Category Archives: Uncategorized

20 MARCH 2019. TROMSØ, NORWAY: A SIDE TRIP TO FINLAND

March 20, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Back in Tromsø, we spent all day looking at the dark and gloomy sky, wondering how–or if–we were going to catch a glimpse of the Aurora once more. The skies never cleared here, but off we went nevertheless, with a guide promising cloudless skies two hours away…just across the border in Finland.

Sounded like a deal too good to miss. I have been in Southern Finland many times, in and around Helsinki on the Baltic Sea and in Karelia, just above Saint Petersburg in Russia. But we were headed for the region of Storfjord, near the town of Skibotn in far northern Finland.

Sweden was neutral during World War II, although the nation traded with both sides. Finland began the war fighting the Soviets in the Winter War with some success, becoming a proxy of Germany for a while. Later Finland fought against Germany, with the Soviets pushing them in that direction. By the end of the war, Finland was once again fighting–and losing–to the Soviets.

The Germans used the region as one of their land gateways to fight the Finns, and this was the only part of greater Tromsø that was not all but burned to the ground by the Germans.

Today it is a very, very remote place with mixed populations of Norwegians, Sami, and Kvan peoples.

And us. As promised, the skies were clear on the Finnish side of the border. Unfortunately, the bright supermoon and a weak solar wind gave us only a glimpse of the lights. But for me, no voyage of exploration is without discovery.

Here is some of what we saw; for more, see my blog entry for 7 March below.

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18-19 MARCH 2019. ALTA, NORWAY: DAY FOR NIGHT

March 19, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

We are back in Alta once again, the northernmost port of call on this cruise in search for the Northern Lights.

Altafjord at Alta when clouds cleared on Tuesday.

We knew this already, but we received reinforcement in our understanding of the fact that the search can sometimes be quite difficult. A week ago, they danced and shimmered and moved against a clear back sky. Last night, the sky was nearly completely covered with clouds, but three hours of waiting at the ski resort at Storsandnes finally revealed a teasing reminder.

The next morning, groggy from a long night out on the search, we went into the city of Alta.

The Northern Lights Cathedral in Alta, a decidedly modern structure, is meant to evoke the spiral of the Aurora Borealis.

Within the Northern Lights Cathedral in Alta.

In the Sentrum of the city, a winter festival featured handsome ice and snow sculptures; the rest of Norway is much the same.

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17 MARCH 2019. NARVIK, NORWAY: WINTER FESTIVAL

March 17, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

We are back in Narvik during the peak of the Winter Festival, the Vinterfestuka. Sundays are always sleepy in places like this, but town very much felt like the morning after the night before.

We did, though, see buses pulling up in town collecting locals heading to church and the parties to follow.

The festival celebrates the construction of the railroad that connects Narvik on the Norwegian Sea to the interior of Sweden at Kiruna about 1900. That railroad was built to haul iron ore from Sweden to the coast and mile-long trains still rumble over the mountain pass to town daily.

The loading station for LKAB, the mining and railroad company that transports iron ore from Kiruna, Sweden to Narvik for loading onto waiting freighters

It was that railroad that attracted the interest of the Germans and the Allies at the start of World War II, and a major naval battle was fought in the narrow bounds of the fjord in town. Nearly all of Narvik was burned to the ground by the Germans when they eventually retreated near the end of the conflict.

Festivalgoers wear special clothing: black trousers and a flannel shirt with vest for the men; a long black skirt and colorful shawl for the women.

Those of us coming from the ship wore our warmest winter clothing, any color, any length.

Here are some more scenes from Narvik today:

From here to there by road. Boris Gleb? That’s a town near Murmansk, Russia.

The ski hill above Narvik, seen from aboard ship

Gravestones of Allied naval and air personnel buried on the hillside at Narvik.

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14-15 MARCH 2019. BERGEN, NORWAY: HEADING NORTH ONE MORE TIME

March 15, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

The handsome city of Bergen reverted to form this morning, with dark skies and drizzle.

But we shall not forget yesterday, 13 March, when a bright yellow orb crossed perfect blue skies.

Friday March 15 was a more typical Bergen winter day with rain, drizzle, fog, snow, and a cold wind. (In summer it’s quite different: rain, drizzle, fog, sometimes warm.)

Viking Sky at the dock, seen through the fog from the top of Mount Fløien

The historic Bryggen trading kontor of the Hanseatic League, seen from behind, a view often missed by tourists

An alleyway of Bryggen

Most of the historic 15th through 18th century structures of Bryggen were marked with animal or other symbols to help identify them to illiterate traders and merchants

As we depart Bergen to head north to near the top of Norway, we hope for clear skies and active solar winds as we sally forth once again in search of the Northern Lights. I hope you will follow me here in these pages.

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13-14 MARCH 2019. BERGEN: THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING

March 14, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

We have reached the conclusion of this cruise, with a beautiful sail-in to Norway’s second city, Bergen.

This is a place that gets a lot of rain. A lot. So much so that my large collection of photos from many visits we have made to Bergen contains very few flashes of blue sky. That ended today, a superlative day with hardly a cloud in the sky and cool weather for walking. And so we did.

Here is some of what we saw:

Bergen’s historic Bryggen district, the former home of the Kontor or trading post of the Hanseatic League.

Snow on one of the seven hills that surround Bergen.

Bergen’s train station, which connects up into the mountains to Voss, above Flåm, and from there on to Oslo on the other side of the country on the Baltic Sea.

We wish guests leaving us here safe travels, and look forward to meeting new friends on our trip back north up the coast of Norway.

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11 MARCH 2019. NARVIK, NORWAY: THE END OF THE IRON ROAD

March 11, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

We arrived early this morning under a stunning blue sky and crisp air at Narvik, one of the locations of the most significant naval battles of World War II.

The reason for the modern port, which was also the lure for the Germans and the Allies, is the railroad that arrives at sea level from the interior of Sweden. More than a dozen mile-long trains carrying iron ore arrive most days to be loaded onto waiting freighters here.

In the runup to World War II, Germany (and the United Kngdom) were each receiving huge quantities of iron ore from Sweden, which remained mostly neutral throughout the war.

Germany sent in a fleet to seize the port and secure the railroad in 1939, and then the British sent their navy to try and displace them. Thousands of sailors and infantry on both sides died, and Narvik was pounded for most of the war. It was also the site of a concentration camp run by the Germans, holding mostly Yugoslavian and Serbian prisoners, most of whom died in the horrific conditions.

I went with a group of guests to the Narvik Krigsmuseum (the Narvik War Museum) to see some of the artifacts of the war and some exhibitions of well-intentioned hopes for peace. Then we made a visit to a cold, silent cemetery holding some of the British, Canadian, French, Polish, German, and others who died here.

Later tonight we sail back out to sea to head to Bergen, the last port of call on this cruise.

*A sea mine recovered from the harbor at Narvik.*

*A cemetery of Allied and Axis and civilians in Narvik.*

*Aboard ship, from the Explorer’s Lounge.*

*In a reflective mood, the snow-covered mountains mirrored aboard ship.*

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10 MARCH 2019. SAILING OUT OF ALTA

March 10, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

After our second day in Alta, we departed our northernmost port and headed through Altafjord to the open ocean. In the early evening we sailed nder the bridge and along the waterfront of Tromsø before turning south to run down the coast to our ultimate destination of Bergen.

Norway…is always stunning. Like this:

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9 MARCH 2019. ALTA, NORWAY BY DAY

March 9, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Overnight we sailed around the corner and half a degree further north to Alta, at 69 degrees 97 minutes North.

It’s an isolated, cold place and the skies are gray this morning but we’re hoping for clearing and more shots of the Northern Lights near midnight.

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9-10 MARCH 2019. ALTA, NORWAY BY NIGHT: HERE BE DRAGONS

March 9, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

After dark I went with a group of guests north and west from Alta to Langfjordbotn, a tiny community at the end of an arm of the Altafjord.

An historical note: it was here that the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst hid from about 1941 to 1943 before sallying out for the Battle of the North Cape where she was eventually sunk.

Closer to Alta, at Kafjord, was the penultimate hiding place of the battleship Tirpitz, which was Winston Churchill’s northern obsession. The Tirpitz was bombed and seriously damaged near Alta, but managed to escape to another hiding place near Tromsø where she was eventually sunk.

Alta was heavily clouded all day, but our drive to Langfjordbotn brought us to a mostly clear place and there we waited for the appearance of the Northern Lights. When they arrived, they were very different from what we had seen earlier in the cruise: here they shimmered and waved like a multicolored curtain.

If you have ever wondered why so many cultures of the far north (including China, Japan, Russia, and Scandinavia) include dragons, look at the fourth image in the following series.

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7-8 MARCH 2019. TROMSØ BY NIGHT: THE NORTHERN LIGHTS FOUND

March 8, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

We are out of the winter’s Polar Night, two months of near-total darkness. The day stretches about ten hours and the city bustles while the sun is visible.

And then it quickly grows dark.

All across the city, from our ship and from hotels, come wide-eyed visitors bundled up in nearly every piece of clothing they brought with them. They are headed into the countryside to wait and watch for one of nature’s most astounding sights: the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights.

They begin as filmy greenish clouds and then grow denser and begin to dance. The human eye is particularly sensitive to green, and that is the tipoff to raise your camera skyward. And modern digital cameras take in all of that light and produce amazing images that will stay with us forever.

Here are some of the pictures I made during a six-hour trek with some professional aurora hunters:

**Photo by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved 2019.**

When you watch the aurora you understand how many human myths and beliefs were formed: dragons, specters, and pathways to the heavens.

***Photo of Corey Sandler by Polar Adventures, Troms*ø*, Norway 8 March 2019.***

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7 MARCH 2019. TROMSØ BY DAY

March 7, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

March in Tromsø gives hope of the coming of spring and the possibility of summer here in the far north of Norway, well within the Arctic Circle.

I have been here several dozen times in summer when the sun never fully sets and the mountains are mostly green with a bit of white fringe on top. On this visit, we blew in with a snowstorm but by early morning it was a glorious day with blue skies and the whitest, cleanest snow imaginable.

Here is some of what we saw:

Clearing the aft deck of the ship and building a snowman, near the infinity pool which was unsurprisingly not in use.

*Across the harbor to the mainland of Norway.*

*A statue of the great arctic explorer Roald Amundsen, who used this port for many of his expeditions, checks on shipping traffic.*

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4 MARCH 2019. STAVANGER, NORWAY

March 4, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Viking Sky at the dock in Stavanger. All photos by Corey Sandler

The Three Swords monument at the site of the Battle of Hafrsfjord in 872, a naval battle that led to the first unification of Norway.

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2 MARCH TO 14 MARCH 2019. VIKING SKY: IN SEARCH OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS

March 2, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Welcome aboard. I am happy to share some of my photographs taken aboard Viking Sky on our journey from London’s cruise port at Tilbury to near the top of Norway in Search of the Northern Lights.

The photos presented on the following blog entries are low-resolution and small size. Please contact me if you would like to obtain higher-resolution versions.

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6 January 2019:
San Francisco, United States:
Through The Golden Gate (UPDATED)

January 6, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

We have reached the end of our voyage between the seas, from Fort Lauderdale in Florida to San Francisco in California.

Our cruise retraced the path of thousands of early explorers and then prospectors who went from the east coast of the United States across the Isthmus of Panama and up to San Francisco. And the last two ports of call, San Diego and San Francisco were each sites of major expositions in 1915 to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal.

The cruise is now complete but the memories of our path between the seas will sustain.

Here are some photos I took as our ship sailed below the Golden Gate Bridge and docked at the Embarcadero in San Francisco in the predawn darkness with the Oakland Bay Bridge deeper into the harbor.

I wish all of our guests safe travels.

I’ll be back soon, reporting from Europe on Silver Wind. I hope you’ll join me here.

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Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

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4 January 2019:
San Diego, United States:
California Dreaming

January 4, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

San Diego is a beautiful setting, a great year-round climate, a natural deepwater harbor, great beaches, and an economy based to a great extent on the U.S. Navy and tourism.

But San Diego has a bit of a second-city complex. It is, in fact, the second most populous city in California after Los Angeles. In my opinion, L-A gets all the attention but San Diego—and San Francisco—deserve some more of the praise.

One of my favorite things about one of my favorite cities is the wonderful mix between old Spanish style structures and new buildings. Although San Diego certainly is booming, at least thus far they have not destroyed their past.

Here are some of the things I saw today, beginning with the arrival of the pilot to guide us into San Diego Bay and continuing on land to the historic Santa Fe Railroad Station and then into a bit of the Gaslamp District.

Our cruise from Florida through the Panama Canal to California follows the path of some of those who came to San Diego for the Panama–California Exposition in March, 1915 as part of the celebration of the opening of the Panama Canal.

The exposition was held in San Diego’s large urban Balboa Park. At a time when many architects (including at a simultaneous fair in San Francisco) embraced the over-the-top Beaux-Arts style, in San Diego they chose Spanish Baroque, which includes some Moorish Revival elements, and a bit of Spanish Colonial design.

The fair was decorated with more than two million plants of 1,200 different types. Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell made a three-day appearance in November 1915.

Some of the Exposition’s buildings are still standing, including the Botanical Building, with a changing display of rare and notable plants, the 200-foot-tall California Bell Tower, shaped like a Spanish ship, the Chapel of St. Francis of Assisi, and the Fine Arts Building , now part of the Museum of Man.

And the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. In 2015, the organ was expanded to 80 ranks and 5,017 pipes, once again making it the world’s largest pipe organ in a fully outdoor venue.

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2 January 2019:
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico:
Arcs of Sand

January 2, 2019 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Cabo San Lucas, the Cape of Saint Luke, Cabo San Lucas is at the bottom of the peninsula of Baja California, lower California in Mexico.

We arrived this morning and put down our anchor just offshore of the famous arches, Los Arcos. here are some photographs from today:

At the far northern end of the peninsula is Tijuana, and beyond that is San Diego, where we are scheduled to call Friday.

It was a relatively prosperous fishing and agricultural port for the first few centuries of its existence.

And then in 1973, the Transpeninsular Highway (Mexico Route 1) was completed, linking Cabo to Tijuana and from there to that big country to the north, the United States.

With the road and an airport, Cabo became an accessible destination.

It is now home to about 81,000 people, most of whom work in the tourism industry: hotels, restaurants, shops, tour guides.

It is a beautiful bay, with lovely beaches and lots and lots of tourists…and fishermen angling to catch dollars and euros and pounds from the pockets of visitors.

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30 December 2018:
Puerto Chiapas, Mexico:
The Birthplace of Time

December 30, 2018 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Mexico’s ancient culture reaches back thousands of years.

And there are hundreds of cruise ships heading north or south along the coast each year, looking for places to stop. More and more each year.

And so we have new ports in an old country:

Two small, old ports called Puerto Madero and Puerto de San Benito were redeveloped as a commercial harbor in the 1970s and renamed Puerto Chiapas. And a cruise terminal came along 15 years ago.

And so we are here. There is not much of a settlement at the port, but it does serve as the gateway to the ancient Olmec city of Tapachula, dating from about 1500 BCE. It was at its height from about 600 BCE until 100 of the modern era.

And about 45 minutes from our ship is the archeological site of Izapa.

The ancient peoples of Mesoamerica—centered in and around this area—developed an elaborate time-reckoning system composed of both a 260-day sacred almanac and a 365-day secular calendar.

They came upon that 365-day year perhaps 1800 years before the solar calendar was supposedly “invented” in Europe.

Izapa is along the Izapa River near the base of the Tacaná volcano, the fourth largest mountain in Mexico.

Here is how it looked today:

Izapa certainly is not as well known as places like Chichen-Itza or Tikal in Guatemala (two great Mayan sites). It does not have the monumental pyramids and temples of those sites which were developed later. But in some ways Izapa is richer and more significant.

The site contains many carved Stelae or posts, most of them from the Mayans who succeeded the Olmecs.

We also paid a call at the town of Tuxtla Chico near Izapa.

And there we were serenaded by a marimba band and given a demonstration of the opening of cacao pods, their roasting, and their conversion into the makings of that essential of life, chocolate.

We are headed out to sea now and for the next two days will be proceeding north up the coast of Mexico to Cabo San Lucas. We will celebrate New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day aboard ship, and wish all a healthy and happy New Year.

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29 December 2018:
Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala:
The Land of the Respendent Quetzal

December 29, 2018 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Guatemala is a place of resplendent beauty, terrible poverty, great history, tragic bloodshed, vibrant culture, and a rebirth with a still uncertain future.

It has balanced on a knife’s edge for centuries.

Inland from the port of Puerto Quetzal lies the huge metropolis of Guatemala City, which would not qualify as one of the more attractive places on this planet. It is a place of grinding poverty, made worse by growling volcanoes all around.

But a bit further is the ancient city of Antigua Guatemala, which is a mostly intact Spanish Colonial city. In fact, the Spanish governed most of Central America from Mexico to Peru from here.

Antigua Guatemala has been damaged over the centuries by earthquakes and volcanoes. But somehow it has managed to maintain an air of dignity and quiet.

I traveled with guests today from the port about 90 minutes up to the old city. Along the way we had to traverse a section of highway that had been destroyed by the eruption of a volcano just a few months ago.

Today in Antigua Guatemala was a Saturday market day and a general festival between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Here is some of what we saw:

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27 December 2018:
Puntarenas, Costa Rica:
Pura Vida

December 27, 2018 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

We arrived in hot and muggy Puntarenas this morning and I went with a group of guests into the rainforest where we jumped off about a dozen perfectly good trees.

We were, of course engaging in the entertainment known as zip-lining. It’s a lot of fun and not nearly as scary as bungee jumping or parachuting.

Strapped into a harness and attached to not one but two separate steel cables above, participants glide through the jungle as if we we belonged there.

Just to make things interesting more interesting, at the bottom of the zip-line course was the Tarcoles River, it’s banks lined with crocodiles. An active imagination might lead you to think they were hoping for someone dropping off the zipline, but we did not oblige them.

Costa Rica, like Panama–and Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico, the United States, and Canada–has ports on both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

There is only one canal, though.

The other countries have done the best they can with roads and railways to transfer products from one ocean to another.

Puntarenas here in Costa Rica was once the country’s principal port, but it was on the wrong side when it came to trade with the east coast of the United States, the Caribbean, and Europe. Over the past century, a railroad and then highways were built to climb up and over the Continental Divide to bring bananas, other agriculture, minerals, and more from one side to the other.

Modern Costa Rica has devoted much of its economy to sustainable and green industries and ecotourism. And the country–not quite perfect in its government and social services, but far ahead of nearly all of its neighbors–is doing well,

In fact, they have their own all-purpose expression of contentment: Pura Vida. Think of it as “all is well” or hakuna matata.

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25 December 2018:
Christmas in the Panama Canal:
The Path Between the Seas

December 25, 2018 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

There are few sights more astounding than to approach the locks at the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal and see a huge freighter, containership, or cruiseship floating 85 feet above you at the top of the stairs.

I have made the transit of the Panama Canal several dozen times over the years, and it never fails to impress.

Here is our ship as captured by shoreside webcams today:

And a view as longtime Silversea hotel director Norman Rafelson waved at tourists watching us in the locks:

When it opened in 1914, it was a triumph of human engineering and medicine. It still is.

The canal itself runs for about 50 miles. There are three locks at each end which lift ships to the level of manmade Gatun Lake which floods the Continental Divide to permit a crossing.

The new locks, which are roughly in parallel with the original set, allow huge containerships and other vessels to enter the system. Vessels like ours generally use the old locks, and we all meet in the lake for a procession between the seas.

Here are more photos from previous transits:

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SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

YOU CAN ALSO VISIT MY MAIN WEBSITE, at www.coreysandler.com

To send me an email or to inquire about copies of photos, please click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

YOU CAN ALSO VISIT MY MAIN WEBSITE, at www.coreysandler.com

To send me an email or to inquire about copies of photos, please click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

To send me an email or to inquire about copies of photos, please click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

To send me an email or to inquire about copies of photos, please, click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

To send me an email or to inquire about copies of photos, please, click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

YOU CAN ALSO VISIT MY MAIN WEBSITE, at www.coreysandler.com

To send me an email or to inquire about copies of photos, please, click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

YOU CAN ALSO VISIT MY MAIN WEBSITE, at www.coreysandler.com

To send me an email or to inquire about copies of photos, please, click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

To send me an email or to inquire about copies of photos, please, click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

To send me an email or to inquire about copies of photos, please, click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

YOU CAN ALSO VISIT MY MAIN WEBSITE, at www.coreysandler.com

To send me an email or to inquire about copies of photos, please click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

YOU CAN ALSO VISIT MY MAIN WEBSITE, at www.coreysandler.com

To send me an email or to inquire about copies of photos, please click here: www.coreysandler.com/contact-me/

By Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Cruise Photos and Stories by Corey Sandler