Month: July 2026

Two Outings over the last two days….. one GREAT the other blahhh.

First the latter.

We all went to a rather newish place (I could tell as construction was still incomplete) called Polar Park. Now to be fair, we are still almost in that region, and it is decidedly frigid in the Winter with an accompanying layer of Polar Particles that usually stands around six feet deep, but…… what do you think of when someone tells you that you’re going to Polar Park?

                     POLAR BEARS!

                     Unfortunately, our proximity to the Polar Region is not good enough for that to happen unless the Polar Bears are heading south for some vacation time. And that would be fatal as they cannot handle the warmer(!?) temps around here compared with their usual habitat, so….. no Polar Bears in the Polar Park!

                     But that is just the side-story as the Park itself left a few things to be desired…… for me, that would be flatter terrain. The Park sits across a very vibrant, snowfield fed, gushing river on a large hillside. This means that the walk through it requires going up and down the accompanying (rather steep) hills. Something that I was not prepared for and/or able to do without an effort that was not what I deemed worth it after I glimpsed the enclosures that the other critters were in.  One of the positive aspects of this facility is that the animals here are in very large enclosures (not cages or compounds) that are considered to be the largest in the world for this kind of facility. Well, that’s just fine except that they still need fencing/wire mesh around these large enclosures which means that I’m trying to shoot through the wires and hopefully not get the fencing on the other side in the photo!

                     But in reality, that was just the Final Excuse that I gave myself as the Primary Pretext was that I am in no shape to attempt those hills.

                     “Well Donny, what about the others in your Senior Stiffs Group? They’re no Spring Chickens and they all made it!”

                     Thank you Mr. Sympathetic, I knew someone would bring that up, but they were not carrying 453,000 pounds of camera gear and had a new-fangled heart valve installed (which I did not feel like testing to its max) and besides….. I stepped on a rock, and the sun was in my eyes and I saw a mosquito and………..

                     Anyway, I did an about-face and headed back down to Headquarters and waited for those Athletes to return. Paula, Carol, and Glenn were able to capture some good pics and I will share them here!

Now…  the former…..

                     Yesterday was an example of the epitome of an anticipated O.I.G. (Outing of Incredible Greatness!). I had booked myself on a Sea Eagle Safari by R.I.B. No…. there were no BBQs in sight, an RIB is a Rigid Inflatable Boat (otherwise known as a Zodiac after the company the invented them). But doesn’t Sea Eagle Safari sound really exciting!!!??? I didn’t even know what a Sea Eagle was!

                                I still had the extra baggage of all the gear but was confined to my area of the boat and just had to stand or sit for the duration. We all had to wear these giant Exposure Suits designed to keep us warm and dry and there were inflatable “around the neck/shoulders” life vests that I was not sure that would hold me up with the waterlogged survival suit and the camera gear, but the weather was nice and there we were! Me and about eleven others were treated to good sightings of Sea Eagles, aka White-Tailed Eagles. These relatives of our Bald Eagles snuggle in nicely in about fourth place on the “Largest of” list and this depends on exactly what you are referencing as the top spots on that list can overlap depending on the aspect being measured. Rest assured, all of them are really, really big! These puppies log in with a wingspan of at least six feet, with the averages falling well over seven feet! The Harpy Eagle of South America is “larger” (weight) but has a shorter wingspan, so you can see how measuring all the large birds of prey and coming up with the Ultimate B.O.P. can be difficult.

                                But they sure are photogenic! Especially when the weather cooperates! See below!

The next one…….

Now we’re gonna snag some snack-type little fish!

Now for a few random pics from random days…..

Sorry….. I never envisioned Norway like this!

Trolls.

In the last Post I showed you a photo of a large troll situated outside of a souvenir store in Honningsvag explaining that Trolls are a part of Norse Mythology. That may be an understatement.

                                After visiting the Troll Museum in Tromsø yesterday and seeing how these beings have infiltrated the lives of the Norwegians (and us!) I can safely state that they are huge both in size and effect!

                                Tromsø was our next Port of Call as we hopscotch our way down the coast of Norway until we arrive in Bergen in a few more days. The coast here would be akin to the Inside Passage of Alaska as we are meandering our way through the waterways between the islands.

 And in Tromsø is the Troll Museum.

                                To illustrate how the Trolls have weaved their way into even our lives I will invite you to take a short Time Travel Trip back to when we all sat in front of the TV on a Saturday morning watching our favorite cartoons.

                                Enter Elmer Fudd on an early morning hunt. He stealthily stalks his quarry as the sun is just rising, the birds are softly chirping, and butterflies make their way across the screen. In the background we hear a rather famous piece of music (although we did not know it then). It is Morning from Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen, a five-act play first given in the late 1870’s. Mr. Ibsen is Norwegian and his play is about a young man, Peer Gynt who is not particularly nice, has way too many issues, runs afoul with just about everyone including some Trolls and the Mountain King, who himself is a Troll.

                                Now quickly GOOGLE ‘Morning Peer Gynt’ and transport yourself back to that seat right in front of your TV….. (don’t forget your bowl of Choco-Frosted Gigundo Sugar Bombs!) and while you are at it, further check out ‘In The Hall of The Mountain King’, (a piece from the same production) I promise that a smile will come to your face as you recognize this music also!

                                Now, who knew that Trolls could have so much of an effect on us way over here! (Rhetorical…. you don’t have to answer that one!)

                                We did not meet any Trolls in Tromsø, everyone was very nice and the day itself was the best weather we’ve had so far. We opted to have Glenn (our resident Tour Guide) walk us around as we gave up our spots on the complimentary Walking Tour of the city. Tromsø is a bit larger than our last couple of Ports, as the population stands around 80,000 instead of 2500! It is a rather official ‘last chance’ of real civilization before heading out into the Arctic, much the same way Ushuaia is down in Argentina for trips to Antarctica.

All of these Norwegian towns have been very welcoming, very clean, and each has some unique feature about it, no matter what size the town happens to be! And I’m sure that you can tell that the weather has changed for the better!

Cute little fishing villages on the Coasts of Anywhere have become the darlings of the Cruise Industry. Honningsvag, Norway was our Port yesterday….. we pulled in at precisely 8 AM, and started disembarking about 10 minutes later, we were some of the first off of the ship, our (my!) goal was to get to that ‘cute, little’ fishing part before the hordes descended upon it. We had it on good authority that at least one other ship was going to be sharing this Port with us, so time was of the essence!

                                We were successful! And hopefully the serenity of a quiet Saturday morning can be felt as you peruse the attached photos. It seems that the fishing fleet takes the weekends off, so all of the brightly colored boats were snuggled in for a few days.

                                Honningsvag is the northernmost city of Europe and sits on an arm of the Barents Sea and because of this, it is a very popular place to visit and observe both the Midnight Sun and the Northern Lights. ‘City’ is loosely used here as the population probably qualifies it more as a ‘village’ of sorts as that number  hovers around 2500 depending on the season. And we just upped that number by about 30% as soon as we pulled in!

Honningsvag was first settled/discovered/invaded/ about 10,000 years ago (more on that later) and it took until 1996 for them to achieve that ‘official city’ status in order to qualify for government assistance when it came to infrastructure projects and the like. They acquired that status not on the population factor, but on the strategic port factor. This place is an important stop for the commercial trade industry, including liquid natural gas transportation ships.

Now for some ‘Port’ photos!

Getting back to 10,000 years ago…… so the original peoples that made their way here from the south-central part of Europe (working theory) are the Sami. Very similar in nature to any other indigenous folks from around the world, they had no political boundaries and thus covered the entire northern range of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia with their nomadic villages and herding practices.

They live in an area called Sapmi.

We all know it as Lapland.

Their story has been echoed around the world, the most familiar adaptation of would be our own Native Americans. We heard stories from the Sami reindeer herder that we met yesterday about the government’s attempts to ‘assimilate’ them all into the locals by sending their children off to boarding school, forbidding them to speak their native languages (there are several dialects) and other ways and means to just have them all ‘go away’. Interestingly, the Sami are the only indigenous peoples to be recognized by the European Union.

Our excursion yesterday afternoon comprised of a relatively short bus ride to one of their local ‘camps’ where we met the Herder and his family. This particular family’s heritage in this way of life goes back as far as it possibly can because the only way to have the knowledge, traditions, and particular working ethic of reindeer herding is to be born into it, and that is what is changing for them all. The changing lifestyles that we all experience over the years are available to these folks. We heard the story of how their grandfathers walked or rode larger reindeer in order to cover and control their herds. Our Herder uses ATV’s and he joked that his son uses his drone to accomplish the same thing!

“The times they are a changin’”

Their traditional Winter in the South and Summer in the North grazing ares follows the natural migration patterns of the reindeer that they have had domesticated for thousands of years. There are no more wild reindeer as the Sami have had them under their care and control for uncounted years. The reindeer are like any other herd of domesticated animals…… cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and the list goes on, that have been harvested for their meat and hides. We had the opportunity to sample a bit of reindeer meat, and I can see how this protein source has attained the modern-day status of a delicacy! During our presentation we sat on logs in a tent identical to a teepee that were covered in reindeer hides as soft as can be. These too are sold and the families reap those benefits as well.

           We were treated to some of their ethnic songs which apparently are rather unique in their form and style and had a most pleasant rhythm and sound to them. They are called joiks and it was this practice, (obviously among others) which is incredibly old and unique, that helped establish these people as their own and helped them gain back their ‘independence’.

           It is a good story.

In the Land of the Midnight (and anytime!) Sun

The goal for yesterday was to see some elusive-type critters….. whales, walruses, seals, polar bears (?), and unicorns.

What we saw were skunks.

Not the real kind, the ones that come into use when you get nothing, nada, none…….  aka……skunked.

To say that the weather has been with us would be a tremendous understatement, so we were hoping for at least a ‘sighting’ on our 4.5-hour maritime excursion to set the balance back a bit.

                     Nope.

                     But at least the weather was ‘acceptable’!

                     We embarked on a good size catamaran that held all 146 of us very comfortably. Plenty of deck space to handle the instances when (if) that ‘sighting’ was to occur. In the meantime, there were seats and tables inside for everyone to be comfortable at until “Thar she blows!” was hopefully to be heard from the lookout posted at the masthead (Oops! sorry…. thought we were on the Pequod!) Actually, he was just in the pilot house 😊

                     Well, that turned into a big negatory as all we saw were icebergs, glaciers, and birds. Now, in fairness, these were fun to see in their own right…… we don’t get many icebergs and glaciers in Texas or even New Jersey….. and for the birds, we NEVER get PUFFINS(!) there either!

                     So….. here are some representative cool pics of yesterday’s foray into the fjords and bays of Svalbard!

One of the good tricks of photography is when you are handed lousy weather and lighting conditions for acquiring good color renditions, then switch to Black & White and pretend you are Ansel Adams! It actually works! A few examples…….

Now for what you’ve all been waiting for…….. the Critter Pics!

Now what you’ve all been waiting for…… the cutest birds on the planet and the reason that thousands of people ‘flock’ (get it!?) to these northern parts…..

PUFFINS!!!

Now just a few more to wrap it up for this one…..

Polar Bears and Sled Dogs

                     If Longyearbyen has a Claim to Fame, it would probably be the fact that the local Polar Bears are a genuine threat to survival. There are only a few apex predators that will actually hunt down and snack on humans……. they include some of the big cats, (leopards and tigers) the big Nile and saltwater crocodiles, and Polar Bears. The rest of the ‘feared’ critters are dangerous only when frightened, or if they feel the need to defend themselves, but not because they want to chomp on us.

                     Sighting a Polar Bear is a rarity, but not uncommon enough to NOT have defensive measures in place up here where so many humans live in proximity to so many bears. This aspect of life up here has led to the actual Warning Signs becoming somewhat of a tourist attraction themselves.

Photos are mandatory!

The rules of engagement are also mandatory if you decide to step outside of the town limits. Here you will find those signs and sometimes the listed rules. In fact, the Town has scheduled “New Guy” meetings to help newbies get acclimated to life up here and one of the topics has to do with how not to become a PBS (Polar Bear Statistic)

One of the rules is that you MUST have a rifle or flare gun with you if you travel outside those town limits!

We learned all about this stuff and about Husky Sled Dogs on an excursion that took us about 10 km outside of town, well into that Polar Bear Zone. Our destination was Barentz Camp, the actual spot where Willem Barentz, in a rudimentary cabin built with the wood from his stranded ship, over wintered in 1596 with seventeen men from his crew. His name should be familiar to you if you were paying attention back in Geography class because the Barents Sea (which is right here between Norway and Russia) is named for him.

                     The ‘camp’ is now home to a dog sledding operation that provides any kind of dog sledding expedition that you could want, from a few hours to a few days, all year ‘round. We went there to learn about this activity and get schooled in Polar Bears. We were able to meet some of the retired dogs who were very friendly, and a few of the ‘mushers’, and then go into a warming hut, have some snacks and hot bev’s, and then see a presentation on the bears.

                     Here are a few of the interesting facts that we learned about Polar Bears,

They can smell prey (usually a seal) as far away as 18 miles, and sniff them out from under three feet of ice and almost a mile away!

                                           There are two types of bears around here, one is the ‘local’ kind. These number about 250 bears that live around Longyearbyen. The other ones are the ‘pelagic’ kind that move around and live in the water amongst the ice floes.

                                           Since the 1970’s there have been six fatalities and twelve serious injuries from bear attacks. On average, two bears are killed each year in self-defense.

                                           They can swim almost two hundred miles and can sprint at about 22MPH for several hundred yards. After that, because of their dense fat layers, they overheat quickly and need to stop or jump in the water to cool down. But that’s not much of a safety margin because the average human can run only about 15 MPH for short bursts! And if you have a full “Snack Suit” (parka, snow pants, etc.) on, your speed decreases significantly and the PB has no problem getting you out of that Snack Suit!

                                           They live on average of fifteen to twenty-five years with oldest known local one here getting to thirty-two years old. The kiddos hang with Mom for about two years and their biggest threat to survival sometimes is a large male PB, who will kill and eat them if he can get past Mom!

Today is a day on the water. We embark on a ‘Safari’ in quest of any kind of wildlife that is presenting itself for our viewing pleasure. One of yesterday’s forays had the chance encounter with a walrus. That would be a good one for us!

We shall see!

Report and (hopefully!) photos tomorrow!

In 1901 an American tourist and industrialist visited the island of Spitsbergen in the Archipelago of Svalbard. He was shown an example of coal from nearby coal mines, and the rest is proverbial history. Buying up the local claims and setting up shop on the coast of the nearby Adventfjorden, John Munro Longyear started up his new venture, the Arctic Coal Company and his base soon became known as Longyear Town, or locally as Longyearbyen, which is our next port of call and can now be seen off the starboard rail.

                                Rumor has it that this eclectic collection of international peeps has suggested that they change the name of their home twice a year to Longdaybyen and Longnightbyen according to that big yellow thing that is either above the horizon or below it every six months. Currently it is above, giving the region 24 hours of sunlight a day. In between, of course, there are days of a twilight kind of effect…… the light does not act as if the wall switch was just flipped!

                                Longyearbyen hosts a highly diverse, international community with nearly 50 (!) nationalities represented among its roughly 2,300 residents. This unique demographic makeup is driven by the Svalbard Treaty, which grants citizens of signatory countries the equal right to live and work on the archipelago without a visa or standard Norwegian Residence Permit. They just need to have a job and be able to support themselves.

                                But…… they cannot die here or be born here!

                                Yes, if you’re gonna croak best get yourself to the mainland since that’s where you will end up anyway because there are no burials allowed there. The permafrost preserves bodies instead of letting them gradually decompose. This is an issue because if you are carrying baddies in your body then they too are preserved, giving them an opportunity to inadvertently infect again!

                                As for being born….. there’s nothing to stop that, but the practice is to transfer to the mainland several weeks before your due date because the local clinic is fine for basic medical care but lacks any kind of specialty equipment. Hence the departure, and the hopefully joyful return!

                                Longyearbyen is considered the northernmost permanent settlement in the world sitting at 78 degrees North Latitude or 816 miles from the North Pole. In comparison, NYC is about 3500 miles from the Pole. There are other research settlements that are farther North, but none of them are ‘permanent’.

                     More later after our visit to a dog sled camp ….. woof!

And our First Port of Call

                                After a quiet morning walking around our local downtown section of Reykjavik, we headed for the ship! The Viking Neptune is considered, and falls into, the ‘Small Ship” category when it comes to cruise vessels. She is still plenty large enough to accommodate 930 passengers. Weighing in at about 49,000 GRT (Gross Registered Tons) and 735 feet long, she is quite a bit smaller than what we usually sail on. The smallest Princess vessels, the Island, and the Coral, are almost 1000 feet long and weigh in at 91,000 GRT and will hold twice as many passengers. But bigger is not necessarily better as smaller ships can access ports that either are off-limits to larger ones, or they would need to tender in to shore.

First, let’s look around Reykjavik!

Back to the ship……

                                Embarking only 930 passengers is far easier to do than the larger vessels and it shows. The entire process took about seven minutes! (of course, so much of the important stuff is done ‘online’ nowadays). The Neptune is only three years old and definitely not in need of any refurbishment any time soon. As you may imagine, Viking takes very good care of their vessels. Interestingly, all of their ‘Ocean Ships’ are built exactly with the same specifications and layout. The only differences would be style and décor, and then of course, age.

I would say that our stateroom is about average for a cruise ship, except for the bathroom. Here that category of ‘average’ goes off the scale! The storage for items is notably more than others and the shower may be twice the size!

One overnight and we arrived in our first Port, that of Isafjordur. It’s way up on top of Iceland, rather remote as you may imagine and its sole reason for existence is fishing. Its name does not include the word fjord for nothing as it sits nicely down in one of those deep, protective geological marine devices!

It’s crazy how the Cruise Industry morphs local economies, for good or bad……. only the locals can decide. Isafjordur began accepting cruise excursions around 36 years ago in the early 1990’s. Nothing was official until 1994 when a local tour operator opened up shop and prior to the Covid Stall, almost 100,000 passengers per year had made their way into town. While we were there an additional two ships were berthed and I counted a total of seven buses at the waterfalls that we visited.

That’s it for now, two days of “Day’s at Sea” coming up…… it’ll give me a chance to catch up on all of this!

As exciting as it was to see the waterfalls, geyser, and the rest of the Golden Circle on our first day, our second day was that much better because we experienced something of a novelty around here….. sunshine! Not that the sun never peeks out, but according to the locals, getting days in a row of it is a rarity.

                                We were happy for our one day.

                     Solrun picked us up at 8:30 and we were a bit more energetic than the previous day after the flight and time difference. That was a good thing because we had a FULL day in front of us. It’s not that Iceland is overly large, (it’s about the size of West Virginia) it’s that there is a definite amount of driving need to get from good spot, to great spot, to incredible spot! It’s a good thing that the landscapes in between are noteworthy in their own right.

                     Our destination for the day was the South Shore which has Black Sand Beaches, cool Waterfalls, views of the Glaciers, and PUFFINS! Solrun did a magnificent job of ferrying us from place to place, skipping some for later in order to arrive at a spot earlier than the other tourons, and then getting us back there after those same had vacated!

I have a confession to make.

I lied to you all.

It was innocent enough…..

I must have lost some brain function as of late because I promised you that there would be no Tectonic Plate discussions forthcoming.

But here we are at Tectonic Central!

The Actual Place where we can SEE the convergence/divergence of two of the Earth’s basic plates in action! The Eurasian and North American Plates here in Iceland show that rift between those plates as makes its way all the way to the surface in dramatic fashion. Volcanoes, earthquakes, and tremors galore illustrate Tectonic Action better than I could ever do!

But I’ll save that for later and try my best to keep it to a minimum!

                                We departed Newark with little fanfare which is the sign of a good flight. The goal on these overnight flights is to try and get as much sleep as possible. ‘Possible’ being the operative word here. Lots of distractions on planes so some semblance of restraint is necessary. Movies, snacks, libations, and full dinners are the ones to try and avoid because everything else is also trying to keep you from sleeping. I was mildly successful…. no dinner, no movies, just a double Baileys and some pretzels!

                                The issue came after we had successfully (phew!) landed in Reykjavik and taxied up to the gate assigned to us. The usual hustle and bustle of us passengers disengaging our seatbelts before we were supposed to, just waiting for the opportunity to jump up, grab whatever and crowd the aisle. We did all of that with the precision of an F1 Team but then we waited….. and waited….. and waited…

                     The main door did not open. Never.

                     Looking outside we spied the issue. The Jet Bridge Driver was gallantly attempting to get that contraption to get close enough to the side of the aircraft to release us from our confinement.

                                Attempt after attempt was……. attempted.

                     It got to the point where we all wanted to get out and say, “Let me do it!” It seemed simple enough, just grab the joystick and maneuver it over and be done with it! But apparently it was more serious than that cuz even the maintenance guy could not get it to snuggle up! We watched for an hour. Yup…. one hour.

                                Eventually they rolled one of those old-fashioned stairways up to the rear of the aircraft and we deplaned row by row from the rear! AAAARG! Here we are in Row 4, anticipating a timely exit because we have a Tours by Locals tour beginning as soon as we can get ourselves through the system and off to the hotel. Needless to say, the one hour turned into two and then we still needed to get through Customs, etc. We were the first to arrive for the day, which means that we’d have been inside with zero lines in the Official Area, but now we’re mingled in with the ‘others’. More delays.

                                Finally, we made it out of the Airport courtesy of Viking’s transfer driver, Ollie. All this time I’ve been in contact with Solrun (she is our TBL Guide for the next two days). She waited patiently for us to arrive at the hotel and get ‘processed’ and have some breakfast. Introductions completed, she suggested a change to our itinerary as we had lost those two hours. Instead of trying to complete a tour of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, which required quite a drive just to get to, she suggested the tried-and-true Golden Circle. This is the requisite tour just outside of Reykjavik which is sizeable in its own right. We were trying to avoid this as it could get quite crowded, but we yielded to Solrun’s advice and away we went.

                     Just as we had feared, the weather was not what would be considered ideal. But at least it didn’t rain….. much. I’m afraid that there will be no gorgeous landscape photography to ponder over as sunlight is a key ingredient of the same. But we did see some really cool waterfalls and geysers, and we had lunch at a unique spot…. a place that grows 40% of Iceland’s tomatoes, in huge greenhouses. And inside of them they serve lunch, most of which consists of several versions of their homemade tomato soup and incredible bread! As it turned out, all of this completely filled our day and we returned back at the hotel around 6:00 pm.

                                Dinner was had across the street at a place reminiscent of a food court but with a nice twist. Instead of a bunch of fast-food joints there were small individual high-end kitchens that were individually owned and operated. They shared the dining area, the plates and silverware were real, there was a bar for liquor sales, and each had its own ‘beeper’ system that allowed them to carefully prepare your meal without a long line queued up in front of them impatiently waiting for their dinners to be presented. I had a wonderful Linguini Carbonara that ruined any chances of me repeating that dish anywhere else because it was the best one I’ve ever had! So now I need to fly to Vietnam for a haircut and Iceland for Linguini Carbonara. I can see how this could get expensive!

Well, here we are……. In about sixteen hours we will be winging our way to Iceland, the first stop on our Northern Nordic Navigational Nirvana. I may have reached a bit too far in my Alliterative Attempt there but considering how long I’ve wanted to visit Iceland and Svalbard, maybe not!

We will be aboard the Viking Neptune for the next two weeks and if all goes nicely you will be seeing some stunning photographs of what we will be experiencing! The ‘stunning’ aspect has nothing to do with my ability to render a photo and everything to do with what Mother Nature has laid out in front of us, for our (and your) viewing pleasure. The only caveat is the projected weather forecast which, so far, is not working in our favor. We shall see. I may need to resort to dramatic Black and White photos that seem to look good when Color is not in the cards.

This will be our first Cruise aboard a Viking Ocean Ship so be prepared for some comments about that aspect of this voyage. This ship is smaller than what we are accustomed to as Viking operates at a different level than the larger ships that we are usually on with Princess. Last year we did a Viking River Cruise and found Viking to be as Top-Notch as their reputation insinuates, I’m quite confident that all of that will transfer nicely to their Ocean Ships.

The Voyage begins in Iceland and then goes waaaaay up to Svalbard before turning southward towards the Norwegian Coast where we will hopscotch down the coast visiting little fishing villages and the like. We disembark in Bergen, where we fly home to Newark via Munich.

The best part is Svalbard and to appreciate where this place is you will need to have map or better yet, a globe in front of you…. go ahead, I’ll wait……..

                     OK! Now find Iceland and then travel way up and to the east until you see a patch of islands that are too far north to support any kind of normal civilization. I say normal because there are a bunch of folks that call Svalbard home year-round. That fact might be considered abnormal only because they choose to live their lives in either total darkness or total daylight! We will be there in 100% daylight, no matter what time of day it is and you can bet you’re going to get a Lesson on this anomaly, sans (thankfully I’m sure you are thinking) any references to Tectonic Plates!

So get ready, meet us in Terminal B at Newark Airport, passports in hand, and you can board with us, we should all try and stick together for logistics sake. We will be disembarking in Reykjavik and immediately embarking on a Two-Day Excursion courtesy of or favs at Tours-by-Locals…. no time to waste!

Please be dressed accordingly.