boarded our…
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