Haukadalur,
Southwest Iceland
September 11, 2015
“Fire and Ice”
“Fire” refers to hot geothermal streams and the Geysir (Geyser) that erupts frequently sending boiling water up to about 70 meters into the cool air. (230ft)
“Ice” refers to glacial remains and an ice-clogged river at Hjallanes.
Iceland is a country of extremes – boiling rivers to frozen rivers ….
Snaefells Peninsula
Western Iceland
September 8, 2015
Hello,
I choose the road less travelled.
Before driving the popular route that heads east along the south coast of Iceland, I decide to drive north from Reykjavik to the Snaefells Peninsula – a road less traveled.
Snaefells is a long, narrow peninsula that pokes out into the Atlantic Ocean. I encounter misty rain, ubiquitous fog, incessant, overpowering wind, and a raucous surf that seems determined to smash (and has already smashed) the jagged, black volcanic cliffs that disappear below the waves. What can I expect out in the middle of the ocean?
On the Road
Into the Mountains
Iceland
September 3, 2015
My group tour in Iceland was a short extension of a much longer tour in Greenland.
The goal of this brief Iceland tour was to avoid the well-traveled coastal route and to visit the mountainous areas with few visitors.
The sites are so remote that we rode in a large, four-wheel drive vehicle along bumpy unpaved roads and across fast rushing streams.
On the Road
Iceland
September 2, 2015
For my first travel letter written on my first day in iceland, I have posted photographs as an Introduction to this very special country.
The photos are of the unique Icelandic horses as well as typical scenery of mountains, lava fields. lakes and waterfalls.
One series of lakes is called Fishing Lakes.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
May 22, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
Now here's a delightful stroll:
The broad, shady walkways around Independence Park are lined with university halls, government buildings, flower gardens and rose bushes. A statue of Marx has been replaced by a suitably patriotic statue of Amir Timur on horseback. At Independence Square, the new senate building is guarded by a tall gate with good-luck pelicans at the top. Near the gate, Lenin gave way to a large statue of a seated Uzbek woman gazing into the eyes of her infant child.
At the far side of the park is another woman, The Crying Mother Monument. The monument was built in 1999 to honor the four hundred thousand Uzbek soldiers who died fighting for The Soviet Union in World War II. In front of the statue is an eternal flame. *
The names of the fallen soldiers are engraved on brass plaques that swing like pages of a book. Many, many books. These books of the dead are attached to the walls of two parallel arcades. The Crying Mother cannot bear to face these pages...
Jaipur to Bikaner
Rajasthan, India
February 24, 2007
Dear Family and Friends,
The phrase "Horn Please" is emblazoned in huge, colorful and artistic boldfaced letters on the rear end of every powerful, solid, steel-framed intercity truck. Or "Sound Horn" appears. Or "Blow Horn." My favorite is "Blow Horn." India is a nation of one billion horn blowers.
It is good form. Everyone is encouraged to sound his horn to alert the truck driver ahead that his rig is about to be overtaken. And, (and this is a big "and") every driver of every type of vehicle alerts everyone else of his presence and his insistence to proceed unimpeded according to some preordained universal master transport plan known only to himself.
