Iceland and Arctic/Svalbard

We finally made it to Scandinavia and Arctic (Sept. 2022), after two years of COVID delays. We arrived two days early at Reykjavik, so we could drive to the active Fagradalsfjall volcano — we hiked up as far as jet-lag and exhaustion would let us. Iceland’s landscapes range from lush and mountainous to rocky and windswept to barren moonscape. We joined our group — and dear friends Stan & Greg — in Reykjavik before heading into the countryside to gape at spectacular waterfalls, glaciers, lagoons, rainbows. We didn’t realize that sheep can — and do — climb mountains!

After a week in Iceland, we all flew to Oslo, where we were able to meet up with our friend Lars & his family – Lars treated us to a driving tour of Oslo, and the family hosted us for a delicious dinner. Aboard the OAT-chartered (Overseas Adventure Travel) ship Ocean Diamond, we joined dear friends Tom & June. Our trip began at Longyearbyen and circumnavigated Svalbard, an archipelago that lies in the Arctic Circle and is close to the North Pole … the farthest we reached was latitude 80.05 N, just 685 miles from the North Pole! The sceneries are beautiful and the vistas are vast and peaceful. It’s quite remote, with only a few small villages of scientists from around the world … and lots of birds and wildlife. On our first day at sea, we had a polar bear sighting!

We learned that the ice crackles and pops — indicating it is young ice … the ice in Antarctica is quite old and isn’t noisy! Stay tuned for our Copenhagen video/pics (we visited this delightful city after the Arctic adventure), which are currently in production!

Our favorite photos are below … and we are offering two versions of Bob’s video. The short version is below (~30 mins.). Special offer: For even more gorgeous footage and the full story, you can view Bob’s “Director’s Cut” online (~1 hour).