Category: Travels

Strange Bedfellows in Iceland Hut

On By Norbert HauptIn TravelsLeave a comment

A long time ago I read the biography about John Adams by David McCullough. When Adams left Boston in the deep freeze of February of 1775 on horse to get to the Congress in Philadelphia, it was a multi-month journey. Along the way, he and his fellow travelers had to stay at inns. In those days, you didn’t get hotel rooms to yourself like we do today. If there were beds, sometimes you had to share them with some other fellow traveler, and you may have had no idea who it was you slept next to.

So it is in the highland huts of Iceland. You can make reservations until all the bunks are full. Just because we were a travel group, there was no guarantee that we’d have the hut to ourselves.  In Hut 2 there were some teenagers who bunked in the loft upstairs. Hut 4 was called þverbrekknamúli.

Good luck pronouncing that name – I learned how to do it, but I can’t describe it here.

At þverbrekknamúli, as we were all getting ready to sleep, my wife and I had doubled up in one bunk. There were not enough bunks in the hut for everyone to have their own. Here we are, reading before going to sleep. Note how little head-room there is.

At about 10:00pm, there was some rumbling outside. Our guide  Jonas was just getting ready to crawl into his sleeping bag when the commotion started. He got up, went outside and found out  there were two men with backpacks who were also planning to stay the night – and worse – make dinner first. Since Jonas didn’t want all of us to be kept awake by cooking activities, and since we had leftover food from our meal, he offered it to the travelers. He joined them at the table and the three of them were whisper-chattering away in Icelandic until about 11. Jonas, who had the bunk next to us, gave up his for the two travelers, and pushed over our driver and double-bunked with him. I was still awake when the two newcomers climbed up into their sleeping bags next to our feet. And thus we had strange bedfellows whose heads spent the night not 8 inches away from my feet in my sleeping bag.

Morning came and we went about our routine. The visitors were friendly enough as we prepared breakfast and got ready for our departure. One of them actually took some group pictures for us, including the group shot, with Jonas in it:

We said our good-byes and went our way. Later, during a break in our hike, Jonas told us that one of the visitors was Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson, the Icelandic Cabinet Minister of Social Affairs and the Labour Market and head of the Left-Green Party. Before that, he was Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources. Jonas didn’t want to reveal his identity while we were there out of respect for his privacy.

It was good that he did, since I would have loved to have a chat with him and learn about environmental policy in Iceland.

As it goes, we were just strange bedfellows.

On language:

The character ð is pronounced like a very soft “th” in English, with a lot of air flowing through your teeth, like in the word teeth.

The character þ is pronounced like a very hard “th” in English, like in the Viking name Thor.

On My Commute Today – the White House

On By Norbert HauptIn TravelsLeave a comment

After an all-day summit meeting at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, I walked across the street and through Lafayette Park on my way to an Uber. This was my view:

Not a bad way to end the work day.

Indiana State Capitol

On By Norbert HauptIn State Capitol Buildings, Travels2 Comments

This morning on my walk to a conference in Indianapolis, I was able to get this shot of the Indiana State Capitol.

Louisiana State Capitol

On By Norbert HauptIn State Capitol Buildings, TravelsLeave a comment

This week I visited the State of Louisiana, and as it is my custom, I took a picture of the State Capitol building.

It is 450 feet tall and has 34 stories, which makes it the tallest skyscraper in Baton Rouge and the tallest capitol building in the United States. It was completed in 1931.

 

London Ilse of Dogs

On By Norbert HauptIn Travels1 Comment

[click to zoom in]
The City of London itself is actually to the left of this picture but was out of reach of my airplane window. On the right you can see the white dome of the O2 arena, where many world-class concerts and sports events are held.

You Always Remember Your First…

On By Norbert HauptIn TravelsLeave a comment

…Cruise.

About a month ago my wife and I were on a cruise in Alaska. This is her with the pink backpack in a picture I took next to the Noordam, the ship we were sailing in. We were boarding after a shore excursion in Scagway, Alaska.

It was my first cruise – and I loved it.

Today we took some friends who were visiting from Colorado down to San Diego. We drove to Coronado Island and took a ferry across San Diego Bay to the Broadway Pier, a 10 minute ride. And what did I see?

The Noordam, moored to the pier in San Diego. My heart skipped a beat. After they dropped us off in Vancouver, the ship went back up to Alaska, then presumably back again, and then it finally made its way to San Diego. We had talked to the crew and they had told us that after the season in Alaska ended at the end of September, they’d make their way to Australia and New Zealand to tour there for the summer in the southern hemisphere. I am assuming the ship stopped here on its way there.

Here is a better shot from the bow. In San Diego, I could get closer to the ship for this kind of picture than I ever did during the cruise in Alaska.

All kinds of memories flooded back. Sitting up in the crow’s nest from the very top, looking out and seeing humpback whales in front of the boat. Standing on this very bow in Glacier Bay looking out on glaciers. Hanging out in our cabin, sitting on the balcony and looking at the waters speeding by below.

All great memories – and I wanted to get right back on the ship and sail along with her. But the best thing we could do is to have our friend take this picture of us in front of the ship in San Diego.

I guess you always remember your first cruise.

 

Alaska State Capitol

On By Norbert HauptIn State Capitol Buildings, Travels1 Comment

A few weeks ago we were in Alaska, and during a short visit to Juneau, I took a walk up the hill to the government area.

Here is the front view of the Alaska State Capitol:

I walked to my left and just a hundred feet down the street is the State Office Building:

Many years ago I developed a student identification tracking system for the State of Alaska, and I remember many phone calls with folks in Alaska. I assume they work in this building. From where I was standing to take this photo, when I turned around, this was my view: Another angle of the State Capitol:

Then I walked up the street to my left, and just about five minutes up the hill is the Governor’s Mansion:

It’s a nice home right by a city street, just a very short walk from the Capitol and the State Office Building. It seemed very accessible. I could have walked up to the door and knocked, if I had wanted to.

In fact, it’s a very unassuming location. Here is a street picture from the other side of this building:

As you can see, there is just normal street parking of the neighbors. The white building on the right is the Governor’s Mansion.

Of course I didn’t even know the name of the current governor. I had to look it up: Mike Dunleavy. He was a teacher and educator before he entered politics. Here is his Wikipedia page.

Of course, as we all know, the governorship of Alaska became notorious in the 2007 election with Sarah Palin.

I enjoyed my short stroll to check out the government complex in Juneau.

New York State Capitol

On By Norbert HauptIn State Capitol Buildings, Travels3 Comments

Today during a morning stroll in Albany, New York, I was able to get a nice shot of the State Capitol.

By the time the building was finished in 1899, it was the most expensive building ever constructed in the United States. It took 32 years to complete, which supposedly is longer than it took to build the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Walking on a Cruise Ship

On By Norbert HauptIn Commentaries, Travels1 Comment

On August 29 we were on the cruise ship Noordam on the way out of Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. The Noordam’s deck 3 is the main deck where all main exits are, with access to the life boats. There is a plank path all around the ship, from bow to stern. In the bow, there is a plaque indicating that the distance around the ship is exactly 0.33 miles, meaning that three times around the ship comprises a walk of one mile.

To get a sense of the scale of the ship, here is a (partial) picture of her [lick to enlarge]:

Deck 3 is where the orange life boats are, just at the top of the black painted hull. The top deck is number 10.

I decided to do my customary two mile walk in the late afternoon on the way out of Glacier Bay National Park. The wind was brisk, particularly when walking forward toward the bow. I estimate that the ship was moving at a speed of about 14 knots or so.

I turned on my Garmin Instinct watch to track my walk, and it was supposed to be an experiment. The Garmin tracks walks with all manner of statistics, and it saves a map of the walk. I have displayed such maps many times on these pages, usually when I show hikes. I was interested what a “walk” of two miles would look like going around in circles on a moving ship.

Doing the two miles, or six times around the ship, took about 35 minutes. Here is the map:

Obviously, it’s on water and it shows up as a straight line. The width of the ship is only about 100 feet or so, which is not enough to show up as a wiggle on the path. The red and blue areas are fast and slow. I would have registered as walking faster going backwards away from the direction of the ship’s movement. But it did not turn out that way at least consistently. It may be that the ship slowed down or speed up at one point, or that my Garmin was starting to get wonky.

[Note, the Garmin was getting wonky, and I have since upgraded to an Instinct 2 for that reason].

I wish I had another chance to do this experiment over again with a reliable device. But there you have it, a map of a two mile walk on a moving cruise ship.

When in Dallas

On By Norbert HauptIn Guns, History, TravelsLeave a comment

After 40 or so years of visiting the Dallas area, with literally hundreds of layovers at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, I have never actually been in downtown Dallas, until today.

This morning I woke up at my hotel at 1700 Commerce Street. It was going to be a hot day, so a morning walk at 7:00am seemed like the right thing. I was within a mile of the spot where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I walked down Main Street heading east and soon reached the famed, or infamous, Dealey Plaza. Here is a map, and the red arrow shows the exact location of Kennedy’s death.

I was there around 7:00 in the morning and there were no tourists yet. It was all empty and quiet. Later in the day this area gets quite busy with many tourists walking around and taking pictures. I avoided all that by being there early.

The above photograph shows the location of Kennedy’s death (red arrow) and the window where the shooter sat (blue arrow). The address of the building is 411 Elm Street in Dallas. It was a book depository in 1963.

Here is another view from a little further away. You can see there was hardly any traffic that early in the morning.

Here is another view of the same spot, this time from the center of Dealey Plaza. If you click on my photograph and zoom in where the arrow points you may see a white X that is actually marked on the street on the very spot.

Bob Dylan wrote a very moving song in his last album Rough and Rowdy Ways titled Murder Most Foul. The song is about the Kennedy assassination.

Twas a dark day in Dallas, November ’63A day that will live on in infamyPresident Kennedy was a-ridin’ highGood day to be livin’ and a good day to die

You can find the full lyrics here. I recommend you listen to the song. I can’t post it here for copyright reasons.

The sixth and seventh floor of the former book depository are now a museum named The Sixth Floor Museum. It opens at 10:00am, so I had to come back later to visit the museum. I it did not regret it. There are countless exhibits of posters, photographs and audiovisuals.

This picture shows an exact copy of the rifle that was used. The actual rifle that killed the president is at the National Archives.

And most eerie and deeply disturbing, here is the window from where the shot was fired. The area is enclosed by glass in the museum, and the book boxes are of course staged. There were book boxes the shooter used to rest the rifle.

I stood there for quite a while and let it sink in. This very spot was the place where U.S. history changed when a popular president was killed by a loser with a cheap gun.

I still remember the day. I was six years old and I had just started second grade in elementary school in Germany. My mother told me about what happened before I went to school. She wanted me to be informed in the event that the teacher brought it up.

When I was in the museum I watched some video clips of the day’s events. There were the ominous clips of the motorcade rolling down Main Street in Dallas, literally Kennedy’s last minutes alive, showing him waving to the crowds on both sides of the streets. Then the car reached Dealey Plaza and turned right onto North Houston Street before turning left again onto Elm Street to the fateful spot. I looked up and saw the building and the window where the shooter sat that very moment. He was not visible, but the window was definitely open – this was just seconds before.

In another clip, it showed the Kennedys arriving on Air Force One at Dallas Love Field that morning. It showed Jackie in the now famous bright pink outfit coming out of the plane and walking down the stairs, followed by the president. Lyndon Johnson greeted them. Eventually Kennedy entered the open limousine. As it pulled away, there was a Texas Lone Star flag behind the car, and right next to that flag was a Confederate Flag.

And that also made me stop and think.

 

The Dismal State of American Airlines

On By Norbert HauptIn TravelsLeave a comment

I have been a decades long loyal American Airlines Flyer. I am approaching three (3) million miles on American Airlines alone! You can’t say I didn’t give them my best shot.

However, I am close to finding another airline for my business. Most recently, my experience was pretty dismal – as posted here. In fairness, the airline awarded each of us 10,000 bonus miles for the unplanned adventure.

Then I just came across this post for another traveler:

The Dismal State Of American Airlines Flagship First Class – Live and Let’s Fly (liveandletsfly.com)

It certainly looks like this flight attendant was not trained. If I were treated like that at the local Subway shop, I’d find another sandwich place. If I paid $2,000 or more for a first class seat, and I’d get this treatment, I’d find another airline.

I am not sure what’s going on with American, but things are not well.

Visiting Hemingway’s House in Key West

On By Norbert HauptIn Books, History, Travels2 Comments

Last week we visited Key West, Florida, for a few days. There are two very famous Key West citizens whose presence is felt all over the island. One is Jimmy Buffett, the American singer and songwriter, author, actor and businessman, who is best known for his music, which often portrays an “island escapism” lifestyle. He started his career partly in Key West, and “Buffett-stuff” is all over the island. The other famous Key West citizen is Ernest Hemingway, who lived there in the 1930ies.

We visited Hemingway’s house, which is now a well-preserved museum dedicated to his life and legacy. Here is a view of the house.

I found it riveting to be walking through the rooms where he lived, including his bedroom and the master bathroom, the sleeping quarters for the nanny, and the room where his kids slept.

But most inspiring was seeing his writing studio. Here I am at the foot of the stairs. The studio door is at the top of the stairs above my head:

Here is another view of the building from the other side:

I was able to enter the studio. I was alone while there, behind a fence to keep out tourists, of course. I had plenty of time to just reflect.

This room, museum staff told us, is largely untouched as it was when Hemingway wrote there in the 1930ies. This is his actual chair and table. You can see one of the 54 cats on the property under the chair on the left. It is said that all the cats are descendants of Hemingway’s cats. He went up into that studio before breakfast every day to write at least 700 words. 70 percent of Hemingway’s work was written in this room, including the following novels:

  • A Farewell to Arms
  • Death in the Afternoon
  • Green Hills of Africa
  • To Have and Have Not
  • The Fifth Column
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls
  • Snows of Kilimanjaro

It turns out, I have only read one Hemingway book: The Old Man and the Sea, and I have read that several times. I have no review of it published here, since the readings were all before 2007 when I started this blog.  I once tried to read The Sun Also Rises, but could not finish it. Here is my short review.

Being in that studio inspired me, and I decided to give it another shot and read some Hemingway.

After the visit to the Hemingway house, we went across the street to climb the historic lighthouse:

Here is a look back to Hemingway’s property from the top of the lighthouse:

If you find yourself visiting Key West, I strongly recommend you visit this museum. The entry fee is $18 per person – cash only – yes, but it’s well worth it.

The Special Hell of Flying American Airlines

On By Norbert HauptIn Travels1 Comment

My wife and I attended a wedding in Key West, Florida, this past weekend. We flew from San Diego to Miami on a non-stop red-eye flight on Wednesday night and arrived there first thing Thursday morning. Then we rented a car and drove down all the way along the Florida Keys, since we had never done that before and wanted to see what that was like. No regrets.

Our return trip was also a non-stop, leaving at 9:20pm Sunday night, scheduled to arrive just before midnight in San Diego. Enough time to go home, get a good (short) night’s sleep to be ready for work on Monday morning.

At about 5:00pm when we got to the airport, the airline alerted us that the flight was delayed to leave at 11:11pm. Ok, not too bad. We checked our luggage and went to the Admirals Club to relax while we waited. When we showed up at the gate at about 10:30, the airline posted that the flight would now depart at 12:18am. The incoming flight was late due to mechanical problems. Then the flight was delayed again to 2:30am, because one of the pilots had timed out of his 12-hour window and they had to find a new reserve pilot. They soon told us they had found one, but it would take time for him to dress, drive to the airport, park, take the shuttle and get to the gate. At 2:30, they finally boarded us, even though there was no captain or pilot on board yet. When we were ready at about 3:00am, I saw a pilot, but no captain. They then told us that we would have to get off the plane, and we would leave at 6:30am, but this time “for real.”

So rather than telling us at 5:00 that there’d be trouble, giving us a chance to rebook another way home, they kept stringing all 200 of us in the gate area along one hour at a time.

If I had known that the plane would not leave until 6:30am, I would have found a nearby hotel and got a good night’s sleep and showed up at 6:30 for the flight. Did they know? I cannot tell. It’s now 4:04am in the Miami airport as I am typing this and I really don’t know if we’re really leaving at 6:30.

This kind of stuff happens too often these days. Weather, mechanical issues, labor regulations, and sheer apparent planning incompetence get in the way, and air travel is no longer reliable.

If this country had a decent high-speed rail system, I would have booked a ticket for the 12-hour ride from Miami to San Diego, I would have slept the night, and arrived on time without stress.

Instead, we are literally trying to sleep on the hard carpet at gate D16 in the Miami airport.

And this is the special hell of flying American Airlines today.