Hi everyone,
Welcome to July – and in Nebraska at least, to a string of triple digit temperatures over the past week or so. Really warm stuff – 100 degree ambient air temperatures with “feels like” readings often several degrees higher. Those temps have most times been accompanied by a wind, but instead of cooling things down or making outdoor time more palatable, it mostly adds to the discomfort. I suppose in the long scheme of things, it will all work out – a few months from now, we’ll be complaining about having to dig out of a blizzard. In Nebraska, if you don’t talk about the weather the conversations can be rather short …
Well, quite obviously we’re back on the air after giving readers an entire extra month to rest and recover. As promised, I will not bore you with layers of nitty-gritty regarding our trip. (However, if you call or stop by the house, you may need to come prepared with a handy excuse which will enable you to exit gracefully after a reasonable time.)
So … highlights only. First and foremost: Iceland, where we spent the most time, is a place with different sorts of beauty – volcanos, snow-capped peaks, geysers, mud pots, thermal pools, lava beds, waterfalls. At times it felt like we were traveling through an entire nation of Yellowstone Parks. It also has some unusual places where the tectonic plates of two continents are so close together at the surface that you can nearly touch them both at the same time as you walk between them. (I did not spend a lot of time doing that. They’ve only separated for a few million years so they could come back together at any time. I mean, at some point, you know that’s going to happen. You can’t be too careful.)
One of the things that has always stuck in my mind about Iceland was that Mr. Norman, an incredible teacher, mentioned to our sixth-grade class that the Althing, the world’s first parliament-style government, was formed there in that isolated place centuries ago. Among an entire universe of non-essential facts, for some reason I have always remembered that. So, it was a special treat to see where, quite possibly, the world’s first representative government met. Archeologists have uncovered the foundations of some of the lodgings those early assemblies used. The date of the first one is thought to be 930 AD. So, if my math is correct, five years from now, 2030, will mark the 1100th anniversary of that first meeting. The nation has maintained that style of government ever since.
Another interesting thing about Iceland is that most of the words in the language are incapable of pronunciation. As a sample, here are the cities we visited: Seydisfjordur, Akuceyri, Isafjordur, Reykjavik, Thingvellir. A taxi driver explained to us how to pronounce some words in Icelandic. For example, where double els are used, the sound is something like clearing your throat followed by a soft hiss of air. Fortunately, everyone we met spoke excellent English.
The same is true for all of the above – English universally spoken, a difficult language, and a fascinating landscape – in the Faroe Islands. The total population is only 54,000, and the language they use – some combination of ancient Norse/ Viking, and Old Danish, is spoken no where else in the world. The school system begins teaching multiple languages beginning in the 3rd grade.
Northern Norway, was spectacular. Bergen is a neat city, and once again, we travelled up the fjord where the Seven Sisters -- a UNESCO World Heritage Site where seven waterfalls have a vertical drop of more than a thousand feet – is located.
Two special mentions and then that’s enough touristy stuff. Mention #1: Nita has a fascination for whales. So, a highlight for her will always be the excursion she and Karen took that brought them up close and personal amidst a large pod of giant humpbacks. Mention #2: Karen’s luggage was delayed – didn’t catch up with her for five days – so she and Nita used that as rationale to replenish her travel wardrobe with a shopping trip in Bergen. “Just enough to tide me over until my suitcases get here.” (At least that is what I was told.)
Just a tad of writing-related stuff: After some earlier bouncing back and forth, the release date for the military history book Taking Command appears to be locked in as September 2. The publisher is Stackpole, an imprint of Rowman and Littlefield. This is the third and final book in the series which seeks to tell the stories of leaders who have done great things for the country – sometimes more than those whose names are instantly recognizable -- but who remain little known to the public. This one covers the period from the onset of the Cold War through Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm, Iraq/Afghanistan to the present day. I hope readers will enjoy the stories.
I suppose we can’t close without a couple of puns. (Forewarning: they are really bad.)
Where do bad rainbows go? To prism. It’s a light sentence but it gives them time to reflect.
How do you know when it’s raining cats and dogs? You keep stepping on poodles.
Best wishes always. Enjoy your summer and have a great Fourth of July.
Tom Phillips
Welcome to July – and in Nebraska at least, to a string of triple digit temperatures over the past week or so. Really warm stuff – 100 degree ambient air temperatures with “feels like” readings often several degrees higher. Those temps have most times been accompanied by a wind, but instead of cooling things down or making outdoor time more palatable, it mostly adds to the discomfort. I suppose in the long scheme of things, it will all work out – a few months from now, we’ll be complaining about having to dig out of a blizzard. In Nebraska, if you don’t talk about the weather the conversations can be rather short …
Well, quite obviously we’re back on the air after giving readers an entire extra month to rest and recover. As promised, I will not bore you with layers of nitty-gritty regarding our trip. (However, if you call or stop by the house, you may need to come prepared with a handy excuse which will enable you to exit gracefully after a reasonable time.)
So … highlights only. First and foremost: Iceland, where we spent the most time, is a place with different sorts of beauty – volcanos, snow-capped peaks, geysers, mud pots, thermal pools, lava beds, waterfalls. At times it felt like we were traveling through an entire nation of Yellowstone Parks. It also has some unusual places where the tectonic plates of two continents are so close together at the surface that you can nearly touch them both at the same time as you walk between them. (I did not spend a lot of time doing that. They’ve only separated for a few million years so they could come back together at any time. I mean, at some point, you know that’s going to happen. You can’t be too careful.)
One of the things that has always stuck in my mind about Iceland was that Mr. Norman, an incredible teacher, mentioned to our sixth-grade class that the Althing, the world’s first parliament-style government, was formed there in that isolated place centuries ago. Among an entire universe of non-essential facts, for some reason I have always remembered that. So, it was a special treat to see where, quite possibly, the world’s first representative government met. Archeologists have uncovered the foundations of some of the lodgings those early assemblies used. The date of the first one is thought to be 930 AD. So, if my math is correct, five years from now, 2030, will mark the 1100th anniversary of that first meeting. The nation has maintained that style of government ever since.
Another interesting thing about Iceland is that most of the words in the language are incapable of pronunciation. As a sample, here are the cities we visited: Seydisfjordur, Akuceyri, Isafjordur, Reykjavik, Thingvellir. A taxi driver explained to us how to pronounce some words in Icelandic. For example, where double els are used, the sound is something like clearing your throat followed by a soft hiss of air. Fortunately, everyone we met spoke excellent English.
The same is true for all of the above – English universally spoken, a difficult language, and a fascinating landscape – in the Faroe Islands. The total population is only 54,000, and the language they use – some combination of ancient Norse/ Viking, and Old Danish, is spoken no where else in the world. The school system begins teaching multiple languages beginning in the 3rd grade.
Northern Norway, was spectacular. Bergen is a neat city, and once again, we travelled up the fjord where the Seven Sisters -- a UNESCO World Heritage Site where seven waterfalls have a vertical drop of more than a thousand feet – is located.
Two special mentions and then that’s enough touristy stuff. Mention #1: Nita has a fascination for whales. So, a highlight for her will always be the excursion she and Karen took that brought them up close and personal amidst a large pod of giant humpbacks. Mention #2: Karen’s luggage was delayed – didn’t catch up with her for five days – so she and Nita used that as rationale to replenish her travel wardrobe with a shopping trip in Bergen. “Just enough to tide me over until my suitcases get here.” (At least that is what I was told.)
Just a tad of writing-related stuff: After some earlier bouncing back and forth, the release date for the military history book Taking Command appears to be locked in as September 2. The publisher is Stackpole, an imprint of Rowman and Littlefield. This is the third and final book in the series which seeks to tell the stories of leaders who have done great things for the country – sometimes more than those whose names are instantly recognizable -- but who remain little known to the public. This one covers the period from the onset of the Cold War through Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm, Iraq/Afghanistan to the present day. I hope readers will enjoy the stories.
I suppose we can’t close without a couple of puns. (Forewarning: they are really bad.)
Where do bad rainbows go? To prism. It’s a light sentence but it gives them time to reflect.
How do you know when it’s raining cats and dogs? You keep stepping on poodles.
Best wishes always. Enjoy your summer and have a great Fourth of July.
Tom Phillips
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