Category: travel photography

Cambridge and Boston: more travel photos

September 29, 2025 • 10:06 am

Today is my last full day in Boston/Cambridge, and tomorrow evening I’ll be back in Chicago.

The other day my friends Andrew and Naomi took me to Oliveiros’s a Brazilian steakhouse in Somerville. If you haven’t been to one, they all work the same way. There’s a big salad bar with stuff you largely want to avoid so you can eat more meat, and then the servers bring skewers of freshly-cooked meats to your table, and you indicate which ones you want. It’s mostly beef (sirloin, flank steak, etc.), but also lamb and sausages. They slice a long, thin piece from the skewer and you grab it with your tongs. This can go on forever, or until you’re sated.  If you like meat, it’s a great experience, assuming you pick the right steakhouse—like this one.

Below: a famous pre-drink cocktail, the Brazililian caipirinha. It’s delicious, and here’s Wikipedia’s take:

Caipirinha (Portuguese pronunciation: [kajpiˈɾĩɲɐ]) is a Brazilian cocktail made with cachaça, sugar, lime, and ice.  The drink is prepared by mixing the fruit and the sugar together, then adding the liquor. Known and consumed nationally and internationally, caipirinha is one of the most famous components of Brazilian cuisine, being the most popular national recipe worldwide and often considered the best drink in the country[3] and one of the best cocktails/drinks in the world, having reached third place in 2024, according to the specialized website TasteAtlas.

Cachaça is distilled sugarcane liquor. It differs from rum by being made from freshly squeezed juice of sugarcane, while rum is made from fermented molasses. Cachaça also is not aged as long as is rum.

Doesn’t this look good? It was.

The buffet (aka “salad bar”). In the second photo, my friend Andrew is trying to rile me up by taking all the platanos, or fried ripe plantains. We both agree that that is the only item you should get at the salad bar (I also got a bit of potato salad).  I can eat many, many fried plantains.

Andrew trying to deprive me of platanos. Look at that evil expression!

Where’s the beef?  Here it is, and skewers of various meats keep coming:

A visit to Dorchester the next day, where my hosts Tim and Betsy used to live. (We all lived together on Beacon Street in Boston for my first two years in graduate school, inhabiting the tiny basement of the man who founded the New Balance Shoe company. I then moved to Cambridge and Tim and Betsy to Dorchester.)

Tim needed a pastry cutter to make real Southern biscuits, and we found a lovely, crowded kitchen store in Dorchester. It also sold cat clocks. I used to have one of these, black and looking like Felix the Cat. The tails wag back and forth with the seconds:

Lunch at the Steel and Rye Restaurant in Milton, right across the small Neponset river from Dorchester (Dorchester is formally part of Boston, while Milton is its own town). I had the Italian sandwich: “coppa, salami, mortadella, provolone, shredded lettuce, chili vinaigrette, ciabatta.” Quite tasty.

The restaurant was right by the Dorchester-Milton Lower Mills Industrial District, The old factory buildings remain, especially the one where they made the famous Baker’s Chocolate. They’re now apartment or office buildings, but are still lovely. The area as described in Wikipedia:

The Dorchester-Milton Lower Mills Industrial District is a historic district on both sides of the Neponset River in the Dorchester area of Boston and in the town of Milton, Massachusetts. It encompasses an industrial factory complex, most of which was historically associated with the Walter Baker & Company, the first major maker of chocolate products in the United States. The industrial buildings of the district were built between about 1868 and 1947. They were listed as part of the district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, with a slight enlargement in 2001. The buildings have been adapted for mixed industrial/retail/residential use.

Here’s one pair of buildings from 1905 with a nice metal bridge connecting the parts:

Back in Cambridge, you see this sign towering over Porter Square. I’ve not seen the likes of it before. It’s not far from Harvard.

My big doings yesterday consisted of going to the Japanese restaurant Yume Wo Katare in Porter Square. Although the link says “This is not a ramen shop,” it certainly is. (It’s the equivalent to Magritte’s “This is not a pipe.”) In fact, the only thing they serve is ramen.  You get a very large bowl in a delicious, rich, porky and garlicky broth with bean sprouts and pieces of pork (choose two or five big pieces). Your only other choice is whether you want extra garlic (you don’t need it; the broth is plenty garlicky) or a more spicy broth.  It’s delicious, with plenty of hand-pulled noodles and big pieces of juicy pork.  But the restaurant is also known for something else (see below, noting the “dream workshop” on the window):

The inside. I was heartened by the almost exclusively Japanese clientele, which testified to the quality of the ramen. There are no tables—only benches.

Below: my bowl. It was HUGE (I chose the five pieces of pork). I was able to finish everything except a cup or two of broth, but my stomach was absolutely distended: full of noodles sloshing around in broth. I had to take the bus home though it was only a 20-minute walk, simply because I was too full to walk. Needless to say, I had no dinner.

Each customer gets judge by the staff when they’ve finished, rated on how much food is left. I got a “good job!”, but I think everybody gets that.

My giant portion. This was the first time in my life I did not completely empty a bowl of ramen. But I ate all the solids!

The aspect of this restaurant that has made it especially well known is that customers are asked at some point in their meal to tell everyone in the restaurant their Big Dream. (They ask you if you want to recite one when you enter, and if you do they put a placard saying “Dreamer” at your place. ) Three people recited their dreams during my lunch: one woman wanted to visit all of America’s National Parks (there are 63), and a guy said his dream was to participate in an Ironman Triathlon, which includes a full marathon, a 2.4-mile swim, and a 112-mile bike ride. I can’t remember the other dream.

When they asked me as I entered the restaurant if I wanted to recite a dream, I said I was too old to have dreams, but of course that was not true. I still have them, but I am too shy to recite them.

Later today: a visit to Christina’s Homemade Ice Cream in Cambridge, the best place to get ice cream in America.

Random photos from Cambridge

September 26, 2025 • 8:15 am

It’s been raining here, so I haven’t got out much, but when I did I dined with old friends, and I won’t show those photos.  So far I have only a few pictures of Cambridge, MA, and here they are.

The city (once a town):

A panorama of Harvard Yard. Click twice to enlarge. The group of people in the middle are tourists (mostly Asian) waiting to get their photo taken with the statue of John Harvard.

The center of the picture above:

. . . and across the street from the Yard is the Coop, Harvard’s official bookstore.  In truth, they don’t have nearly as many books as they should, but a surfeit of Harvard memorabilia to fleece the tourists. I don’t have any Harvard tee-shirts (though I have over a hundred college tee shirts); I looked at one in the Coop, but it cost $35!

There was this book, though, and perhaps it bears reading:

Why Evolution is True has historically been on sale at the Coop since 2009, but now the biology section is PATHETIC, and my book is gone. But looking for it alphabetically by author in the tiny, tiny evolution/genetics section, I found Matthew’s last book on prominent display:

Out to lunch in Harvard Square, we passed the house of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a house also used as George Washington, headquarters:

This historic yellow mansion in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was home to one of the world’s foremost poets, scholars and educators. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lived here from 1843 until his death in 1882 and produced many of his most famous poems and translations here. Geneneral George Washington also lived in the yellow house and used it as his headquarters during America’s Revolutionary War, planning the Siege of Boston here between July 1775 and April 1776.

Here it is on Brattle Street, which is flanked by many fancy and famous mansions. Longfellow must have made a good income from his poetry.

. . . and a statue of the poet in an adjacent park:

A nearby Quaker meeting house. I went here once in graduate school, as my adviser’s assistant was a Quaker, and she invited me to go. I went since I was curious about how the services went. They were very strange to me. The preacher (or whoever was in charge) asked us to introduce ourselves and explain why we were there. I was flummoxed as I hadn’t expected to speak, but I stammered a few words. Then there was a long period of silence until finally one member stood up and said what was on his mind. Then another person spoke, and so it continued. (You’re encouraged to say whatever you’re thinking.) This creates a sense of community without too much mishigass, so it was an enlightening experience.

However, as you see, the Quakers are “progressive”. This isn’t so bad but I’m told by one of them that they are also anti-Israel.

Finally, breakfast at my friends’ house, where I’m staying.  They eat healthy, as you can see. No, this is not my breakfast; I had two pieces of cold pizza and a mug of coffee:

As I brushed my teeth this morning, I noticed that the faucet looked like a face—not just the face, but the face of a Fat Bear:

To the Arctic, part 6: Ice day

September 20, 2025 • 9:45 am

On this day the captain and expedition leader decided, since we were in the area, that they’d take the ship as far north as it would go before encountering the Arctic sea ice that would prevent further progress. (The Ultramarine is a polar ship, but it can’t plow through thick sea ice).  We made for point #5 below where the ice stopped us. (This map was provided by the ship.)

The view from my cabin window when I woke up.

We’re approaching our northern limit.

As we headed north, I had a hearty breakfast in the main dining room.  Look at all that food (it’s buffet style, of course). I often had a made-to-order omelet, as I almost never eat breakfast, much less eggs, when I’m at home. I avoided the “Healthy Corner” except from fruit juice.

As we got closer to the edge, passengers went out on deck to watch our approach:

Ice everywhere (click to enlarge the panorama). And yes, it was that blue:

About as far north as we can go:


Floating sea ice, broken off the shelf, was everywhere:

Meanwhile, the bridge was active as the ship needed to stop dead before it hit the ice. Second from right is the captain.

Sarah, the expedition leader, is facing me. She was always upbeat: a great leader:

As we headed north, the ship stopped because a polar bear (Ursus maritimus) was sighted off the starboard bow. And, sure enough, there was one, and it was eating the carcass of what we were told was a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). Who knows how that whale got onto the ice floe, but it was surely a bonanza for the bear, which was feasting on the best part: the whale’s blubber.

I had my Panasonic Lumix point-and-shoot camera cranked out to the highest magnification (30X) and the boat was rocking, so this is the best I could do. Still, it was a fantastic sight: my first polar bear sighting and my first sperm whale sighting (if that’s what the whale was). This, to me, was the highlight of the trip. What you see is the world’s largest living land predator eating the world’s largest living marine predator!

I took a lot of photos. In reality, the photos are better than what I could see because they’re zoomed it. I was kneeling on the deck propping my camera on a rail:

Elsie Holzworth, a neighbor, touched up the photo above using computer magic:

 

There were plenty of birds around hoping for a nosh:

The bear walked away for a while, but then returned. I suspect he wasn’t going to go far lest another bear find the carcass. It was a fantastic sight.

We still weren’t as far north as we could go, so I went to look at our position in the lounge, and then had lunch in the informal spot. At this point we were at 81°53.89′ N, not quite as far as we’d get (red rectangle is mine):

After a big breakfast and no hikes onshore, I had a light lunch: a bagel on which I put the equivalent of lox. Some salad for the requisite greens. And, of course, several desserts, one of which—rice pudding with cherry sauce—was fantastic:

Too many to eat them all!

I had a large portion of rice pudding, as it wasn’t a normal dessert onboard:

And then we stopped, as far north as we could go. I was the first person on the bow, so I got to hold the sign and have my photo taken:

82 degrees north latitude!  This was the farthest north the ship had ever been, the crew and captain had ever been, and of course the passengers had ever been.  An AI question says that at this point we were about 332 miles (534 km) from the North Pole.

There were celebrations with champagne, and some of the naturalists dressed up as Arctic animals:

We then turned around and headed south (see map at top). Little did I know that the next day was going to be absolutely spectacular, seeing hundreds of thousands of seabirds nesting on a precipitous cliff, and watching from Zodiacs below. That will be in the next installment.

To the Arctic, part 5: Landfall and vegetation

September 13, 2025 • 11:30 am

NOTE: I scheduled a big Caturday Felid post, but, as occasionally happens, it didn’t automatically post. It will be up about 1.5 hours after this one.

This post occupies one day of our trip in Svalbard, again traveling around the big island of Spitsbergen, where’s there is a lot to see.  And again it was one of those lovely days when we had activities both in the morning and the afternoon. this time two short hikes on the land.

First, a map of the Big Island of the archipelago showing our travels. Spots 3 and 4 mark where we were on this day: Woodfjorden (yes, a fjord) in the morning, back to the ship for lunch, and then another hike (and a drinking opportunity) on a branch of Woodfjord, a “subfjord” called Liefdefjorden.  These sites are shown in the second map below from the official Spitsbergen website.

This map was sent to us by the ship to document our peambulations. Each pointer is one stop:

The first hike was on land at the northernmost fjord, Woodfjorden (point 4 above).  There were no animals to see, but plenty of plants, many in bloom. I can’t pinpoint where we landed, but the fjord itself is described this way in Wikipedia:

Woodfjord is a fjord on the north shore of Spitsbergen island in the Svalbard archipelago. It is the fourth longest fjord in the Svalbard archipelago with the mouth facing north adjacent to Wijdefjord, and goes 64 km (40 mi) into the island, west of Andrée Land.

Random photographs. First, the terrain, rather barren and gray. The only life you can see in this photo are the orange lichens.

Our ship in the fjord (we took Zodiacs ashore):

One of our naturalists/guides from the ship. Since you never know where there’s a polar bear, and they can appear quickly, they always carry guns:

But there were plants aplenty, if you looked down.  I loved this mossy plant; the moss is not really moss, but, we were told part of the flowers. I wrote down the name but now can’t find it. If you know Arctic flora, please ID it.  We did not step 0n any plants as they take a long time to grow this far north (here we’re about 79°30′ North latitude):

 

Another flower I can’t identify:

And yet another unknown:

And another (these may be color variants of the flowers two photos above:

Lichen is everywhere, and since it grows so slowly in this climate, you don’t touch it or step on it.

We were asked to guess what this is. Do you know?

It’s a trap to catch arctic foxes (their pelts went for good money years ago). Apparently the ladder bit was propped up with heavy rocks in the slats and bait was put underneath. The foxes would take the bait, spring the device, and, yes, get SQUASHED TO DEATH.  Apparently this was an efficient way to get pelts without marks, as shooting the fox would make a hole in the fur. OY!

Kayakers in the fjord below.  They prefer to paddle than to land and see what’s ashore. I don’t really get the thrill of that, at least in a place like this, but when we got to see the birdies a few days later, they had a huge advantage (except they were pooped on more readily). Note the glaciers across the fjord:

A panorama with the ship before we returned for lunch. Click to enlarge:

After lunch and a short rest, we put on our rubber boots and headed back to a different landing spot, this time on Woodfjorden.  This one had a trapper’s cabin. The landscape was similar to that of the morning.

Here’s a group following single-file behind the gun-toting leader, which prevents falling off a cliff and also stepping on plants. Our rubber boots, which were high, prevented us from getting very wet as we crossed the creek (you have to put them in a scrubbing machine when you enter the ship to avoid contaminating either the ship or the land).

A lovely flower; I don’t know what it is!

. . . and a predatory bird, which flew off as I photographed it. What is it? A skua?

After hiking around, and in truth seeing little that was new (but still enjoying some exertion), we went to the trapper’s cabin, called “Texas Bar”, described this way by our itinerary:

 Texas Bar is a trapper hut in Liefdefjord, not actually a bar at all. It was built in 1927 by Hilmar Nøis and Martin Petterson Nøis who spent 38 years of their lives on Spitsbergen. The cabin remains in very good condition. Now it mainly serves as a point of reference and shelter from polar bears. Inside, there is a stove, firewood, cooking utensils, two beds, a first aid kit, and some food items.

Men of Sea adds this (and a photo of the cabin:

Despite being very modest and resembling more of a sturdy shed than a proper dwelling, the cabin remains in very good condition. It now mainly serves as a point of reference and shelter from polar bears. Inside, there is a stove, firewood, cooking utensils, two beds, a first aid kit, and some food items. It has become a tradition for visitors to use the supplies left here, but in return, they should also leave something for the next guests. It is mandatory to sign in the Guest Book and take a picture. Opposite Texas Bar there is a bay where yachts can anchor safely.

We didn’t use any of the “supplies.”

Photo below from Men of Sea (for some reason I didn’t take a picture of the cabin). Note the rifle.

A quick photo of the inside, as there was a line to see it. There are some recent “supplies.” You have to be stalwart, I think, to spend any time there, much less a long time. It was bloody cold, and we were there in the summer. (I expect the residents didn’t overwinter there).  Two beds, some shelves, and a table are pretty much all it has. I wonder how they entertained themselves—or perhaps they slept after arduous days of killing foxes.

They served us shots of hard liquor at the end of the walk in a real bar in front of Texas Bar, but, as usual, I had no appetite for alcohol when I’m traveling. (I think I had one beer the whole trip, and given that booze was free on the ship, that tells you about my strange change of habit on the road, though I never drink very much under any circumstances.)

Back to the ship for dinner, and here are the evening menus (I suspect I photographed them and then headed upstairs to the cozy buffet). Click to enlarge:

The menu has two pages and, as you see, you can really pig out. This is served in courses, not as a buffet, which makes it more formal. Wine is of course free, and I tasted a bit; the quality was generally high.


My desserts (plural) in the buffet upstairs. The eclair was especially good.

Some post-dinner reading and then to bed, for I wanted to arise early as we headed north to point (5) on the map above—the furthest north our ship (and everyone on it) had ever gone. We were going to the edge of the sea ice until the ship could move no more.  That proved to be the most exciting day of the trip, as you’ll see in the next installment. Not only did we go way north, but we saw the most amazing thing of the whole trip: a polar bear gnawing on the carcass of a sperm whale that had somehow made its way onto an ice floe. Pictures in the next edition!

To the Arctic, part 4. Walruses and icebergs

August 30, 2025 • 9:00 am

This post occupies one day of our trip, again traveling around the big island of Spitsbergen, where’s there is a lot to see.  And it was one of those lovely days when we had activities both in the morning and the afternoon. Morning: a heap o’ walruses; and afternoon: a flotilla of icebergs.

First, a map of the Big Island of the archipelago showing our travels. Spots 1 and 2 mark where we were on this day: St. Jonsfjorden (where we Zodiac’ed around a glacier the previous day), and Poolepynten, Walrus Heaven, both about 78º N latitude:

When I woke up that morning, this was the view outside my cabin window. The iceberg was a harbinger of a good day. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

The Arctic and Antarctic trips have a preplanned schedule, but it always changes depending on weather, wind, waves, and whether there are animals about.  This day’s schedule began with animals, as they excitedly announced on the intercom before breakfast that we’d zodiac to a headland, for they’d spotted a bunch of walruses (I estimate 30-50) hauled out on the beach.  I’d never seen a walrus in the wild, of course, so I was “in a state”.   We took Zodiacs to the shore, and came first upon some seaweed:

Almost every time we went ashore in Spitsbergen, we had to stay close to a guide with a gun. Why? Polar bears, of course, the world’s largest land carnivore, usually hungry, and mean as hell.  Here’s our guide for the walrus viewing.  It was a large-gauge rifle with hollow-point bullets, and all the guides knew how to use it. I think they are not allowed to first at polar bears until they’re 15 meters away and charging (they don’t carry cash). Nobody wants to shoot these magnificent animals and I didn’t meet a guide who had, especially because they are classified as “vulnerable.”

We walked silently and in single file, having been told not to make any noise as walruses have sensitive hearing and are easily disturbed. Voilà: a haul-out with the ship in the background:

Atlantic walruses (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) at Poolepynten.  There is only one species but two subspecies. From Wikipedia:

The walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) is a large pinniped marine mammal with discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. It is the only extant species in the family Odobenidae and genus Odobenus. This species is subdivided into two subspecies: the Atlantic walrus (O. r. rosmarus), which lives in the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific walrus (O. r. divergens), which lives in the Pacific Ocean.

Adult walrus are characterised by prominent tusks and whiskers, and considerable bulk: adult males in the Pacific can weigh more than 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds) and, among pinnipeds, are exceeded in size only by the two species of elephant seals.  Walrus live mostly in shallow waters above the continental shelves, spending significant amounts of their lives on the sea ice looking for benthic bivalve molluscs. Walruses are relatively long-lived, social animals, and are considered to be a “keystone species” in the Arctic marine regions.

They weigh as much as a car.  My camera beeped when it took a shot, but a guide showed me how to turn off the sound, as even a faint “beep” might disturb these beasts. Some walrus snaps:

We weren’t allowed to get too close. Above all, the guides and naturalists are concerned about the animals and the environment, which is great.

Apparently they were cooling off; they do not huddle to stay warm, as they’re encased in blubber. We were told that they simply like to huddle in groups and are comforted by touching each other:

Nice pair of tusks!

After hiking back to the Zodiacs, hovering some distance away, it was already time for lunch. Here are the menus (two for each meal):

Mains: Chicken and spanakopita (there was often foreign food:

Dessert: cassis sorbet and some kind of custard:

After about two hours of rest, it was time for part II of the day: a Zodiac cruise in the bay among the icebergs. You might think that would be boring, but it’s fascinating. All the bergs are different, have different shapes and colors, and often have different patterns from tumbling around in the water. I could easily stay out for several hours, but i think we had an hour and a half. It wasn’t that cold, either. Some bergs (remember, most of them are underwater):

A Zodiac exploring the ice:

The striated patterns in some bergs, we were told, are the results of air bubbles moving upwards when the berg is turned on its side. And yes, they are that blue:

It is an eerie sight, enhanced when the weather is overcast:

Moar:

Every one is different. This one has birds flying by:

Closeup of the previous berg. The patterns and colors are mesmerizing:

There was one very weird berg with rectangular holes in it. Don’t ask me how they got there:

A closeup:

Birds. I can’t identify them; can you?:

More birdies flying around a berg:

The Zodiac driver asked us if we wanted our photos taken in front of an iceberg. I demurred as I don’t like doing such things, but everybody else did, and I was wheedled into doing it:

And then back for another rest followed by dinner. I already was eating too much, so I had a salad (notice the lox):

But I never passed up desserts, and usually had three, these including my favorite: bread pudding with vanilla sauce.

Next episode (in a week): ashore with plants and flowers.

To the Arctic, Part 3. A glacier and its offspring

August 23, 2025 • 9:00 am

Here’s what we saw on the second full day of our trip to the Arctic: a Zodiac cruise in St. Jonsfjorden in Svalbard.  This is what the daily itinerary said:

St. Jonsfjorden is a fjord in Oscar II Land at Spitsbergen, Svalbard. It has a length of 21 kilometer and opens westwards into the strait of Forlandsundet. This is a site with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and glaciers, and the glacier Gaffelbreen (“Fork glacier”) in a bay just around the corner, interesting tundra with lots of plant species, reindeer and frost-patterned ground can been seen – a lovely little piece of Spitsbergen.

To remind you again, most of our cruising and landing was on the island of Spitzbergen, the largest island in the archipelago known as Svalbard (the whole archipelago was formerly called “Spitzbergen”).  The general location is shown below, with Svalbard in dark green (we were cruising around and landing on the largest island).  We are above the Arctic Circle, which is at 66.5° north latitude, while the archipelago extends from 74° to 81°.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Norway-Svalbard.svg

Here’s a finer-scale map; the small fjord with the red dot is St. Jonsfjorden, and the site has other photos (these are mine).  Gjertsenodden is “a small lowland area on the north side”

First we inspected the Fork Glacier in a Zodiac (inflatable rubber boat). We had a whole hour of cruising, which is a long time in a Zodiac.  First we inspected the glacier face, but couldn’t get too close because it calves off icebergs and can create waves that might overwhelm the boats.

The view from my cabin window as we entered the fjord, with a small glacier visible. Click all photos to enlarge them (recommended):

First, breakfast:

Coming around the corner; you can see the big glacier debouching from the mountain:

A panorama of the Fork Glacier taken from the front of the ship. Click to enlarge!

Two views of the glacier face taken from the ship.

The dark streaks are dirt in the ice that it’s picked up as it moves toward the sea:

Below: the Zodiacs lined up waiting for passengers to climb in. Each one holds a driver and 8-10 passengers, and they can go FAST.  I kept my camera in a plastic bag to keep the seawater out.

We had one hour, a good long time to inspect the glacier and its offspring bergs. Here’s a view of the ship from our Zodiac, with the glacier face to the left:

A berg recently calved from the glacier:

. . . and one floating away:

Our guide leaned over the boat’s edge (not safe!) to pick up a piece of floating ice for us:

I’m holding a piece, and then I tasted it. It was good. Remember, this is frozen fresh water, not ice water. In the Antarctic, at one Ukrainian station they served vodka made with glacier water. Now that is a rarity! Sadly, we didn’t have such a libation in the Arctic.

We were told this was a bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) resting on a floe. Wikipedia says this:

It gets its generic name from two Greek words (eri and gnathos) that refer to its heavy jaw. The other part of its Linnaean name means bearded and refers to its most characteristic feature, the conspicuous and very abundant whiskers. When dry, these whiskers curl very elegantly,[3] giving the bearded seal a “raffish” look.[citation needed].

I love that “citation needed” for “raffish look”. More:

Bearded seals are the largest northern phocid. They have been found to weigh as much as 300 kg (660 lb) with the females being the largest. However, male and female bearded seals are not very dimorphic

Here’s a Wikipedia photo showing the raffish look. Pretty damn raffish, no? The one above isn’t so raffish. . .

Bearded Seal (Erignathus barbatus), Baltasound marina by Mike Pennington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

After a hot shower, lunch followed in the Balena restaurant, where they prepared a stir-fry (highly Westernized, though I asked for mine Szechuan style):

And my first visit to the bridge (I went many times) as we left the fjord , showing the surroundings. That was all the day’s activities as we were steaming towards a new location for a landing. Walruses and even better icebergs!

To the Arctic, part 2: The ship, its amenities, and its food

August 16, 2025 • 9:30 am

I really should describe trips as they happen, but this wasn’t possible on my trip to the Arctic as there was no Internet most of the time. Also, for me the impetus to post wanes after the trip is over. So I apologize for not being able to post in real time, but I’ll put up at least one post a week, and promise to cover the whole trip.

I’ve already posted part 1, recounting our arrival in Svalbard  and a tour of the rather anodyne town of Longyearbyen, the capital of the archipelago, here.  Today I’ll talk about about life aboard the ship, and then onto the landings, glaciers, iceberg, birds, walruses (walrii?), polar bears, and so on. The routine was to get up, eat breakfast at about 7:30 or 8, have a landing or a Zodiac cruise immediately thereafter, go back to the ship to shower and rest a bit, eat lunch, and then have another landing or Zodiac (rubber inflatable boat) cruise thereafter.  There were then a few hours before dinner. After dinner you could stay up as late as you wanted, but, given my insomnia (which largely disappears on trips), I read until about 9:30 pm or so before retiring. I thus missed much of the evening frivolity, which included quizzes, competition, and non-frivolous lectures about the Arctic.  Most lectures were in the breaks during the day, and I attended about half of them.

So on to the ship, the Quark vessel Ultramarine, designed specifically for polar voyages. The preceding link gives you plenty of photos of the ship and its features, and here are the specs:

Although it holds 199 passengers, I think there were about 140 on this trip, matching the number of staff and crew, including crew you never see—those dealing with the engines and other technical stuff.

Here’s the Ultramarine. It’s a lovely ship and I had no complaints about the voyage. I had a spiffy cabin (half price, which is why I took this trip), the food was great, and the staff and crew were uber-friendly.

The first thing one has to do after boarding is find one’s cabin. Mine is below. It was not fancy compared to other cabins, but it was plenty fine for me.  After that I explored the ship before people got settled.

Below: my cabin—spacious, comfortable, and with the essential porthole to see outside. It was light nearly 24 hours a day, and I checked that by waking up around 2 a.m. and looking outside. It wasn’t much different from how it looked at noon.

This cabin is meant for two people sharing a queen-sized bed, and on cruises each person sharing the cabin pays the same (substantial) fare, but I got this to myself for the price of a single person. What a deal!

Looking toward the other end with the essential porthole. There was also a t.v., but I turned it on only once and watched a bit of Cleopatra, which I’d recently read about (Burton and Taylor version).

The bathroom was compact but had all the essentials, including that nice hot shower—essential for washing off the cold and grime after a landing. I am visible, too. The shower is not visible, but to the right:

One of the great pleasures of such a trip is waking up and seeing what the view is outside. (The curtains are tightly drawn at night because it’s light outside.)

Two views as we approached Jan Mayen Island, part of Norway. As I said, it’s usually off limits to tourists but our head naturalist, Sarah, knew one of the military guys who, with meteorologists, are the sole occupants of the island, so we got to have a two-hour landing. More on that later:

The island is dominated by the world’s northernmost active volcano, the Beerenberg, which you can see here. It last erupted (a fissure eruption) in 1985.

The peak of the volcano, to the right (again through my porthole) has a snow plume blowing from it. (More pictures of the island in a later post.)

Iceberg Day! I was excited to see this one morning, and later that morning we got in Zodiacs anc cruised for an hour among a number of weird bergs carved off a nearby glacier.

There are four lifeboats, two on each side, and each is huge, provisioned with clothing, food, and other requisites. Lifeboat drill and issuing of lifejackets is one of the first things you do after you settle in. Note the crane used to lower the boats, which are on deck 4.

The bridge, with the captain in the front. It’s not like you’d expect; there is no wheel to steer the ship, but a knob. And when the ship is at sea, it’s often on autopilot. On this ship, unlike others I’ve traveled and lectured on, you are encouraged to visit the bridge at nearly all times.

Things get busy when there’s manual steering, as when we’re going through sea ice. Sarah, the head naturalist/guide, is at the right, with the captain to her left:

And the knobs that steer the ship. I believe they are duplicates for redundancy.  THERE IS NO WHEEL, MATEY!

The bridge is full of electronics that display course, depth, surroundings, and so on. Here’s the course display (click all photos to enlarge them).

And here’s the captain, who seemed very young! But I’m sure they wouldn’t put him in charge if he hadn’t proved his mettle. This is taken on the last night of the trip when they have the “Captain’s Farewell”, and all the ship’s personnel parade across the auditorium.  No staff are allowed to drink on the ship, at least not that I saw, so the Captain toasted us with a flute of water.

Part of the parade: the people who make the food: very important people!

The two photos above are in the auditorium, where there are several lectures per day (none by me this time; I was a passenger), as well as the nightly recap and the highly-awaited plans for the next day, which depend on ice, weather, wind, and other factors. Sarah, in charge of the planning, would always have two or three alternatives if we couldn’t do what we wanted. Fortunately, no plans were canceled on this trip: the weather cooperated greatly.

Besides the auditorium, there’s a lovely lounge on Deck 7, with a coffee machine, goodies like cookies and cinnamon rolls set out 24 hours per day, and, when the bar is open, free drinks. I find that i lose my appetite for alcohol when I travel, so I didn’t take full advantage of the booze. I think I had two beers the whole 11-day trip!  There is also a cozy library nook with tons of books about the Arctic and Antarctic (the ship goes south during our winter, when it’s summer in the Antarctic and not much ice to impede traveling). Having been to both areas now, I suppose you could consider me bipolar.

There are screens in the lounge in the front so you can see where we are and the ice and weather conditions.  In slack times, I’d often make my way here, have a cup of hot cocoa and a couple of cookies, and dig into one of the books about the Arctic. And I’d often go on deck to marvel at the scenery or take photos.

Again, you can see many of the ship’s amenities at the Ultramarine link at the top. They also include a sauna, spa, and gym, which I assiduously avoided.

Now on to the feature second in importance only to the scenery and landings, the FOOD.  There are three meals a day, all served in two places: the fancy “Balena” restaurant upstairs, which has buffet service for breakfast and lunch and individual-course service at dinner. There’s also the “Bistro 487,” a few floors up, which serves almost exactly what the Balena serves, but it’s laid out buffet style, three meals a day. I found the Bistro cozier and with better views (fewer tables, all by windows), and a place that was easier to meet people.

So, the menus.  First the Balena’s breakfast menu, displayed outside the restaurant:

Lunch (one menu, two pages):

Lunch, page 2. You can always get a burger if you want

And dinner (two pages):

Desserts are always of great interest to me, and this ship excelled in their quality and variety (see below):

And the Bistro. As I said, the food is pretty much the same as served upstairs, which is expected, but you can serve yourself at all meals. The guy at the end is the Omelet Man who will make you an omelet of your choice at breakfast. One day I asked for my version of a Barney Greenglass special: omelet with eggs, onions, and lox (yes! they had lox!)

Breakfast at the Bistro. Omelet man:

And his wares. In a failed attempt to eat healthy, I had a spinach omelet with vegetables. But there are always freshly scrambled eggs on tap as well. And since there are many Brits, Aussies, and Kiwis aboard, there are sausages, baked beans, blood pudding, and grilled tomatoes, as well as everything else you’d expect for breakfast. I fancied the plain rolls with local butter, which I’d slather with delicious strawberry or lingonberry preserves, which I think were homemade.

Another iteration of my breakfast with fruit, grapefruit juice, a chocolate croissant, a roll, scrambled eggs, and hash browns. So much for eating healthy! But I emphasize that I don’t eat like this at home, where I usually have one meal a day (dinner), along with a latte for breakfast and a light lunch like a grapefruit.

The all-important coffee machine, which grinds the beans on top. I always had two cappuccinos for breakfast. You can see there are eight hot drinks to be had, including cocoa. A waiter was constantly circulating with American-style coffee, but I eschewed it.

LUNCH!  My attempt to create lox and bagel with a schmear:

Most of this is in the Balena restaurant, where I’d often have lunch since it was buffet style. I don’t think I have any photos of dinner, but you can see the Balena’s layout at the Ultramarine link.

Cheese, and lots of it (with crackers). My theory, which is mine, is that Scandinavians like cheese:

The salad bar (only a part of it). There must have been about 20 items you could put on your salad, and always three dressings:

I always started lunch with a salad in my futile attempt to eat healthy. Note the CARBS at the top and some lox that found its way onto my plate:

Salad was followed by another plate, usually light to allow me room for dessert. Here we have some chicken, an unknown food (cottage pie?) at 3 o’clock, a few fries, and spanakopita to the left.

They also offered these luscious stuffed peppers, but I saw them too late—after I’d loaded my plate:

Finally, the crown jewel of the comestibles: desserts. There was always a tray of different fancy desserts, as well as three kinds of ice cream. You need that sugar after a spell among the icebergs! Photos are from both restaurants and from different days.

There is fruit for the timid, but I had my fruit at breakfast:

Bread-and-butter pudding with vanilla sauce. I could not resist!

And the requisite three ice creams, one of them vegan (sorbet, I guess). Here you get a choice of chocolate, pistachio, and apple (vegan) frozen desserts:

I always had at least two desserts, but more often three. Hey, they were small!

Now I didn’t spend all my time eating, nor did I expect this much food, and of such high quality. But it’s vacation, and that means it’s a Free Zone for Gluttony.  In the next photos, I’ll show our landings, glacier cruises on the Zodiac, and animals.

I do recommend the ship highly, and perhaps may take it again. I have a big hankering to go to South Georgia Island, where Shackleton and a few mates went to rescue their crew. But it’s a long haul at sea with nothing in between.  But it has the largest colony of king penguins in the world: 450,000 breeding pairs, or half the world’s population. I need to see that!  They also have many seals and birds, and there Shackleton is laid to rest as well. It’s traditional to have a tot of whiskey by his grave.