Hello again, Blogonauts! Sunday…Day 1 of circumnavigating this quasi-arctic, often volcanic Icelandic isle. And it's June, during which the sky never gets dark…for the entire month. OK…calendar announcements are out of the way, so let the story continue. This morning I filled my trusty flivver with fuel and set Google maps to bring me first to Borgarnes, a modest village that fills an equally modest peninsula about 30 minutes north of Reyk...

Hello again, Blogonauts! I believe it was Vulcan, ancient Rome's god of fire and volcanoes, that was said to operate a smelting forge beneath the earth's surface. As such, Vulcan was reputedly the source of lava, ash, and Star Trek's Mr. Spock. Well on Friday, I and at least a couple of hundred other earthly trekkers set out to see the latest addition to Iceland's exceedingly long list of volcanoes. Aeolus, the god of wind, however, had grown a bit envious of V...

Hello, again, Blogonauts! Some quick first impressions of Iceland. It's almost 9 PM, and the sky is as bright as it was at noon. The land here seems other-worldly, except where humans have decided to garden it. And finally, I left Boston on Wednesday after sweating in 90-degree-plus temperatures. After crossing the sea, the Thursday high temperature barely topped 50 degrees. Yes, I'm on the outskirts of Reykjavik. The plan is for me to remain in Iceland for a...

Hello, again, Blogonauts! The crossing from Austria into Slovenia was easy...we just burrowed 5 miles through the Alps. Well, the Austrians and the Slovenes did all the heavy digging. All we had to do was drive through the lo-o-o-ong tunnel. We emerged in the former Yugoslavia. Luckily, there were no Yugos on the roadway hindering traffic. (If you don't remember Yugos, then you're much younger than I.) Mountain weather is remarkable. Valleys on opposite sides...

Hello, again, Blogonauts! On Friday, we bid "Arrivederci!" to the Dolomites and Cortina d'Ampezzo. It was bitter sweet, because the grandeur of the scenery left us all a bit spellbound. However, there are still other places to see, hear, feel, and experience, so we were off to the next spot. Our pathway out of the Dolomites took a might more time than we at first anticipated. The roads were narrow, the ascents and descents were filled with switchbacks and hairp...