Category: travel photography

To the Arctic: my trip, part 1

August 5, 2025 • 9:00 am

As you know, I recently took an 11-day trip to the Arctic, visiting Svalbard (formerly Spitzbergen), the usually forbidden island of Jan Mayan, and Iceland. Because we didn’t have Internet near the Arctic Circle, I couldn’t send photo or accounts of the trip, so I’ll try to catch up here bit by bit. First, the maps of our trip, courtesy of the folks at Quark Expeditions, who ran the trip on the small (200-passenger, but only 140 aboard) ship the Ultramarine, designed for polar destinations (it’s heading as we speak for Antarctica). As you see, most of the stops were in Svalbard, but there’s plenty to see there.

There are three maps here, each circle indicates a landing or a Zodiac trip. Note #5: our furtheest north; the edge of the Arctic sea ice (see below).

Here’s the daily log at noon from the bridge. As I noted, we got as far north at 82° North Latitude, farther north than the ship, or anybody on it, had ever been (see here for photos).

The first leg of the trip was a flight to Helsinki, Finland where we spent the night in an airport hotel (no time for sightseeing), and then a 3.5-hour flight the next morning to Svalbard, formally a part of Norway.  This archipelago (nearly all islands are uninhabited) is shown in dark green from this Wikipedia map. It’s above the Arctic Circle (60° N).

Rob984, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

We landed at the island’s capital, Longyearbyen, which is touted as the world’s most northerly city with a population of more than 1,000 (it was 2,595 two years ago). The location is shown in red below. As Wikipedia notes, the city “stretches along the foot of the left bank of the Longyear Valley and on the shore of Adventfjorden, the short estuary leading into Isfjorden on the west coast of Spitsbergen, the island’s broadest inlet.” It’s easily accessible by sea, and hence a good place to start a ship tour.

Fleinn, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Now I have to brag that on my trips to Antarctica I also visited all three places touted as “the world’s most southern town“: Punta Arenas, Puerto Williams, and Ushuaia. In latititude the farthest south is Puerto Williams in Chile (54°56′S, 67°37′W, population 1,868), so I can say I’ve been to the most northerly and southerly towns on Earth.

But back to Longyearbyen. It’s a rather dreary place, enlivened only by a few colorful houses and otherwise rather slipshod.  There’s one shopping center where everyone gathers (it has the only grocery store), and I spent several hours there because a wander through the town took about 1.5 hours (they gave us 3.5 hours). I found a cozy chair outside a store and nodded off for a while until our ship, the Ultramarine, left in the afternoon.

It was a cozy ship, unlike the Hurtigruten “Roald Amundsen” on which I lectured and traveled to Antarctica (ca 450 passengers).  The Ultramarine was a delightful vessel, the food was great, the staff was friendly, and, if I can scrape up the dosh, I hope to travel on it again.  Here she be, but more photos of the ship and my cabin will comelater. (Click photos to enlarge them.)

Getting ready to land:

Longyearbyen: our plane from Helsinki. Below that, the first thing you see when you enter the tiny airport terminal, and a sign:

Yes, there are a fair amount of polar bears about, and if you leave the town you’d best carry a gun in case of attack (our guides packed rifles on the trip nearly every time we landed).

Note the “watch out for polar bears” sign. This is not a joke: a woman tourist was killed by a polar bear a few years ago while camping outside near the airport. You do not want to mess with polar bears: they are the largest four-footed predator on Earth, they are totally carnivorous, and they are brazen:

This picture of the town is from Wikipedia; the rest of the photos are mine.  In the background is the former coal-mining operation of the Arctic Coal Company, but that’s been closed for eight years. Instead, as Wikipedia notes, “Meanwhile, the town has seen a large increase in tourism and research. This includes the arrival of institutions such as the University Centre in Svalbard, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and Svalbard Satellite Station. Svalbard Airport, Svalbard Church and the Svalbardbutikken department store serve the community.”

And this is pretty much it:

Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The colorful houses are the main draw; here are some:

They are set at the bottom of a hill, which spanwed a big avalanche in 2015 that killed one person and injured 9. I presume the barriers on the mountain were erected later to prevent such events.

While the houses are attractive, behind them people just strew their snowmobiles and skis in big piles, so the city is rather a mess if you snoop around.  But I can see why the residents don’t care much. Big fun in the snow in winter (the aurora is also visible from the city). At this latitude it’s light 24 hours per day, though it gets a bit darker in the middle of the night.

A back porch. Everyone has skis.

Stuff on sale in the grocery store. Besides regular groceries, there’s a big section of tourist-related items featuring the local wildlife:

These are real, and are in the dog food section. (I looked for cat food, but there was none, so I guess there are no cats in Longyearbyen.  I bet that’s because of the bears.)

And I think this is the dreaded RHUBARB, a vegetable I cannot abide. Am I right in my guess?

Wandering disconsolately around the town for the second time, waiting to get on the ship, I heard a honk nearby. And here I found the best part of the city: geese and their goslings! These are barnacle geese, (Branta leucopsis). a species with a range in northern Europe and the Arctic.  I’m not a big fan of geese (ducks are much better), but these are attractive and their fuzzy gray goslings are adorable.

Part of a large group nesting in a field next to the shopping center. There were many more than shown here.

I have to admit that they are good looking:

And with babies!

They were my first wildlife of the trip, and, if I kept a life list, I could have added these babies.  Here’s their range taken from Wikipedia. They are migratory, wintering in the British Isles and northern Europe:

MPF, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

That made my day, and, in late afternoon, we boarded the ship. The next installment, whenever I get to put it up, will show the ship, my cabin, and the bridge, where we were allowed to wander freely.

Reader’s (my) wildlife photos: Polar bear gnaws dead sperm whale

July 25, 2025 • 10:00 am

One of my “bucket list” goals of going to the Arctic was to see polar bears (also puffins, walruses other birds, and whales). I got them all, but I didn’t get close enough to a puffin.

This photo series, one or two I showed before at much lower resolution, comprises two of these elements: a polar bear and a whale, identified by our whale experts as a sperm whale (I can’t verify this). Near the northernmost part of our trip, at roughly 83º north latitude (a record for the ship itself and everybody on it), we saw an amazing sight: a polar bear (Ursus maritimus) gobbling down the blubber of a dead sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) on top of an ice floe. So here you see the world’s largest terrestrial predator gnawing on the world’s largest marine predator.  It is a rarity, as both animals are scarce, and to see them together raised the hair on my neck. It was so amazing! Here are a few shots:

Don’t ask me how a dead whale got on an ice floe rather than sinking in the sea.  This sight alone was, to me, worth the price of the trip. But there was of course a lot more, which I’ll post in the coming weeks. These, though, are my favorite photos. Even an expert polar photographer doesn’t come across situations like this. (Click ’em to enlarge.)

If the resolution leaves a bit to be desired, this was taken with my point-and-shoot Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS60 camera with the lens cranked all the way out to 30X.  I highly recommend this camera for travel, as it fits in your pocket but takes a lot better photos than does an iPhone.

More to come.

Pictures of the day

July 11, 2025 • 10:15 am

I will try posting at least one photo today as I experiment with degrading their quality to enable posting.

This is from Walrus Day: yesterday. We took Zodiacs to the shore where there was a huge pile o’ walruses sleeping. Apparently they do not do this to keep warm, as they’re already too warm (the pink skin in the second photograph was explained as the animals having pumped blood to the skin to cool off). No, they are thigmotropic: they like to touch other individuals. This was my first sight of a walrus, just as the previous photo of a polar bear represented my first view of a bear—any bear—in the wild. Our ship, the Ultramarine, is the in the background of the first photo.

Here goes:

 

 

Readers’ wildlife photos

January 21, 2025 • 8:15 am

Today we have a text-and-photo essay by Athayde Tonhasca Júnior, which is really a tour of the signs of Britain. Athayde’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

This here Britain

Not all is well in King Charles’ British realm. Thousands of people, children included, have been found guilty of ‘non-crime hate incidents‘ (it is as dystopian as it sounds), you can go to jail for posting the wrong opinion on X, the government is considering making ‘Islamophobia’ illegal,  our health system is crumbling, J.K. Rowling and Dr Hilary Cass can’t walk freely in the streets, our children are taught that British history is shameful, our rivers are choked with poo, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer (chief financial minister) is counting on China, that paragon of democracy, to resuscitate our economy. Yet, you still can rely on someone from these islands to bring a smile to your face.

An ugly bin morphed into a rubbish-eating pixie:

This Glaswegian white van man is dreaming big:

A reminder about realistic life expectations:

All the News That’s Fit to Print in Folkestone, a coastal town in the English Channel:

Ice-cream you can trust:

Nobody’s better than Greta to help you express sanctimonious indignation towards fellow drivers:

Never miss an opportunity to impress, even when under duress:

Only a few touches were needed to produce a happy splatter:

How do you save a dying pirate? With C-P-arr; what instrument does an old pirate play? A git-arr:

An unexpected yet insightful card found inside a discarded library book:

A warning to body snatchers Burke and Hare wannabes:

A joke or an oversight?:

Police Constable Rob wasn’t happy about the anatomical exposure:

Kill markings on a Land Rover:

Theological epiphanies come from unexpected places:

Hot and juicy cheese toasties on the coast at Broughty Ferry, Scotland. Unfortunately this van is no longer there:

How can you not do business with them?:

Bishops Finger ale takes its name from the finger-shaped wayside signposts in Kent (where it’s brewed) that guided pilgrims to the tomb of Thomas Becket in Canterbury. Archbishop Becket, a figurative and literal hairshirt wearer, wouldn’t be too pleased with this ad:

An anti-litter appeal in Arbroath harbour, Scotland. If you let you guard down there, seagulls will pilfer your food:

Stepping onto sacred ground:

Ich bin in Frankfurt und esse eine Brezel

December 10, 2024 • 6:45 am

Happy Tuesday; it’s December 10, 2024, and Coynezaa is just around the corner. There’s another holiday, too, but it celebrates a myth, whereas I am real.

It has been a hectic three days, but also fun: giving two talks (I fell off the stage during the first one), touring around Katowice, and eating large quantities of hearty Silesian food. I have a gazillion photos, but, as I’m cooling my heels in the airport in Frankfurt, I have no time to post them—save one. And that is the picture below, showing yours truly eating a classic German comestible in the airport.

If I look a wreck, I am. My plane left Katowice for Frankfurt at 6 a.m., which meant boarding at 5:30, which meant getting up at 2:00 a.m. and leaving my hotel, some distance from the planes, at 3 a.m.

I went to bed at 9, hoping for five hours of sleep, but woke up at 12:15, soon after midnight, and what with the excitement of impending travel it was clear that I wasn’t going back to sleep. So I watched CNN instead (the only English t.v. channel) to discover, via Anderson Cooper, that the police had actually caught the man accused of shooting health executive Brian Thompson. When the law caught up to him, the suspect, one Luigi Mangioni of New Jersey, was chowing down at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.  And it doesn’t look good for him:

The Altoona officers who took Mr. Mangione into custody found that he had several telltale items that might tie him to Mr. Thompson’s killing, a crime that has riveted the nation while exposing Americans’ deep-seated anger toward the U.S. health insurance industry.

Mr. Mangione, officials said, had a gun and a silencer similar to the ones used in the Dec. 4 shooting, and a fake driver’s license that matched one used by the man suspected in the killing.

He also carried with him a three-page handwritten manifesto condemning the health care industry for putting profits over patients.

“These parasites had it coming,” it said, according to a senior law enforcement official who saw the document. It added: “I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done.”

The document specifically mentioned UnitedHealthcare, the insurance giant where Mr. Thompson was chief executive, noting its size and the amount of revenue it takes in, the official said.

Yes, he’s presumed innocent until found guilty, but I’m here to tell you that the probability of any other verdict seems nil. He’s 26 and will surely, if convicted, spend the rest of his natural life behind bars.

Read more about the pinch at the archived link here. It was a nifty bit of police work, made easier by Mangione pulling his mask down just one time, when he was flirting with a woman at a hostel.  But once was enough: look at the hostel picture and compare it to the many circulating pictures of Mangione. I’m glad he’s caught, for nobody deserves vigilante execution, which is capital punishment without a trial. In fact, I don’t believe anybody deserves execution at all. Life without parole is more than enough, and remember that some people can reform.

But they’re very sad about the arrest over at P********a, where the fulminating miscreants are not only delighted, but have been egged on in their hatred by the Chief Miscreant himself, who urges his baying hounds before pulling the trigger to first find out who heads healthcare corporations that deny claims.  Then, as the capo says, “After you’ve followed the chain of decisions, then you can consider terminating some rich a-hole. It’s the polite thing to do.”

Indeed, nothing makes you look better to “progressives” than urging your readers to murder rich people, preferably CEOs of healthcare corporations.

In other news, where is Bashar al-Assad? Is he dead, as some suspect? Or has he fled to his pals in Russia?

Paul Krugman has written his last column for the NYT, and, over in France, the right-wing Marine Le Pen is plotting to topple the French government and replace it with one far more to the right. Sound familiar?

There are reports of continuing peace talks between Israel and Hamas, but I don’t think they’ll amount to much. If they result in releasing thousands of convicted Palestinian terrorists from jail, while not letting all the hostages go—indeed, if a settlement leaves anything of Hamas to govern Gaza, Israel will have lost.

And that’s the nooz till I get home and take a day to recover.

Christmastime in Poland

December 7, 2024 • 8:15 am

It’s a mere 18 days until Christmas and, of course, the First Day of Coynezaa.  Both festivities are marked by an overconsumption of food, and Coynezaa enjoys the advantage of having no religious overtones save encomiums for Professor Ceiling Cat (Emeritus).

Here in Katowice, in southern Poland, the Christmas Market is already in full swing in the town square, and I happened upon it walking back from the Silesian Science Festival (today I registered, tomorrow and Monday I speak). It was exactly what I’d expect a Polish Christmas market to be: full of fun, food, and just a bit of religion in the form of singing angels (not shown). Here are a few holiday snaps I took while crossing the town square.

Yep, here’s where we are:

Katowice has an ancient history, but lacks the charm of other Polish cities for two reasons: it was an industrial hub for mining coal and steel, and, under German occupation, many of its landmarks were wrecked, including the Great Synagogue, shown below next to the City Baths. It was completed in 1900 and razed by the Germans in 1939.  And of course most of the Jews were killed or sent away to be murdered.

Photo from public domain, Wikipedia.

An old building that remains in the city square:

Here is a monument that I take to be in honor of the local miners. Note the flowers and miner’s lamp at the base:

And everywhere people were having fun and laughing, expecially the kids. This one got a big soap bubble:

But the adults were also having a great time. There are various plastic status behind which you can stick your face to get a photograph. Like these people:

A penguin:

And a train chugging the kids through the market:

But of course people were there to get stuff, too: mostly food. Like these roasted chestnuts:

And look at this inventive and mouth-watering display of lollipops:

And, of curse, gingerbread, a Polish speciality for the holidays:

Very fancy gingerbread. These say “Happy Christmas” in Polish:

Various candies (caramels?), some of them flavored with booze (“piwo” is beer):

And what is a Polish market without sausages?

There were stalls selling non-comestibles, too. This one carried a variety of soaps, including these cat soaps in lavender and lily-of-the-valley (“kot” is “cat” in Polish):

Walking back to my hotel on the shopping street, I saw a big line in front of one shop. It was selling a variety of soft pretzels, and I would have joined the line had it been shorter:

There was a variety, including non-twisted pretzels filled with Nutella. The cinnamon pretzels were nearly sold out:

But below is a store selling the quintessence of Polish baked treats: pączki.  Wikipedia describes them:

A pączek is a deep-fried piece of dough shaped into a flattened ball and filled with confiture or other sweet filling. Pączki are usually covered with powdered sugar, icing, glaze, or bits of dried orange zest. A small amount of grain alcohol (traditionally rectified spirit) is added to the dough before cooking; as it evaporates, it prevents the absorption of oil deep into the dough.  Pączki are commonly thought of as fluffy but somewhat collapsed, with a bright stripe around them; these features are seen as evidence that the dough was fried in fresh oil.

Although they look like German berliners (bismarcks in North America) or jelly doughnuts, pączki are made from especially rich dough containing eggs, fats, sugar, yeast, and sometimes milk.

(Note that when JFK proclaimed himself “Ich bin ein Berliner” in Germany in June, 1963, his attempt to forge solidarity with the divided people of that city actually meant, in German, “I am a jelly donut.”  He should have said “Ich bin Berliner.”)

Believe me; these pastries are superb! The only thing preventing me from trying one or three was that I was full from the ample spread of goodies in the Science Festival’s VIP room, to which I have access as a speaker. But have a look at these puppies! There are four zloty to the dollar, so each large filled pastry is about two bucks.

Happy Christmas from Poland!

I have landed!

December 6, 2024 • 10:11 am

I have arrived in Katowice (population 287,000), where it’s snowing, after a comfortable 5-hour train ride south from Wroclawek. I finished the novel I brought (A Gesture Life, by Change-rae Lee, highly recommended) and then reread the highlights of a book I’m reviewing for another site.

Although Polish trains have internet, I avoided using it, as for some reason I use long-distance transportation as a way to avoid being online.

Here is a map of Poland from Worldometers. The northern arrow is the approximate location of Dobrzyn, and the southern one shows Katowice:

Tomorrow I’ll have a look at the festival, and then I give my talks on Sunday and Monday mornings, flying home early Tuesday (6 A.M.!) from Katowice via Frankfurt.

My week in Dobrzyn is, sadly, at an end, and it was great to see Andrzej and Malgorzata again, and to experience their patented brand of hospitality, including political conversation, a soft couch to work on (I finished my essay), four meals a day featuring great pies and cakes, and three—count them, three—moggies.  Dobrzyn is paradise enow. I will return, but I know not when.

In the meantime, here are photos of the cats. Hili was often scarce, trying to stay outside as long as possible before the weather becomes intolerably cold, or sleeping in the basement. But sometimes she’d favor me by lying on my bed, in which case I would join her with my book. She likes to burrow under the covers.

Below: Szaron and Baby Kulka on the windowsill, each on their own blanket. You will NEVER find Kulka and Hili together in this position, as they hate each other. For readers who have asked me why, I have no answer.

Apparently when Szaron came into the house as a rescued stray (Kulka formally lives upstairs with the lodgers but is often downstairs), Hili also hated him, but she got over that. Now Hili and Szaron are friendly, though not so friendly that they cuddle together. But Hili’s hatred for Kulka is implacable, and they avoid each other completely.

Two photos of Kulka. I have trouble telling her apart from Hili in photos, but Andrzej and Malgorzata have no problem. Kulka has more white on her face:

And Szaron, the world’s most affectionate cat. I had some good lap time with him yesterday. All it takes is one pat on the back and he begins purring like a motorboat, and will not stop, nor cease soliciting further petting, until you have to do something else:

Finally, my spiffy Katowice hotel room across the street from the train station. I had to take a panoramic picture to get it all in (click to enlarge).

Tomorrow I head to the conference to register and see what’s about, and perhaps have a look around the area, hoping to find some pierogi and potato pancakes.