June 21, 2025 The sunny skies from yesterday have been replaced with gloomy rain clouds. In the early morning there was a break in the rain and I went for a walkabout in the park that my room faces. It was so enjoyable being outside in the calm of the day. It was misting rain …
Estonia – Tallinn
June 20, 2025 The weather has gotten a lot better and I am hoping for a sunny day to enjoy our adventure. We are headed to the ferry to go to Tallinn, Estonia. The ferry was way bigger than I imagined holding 2500 passenger plus 3 decks of cars and trucks. Getting on the ferry …
Helsinki – Exploring on land and sea
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 …