June 19, 2025 I am back in Helsinki after a long travel day and ready to explore the city. My friends from the Ireland and Scotland trip, Kim and Ernie have joined me for the second part of this trip. They are fun adventurers so this should be an epic adventure. We headed out walking …
Arctic Circle – Spring Hiking
June 18, 2025 The day started in Alkhomeet a mountain in Northern isford National Park. The tundra is home to birds and reindeers. We went for a hike in the mushy tundra filled with small streams from the melting snow. It was awesome getting boots on the ground but the tundra was challenging as the …
Arctic Circle – Bears, Walruses and Beluga’s …Oh my!!!!
June 16, 2025 What started out as a dreary day turned into a spectacular day!! The seas were rough so we had to pivot from the original plan and went to a more sheltered site for our Zodiac cruise. We we headed out the wind was blowing and it was raining but in just a …
Arctic Circle – Walruses
June 15, 2025 In my haste to post the previous post I forgot to mention the pictures of the polar plunge. This is a rite of passage for polar explorers where they jump from the ship into the fringed water. 72 of the 140 passengers chose the do this while the rest of us decided …
Norway – Texas Bar
June 13, 2025 Another beautiful sunny day with calm seas. We have been so blessed with great weather!! A hike to Texas Bar was the adventure for the morning. We hike for several miles in the melting snow and ended up at an explorers cabin that he named the Texas Bar. It was interesting to …
Norway – Birds and Bears
June 13, 20025 It’s a sunny day and the sea is calm as we head off on a zodiac cruise of Alkefjellt ( Mount Guillemott) which is the nesting location for 200,000 breading pairs of Brunnich guillemots, The sight and sound of that many birds flying overhead, swimming in the water and perched on tiny …
Norway – All about the Bears
June 12, 2025 We are in Chemideoya a small island just 500 miles from the North Pole. Our adventure today puts boots on the ground to search for polar bears. After a zodiac ride from the ship to the shore and a scary landing at the beach where we had to climb on wet rocks …
Norway – Kayaking and Glaciers
June 11, 2025 Today the adventure begins!! We have arrived at our first exploration spot Lillhookfjorded. It is a 14-kilometer long ford branch of Kossfjorden. The glacier is the largest glacier of northwestern Spitsbergen. Suffice it to say that the important part is we are sitting in brash ice with a spectacular glacier in front …
Norway – Longyearbyen
June 10, 2025 Today is a travel day as we travel from Helsinki to Longyearbyen Norway. Longyearbyen is 78 degrees north so almost to the North Pole!! It is home to 2,400 people and 3000 snowmobiles!!! It is the administrative capital of Svalbard and is situated on the southern side of Adventfjorden. The settlement was …
Finland – Helsinki Reindeer Farm
June 9,2025 The travel to Finland was one of the most challenging that I have experienced. What was suppose to be 18 hours ended up being over 30 hours. But as I was approaching Helsinki a beautiful sunset greeted me even though it was midnight!!! After a couple of hours of sleep i headed out …