Oh the Places I'll Go

 Scott and I recently returned from an expedition to the Canadian Arctic and Greenland.  Throughout, we found ourselves remembering our previous expedition to the other pole, Antarctica.  Several friends have indicated they wanted to read about our Arctic trip, which caused me to realize that I hadn’t written about the expedition we took to Antarctica in December, 2018.  So, this blog reports on both of those trips. Antarctica Expedition Map Greenland and Canadian Arctic Expedition Map Both of our polar expeditions were on small ice-rated expedition ships that carried between 150 and 200 passengers.  We booked our Antarctica expedition through Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) which sailed on a Quark ship, the Ocean Diamond.  It was an older ship, serviceable, but definitely not luxurious.   Quark's Ocean Diamond The trip north was on a new luxury expedition ship, built during the Covid pandemic by Crystal Cruises.  When that company went bankr...

Since my undergraduate days as a history major, I have been drawn to the history of the places I visit.  Thus, one of the most interesting aspects of Mediterranean travel for me is learning about the ancient civilizations of these lands.  It is a treasure trove of ruins, of artifacts, of history, and of peoples.  There were the Minoans, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Etruscans, the Romans, the Venetians, the Byzantines, and the Ottomans.  Each of these cultures has left traces of itself in various parts of the Mediterranean region, and sometimes the traces of one provided the foundations for another.   For example, the ancient amphitheater in Taormina, Sicily was first built in the third century BC as a Greek theatre.  Greek plays were presented on the stage.  While watching, audiences could enjoy the spectacular views of the ocean in the distance.  About six hundred years later, Roman conquerors converted the theater into an amphitheater wher...