Posted on

Sustainable Aviation

Virgin Atlantic Flight100, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, equipped with Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines, using SAF = sustainable aviation fuel on a transatlantic crossing from London Heathrow to New York JFK. Photo: Rolls Royce.

With family equally divided between North America and Europe, I am doomed to an immoral life of using commercial airplanes to interact with them in person, between continents. Of course, additional immorality comes from flying for pleasure within Europe.

This weblog post reflects on the content of The six problems aviation must fix to hit net zero, an article by Joycelyn Timperley appearing in The Observer 2021-09-05. In it, she commented: Aviation is a complicated sector to decarbonise. It has some prickly ingredients: difficult technological solutions, hidden extra climate effects, an association with personal freedoms and a disproportionately wealthy and powerful customer base.

Almost four and a half years later, this weblog post will use her subject headings, but look what has happened in the intervening years, to address these issues. The first comment is that journalist Timperley is attempting to quote people to support her arguments. I have eliminated these quotations because they are general and unoriginal.

1. The fuel problem

Flying requires a lot of energy, and fuels with high energy density. I disagree with the premise that fossil fuels are the only available option for airplanes. One answer is to insist on the use of synthetic fuels, commonly called sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). This may require engine manufacturers such as Rolls Royce, to make/ modify engines specifically designed for the fuel. Even if fossil fuels continue to be used, they should be priced to ensure that the damage they contribute to the planet can be fully mitigated. There is no reason why the equivalent quantity of CO2 and other waste gasses cannot be scrubbed from the atmosphere, to make a carbon neutral product. SAFs accounted for less than 0.1% of aviation fuel consumption in 2018, in 2023 it was still less than 0.1%.

The fuel efficiency of aircraft improves over time. There is no magic involved, just the out-phasing of older aircraft with more efficient new aircraft. For example, switching from an older Boeing 747s to a more efficient Boeing 787s or Airbus A350s, can reduce carbon emissions by up to 30%. However, this improvement will not reduce total emissions. If aviation is becoming about 3% more efficient each year, passenger demand is increasing by about 5% a year.

In 2021, the European Commission presented the Fit for 55 package: a series of proposals to make the EU’s climate, energy, land use, transport and taxation policies fit for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 % by 2030, compared with 1990 levels. The European Commission proposes obligations on fuel suppliers to provide a minimum share of SAF that increases over time. The main goal is to increase use of SAF, resulting in a reduction of overall aviation emissions. A major problem with these commission proposals, is that the numbers are not concrete, with adherence voluntary. This will result in most airlines ignoring the proposals to avoid increased costs.

SAF is technologically ready for use, but a European Union framework to increase SAF is not. Other governments, such as the UK, want at least 10% SAF in place by 2030. There seems to be no plan to increase that to anything above that level. There are currently less than 6 years to ramp up from 0.1 to 10%. Regulations in effect restrict SAFs to 50% of fuel used. The first SAF-powered transatlantic flight, Flight100, involved a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787, equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines. It took place 2023-11-28 between London Heathrow and New York JFK. This demonstrated that such journeys are possible.

The SAF used on Flight100 was: 88% HEFA (Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids) supplied by AirBP and 12% SAK (Synthetic Aromatic Kerosene) supplied by Virent. HEFA is made from waste fats, SAK is made from plant sugars, with the remainder of plant proteins, oil and fibres continuing into the food chain. SAK is needed in 100% SAF blends to give the fuel the required aromatics for engine function.

The real reason SAF is not used has to do with its price. Airlines as well as their customers prioritize lower costs. This means that regulators, government or international, will have to impose relevant regulations to ensure useage of SAF.

Despite many believers the most promising sustainable fuels will not be made from waste biofuels, like used cooking oils. They may be cheap and offer good life-cycle emissions, but its supply is limited. Even if all of these fuels were used exclusively for aviation, they would only provide about 2% of jet fuel use in the EU and US. In other words, it is not a solution.

Biofuels can also be made from crops such as palm, soya and corn. However, environmental groups have been arguing against these because they can compete with food production and drive deforestation – proposed EU legislation that aims to ramp up SAFs specifically excludes their use. Advanced biofuels from cellulosic plants and agricultural and forestry waste show more promise.

A final type of fuel that could be used in current aircraft is “electrofuel”, made using clean electricity and hydrogen. In theory, these could have an “almost unlimited supply”, says Rutherford, but they are currently very expensive to make.

There are also completely different kinds of aircraft on the horizon. While the size and weight of current battery technology mean electric propulsion is still a long way off for larger aircraft, electric planes are appearing on shorter routes. Yet, one of the key areas where electric aircraft need to make an impact, is with flight schools. For example, the Slovenian Pipistrel Velis Electro aircraft are in use for pilot training at Green Flight Academy in Skellefteå, Sweden. Starting in 2019, several smaller electric aircraft have appeared in this weblog: A retrofitted Beaver at YVR airport in Richmond, British Columbia;

Some companies are working on new kinds of aeroplanes designed to run on hydrogen gas, which could also be produced using clean electricity. Last year, Airbus revealed its concept for a hydrogen aircraft that it said could enter service by 2035, although it has also admitted such planes won’t be widely used until after 2050.

Chances of being solved? Clean fuels are likely to be used more and more but will make up only a few percent of fuel by 2030 and are unlikely to make a significant impact until after 2050.

2. The non-CO2 problem

Aviation accounts for about 2.5% of global CO2 emissions, but its warming impact is far larger because of other gases and particulates it emits at high altitudes. These are often called non-CO2 impacts, these include nitrogen oxides and contrail clouds = line-shaped vapor trail clouds produced by aircraft engine exhaust or changes in air pressure, typically at aircraft cruising altitudes several km above the Earth’s surface. They are composed primarily of water, in the form of ice crystals. These are rarely specified in aviation climate goals, but they could triple the climate impacts of aviation compared with CO2 alone.

What’s problematic, but also promising, about these effects is that they vary substantially depending on the surrounding climatic conditions. For example, one study found that just 2% of flights contribute to 80% of contrail warming effects. Night-time flights are particularly bad, because contrails produce their warming impact mainly at night.

It’s important to note that low-carbon fuels can still produce non-CO2 impacts, although these are expected to be lower than for kerosene for most fuels.

Chances of being solved? Unlikely in the near term given low prominence. However, the EU is beginning to pay more attention to this issue.

3. The frequent flyer problem

Some argue technological solutions will be too slow to reduce emissions in the aviation sector, and measures to reduce the amount people fly are needed to limit the damage to the climate.

But flying is not an evenly spread activity. In the UK about 15% of the population take 70% of all flights, and around half of people don’t fly at all in any given year. “That’s a pattern replicated in many other counties,” says Cait Hewitt, policy director at the Aviation Environment Federation (AEF).

The inequality in flying is even more stark at a global level. One study estimated that just 1% of the world’s population emits 50% of CO2 from commercial aviation, while just 2-4% of people fly internationally in a given year.

Some campaigners therefore support a “frequent flyer levy” as a fairer way to limit aviation emissions. The UK campaign A Free Ride argues everyone should have one annual flight free from the levy, then pay a rising charge for every extra flight taken that year. The UK’s first climate assembly also backed the idea of a frequent flyer levy.

The problem with such a levy is that many people in the frequent flyer category are likely to have the wealth to pay a moderate levy, or to have it paid by their employers, says Wood.

Manuel Grebenjak, a campaigner at the Stay Grounded network, says measures to limit flights overall, such as banning flights on certain routes, could help to stem rising emissions in a fairer way. “If a flight is banned from a certain city to another one, no one can fly, so it’s very just,” he says.

France has already moved to ban domestic flights on routes that can be travelled by train within two-and-a-half hours. Even just providing an alternative to flying can be effective: new high-speed rail lines have reduced aviation transport on the same routes by up to 80%, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Chances of being solved? Governments,including the UK, tend to shy away from demand management approaches to limiting aviation emissions, but France and Austria are making good first steps.

4. The policy problem

All this feeds into a wider need for strong policy to tackle aviation emissions, which has largely been lacking so far. “International aviation sits outside the Paris climate agreement, because that agreement is about a country’s domestic emissions,” says Harvey. “So there was a real push to have a scheme for international aviation.”

After years of inaction, in 2016 countries at the UN aviation agency, ICAO, agreed on the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (Corsia), a global deal to “offset” the growth in aviation emissions above the average levels in 2019 and 2020. However, when flights plummeted during the pandemic, countries changed the baseline of this scheme, which means there are currently no obligations on airlines. Egeland says Corsia’s effectiveness will “ultimately depend on the quality of carbon offsets that ICAO will accept”.

ICAO is also in discussions over a long-term climate goal for aviation for 2050, but it is not clear when this will be agreed or what the target will be.

Meanwhile, policies are being increasingly discussed at the national and regional level. In particular, the EU’s proposed “Fit for 55” climate legislation includes plans to mandate targets for SAFs and to end aviation’s fuel tax exemption. “Aviation fuel is exempt from any taxes almost everywhere,” says Grebenjak. “The EU wants to end the basically free rider status of aviation, and implement a kerosene tax that’s at the same level as other fuels.”

Chances of being solved? ICAO has been notoriously slow to act on aviation emissions, and many environmental groups criticise CORSIA for being far too weak, but recent policy moves at the EU level represent a significant step change.

5. The new middle class problem

Action at the EU level is encouraging, and the UK government even has a consultation out on its strategy for net zero aviation. However, the biggest growth in flying in the coming decades is expected outside Europe and the US, especially among the growing middle classes of developing countries.

Asia and the Pacific, Africa and the Middle East are the regions expected to see the most growth in the next 20 years, and last year China overtook the US as the world’s largest air passenger market. “The rise of a travelling middle-class in China and India has seen passenger demand grow at around 10% per annum,” says Hewitt.

Rutherford adds that frequent flyers look similar wherever in the world they are, namely upper-middle-class professionals. A global frequent flyer levy could therefore be one way to curb the growth, he says.

Chinese airlines will also increasingly have to meet local rules designed for climate mitigation if they want access to international airports, says Hewitt. But the vast majority of flights in China take place within its borders, which international policies would not apply to. “States will need to take domestic action to supplement international agreements in order to achieve net zero for aviation by 2050,” says Hewitt.

It’s worth noting that China also has the world’s largest high-speed rail network by far, while some developed countries, such as the US, have yet to install a single high-speed rail line. “We have to do our own homework first before talking about China,” says Grebenjak.

Chances of being solved? It’s up to developed countries to lead the way on reducing aviation emissions, which will then give more leeway to put pressure on developing countries.

6. The supersonic problem

Even amid growing efforts to reconcile aviation with a net zero world, some companies are pushing to develop aircraft that are even more polluting.

Earlier this year, United Airlines announced plans to buy 15 supersonic aircraft from Boom Supersonic, with the aim to begin using them by 2029. Rolls-Royce and the US air force also have deals with Boom.

As well as the noise issues with supersonics, these super-fast flights could consume five to seven times as much fuel for each passenger as subsonic aircrafts. There’s also a concern that supersonics, which will be operating high in the stratosphere, will have a disproportionate impact through non-CO2 emissions, says Rutherford. Developing emissions-intensive supersonic planes could also end up being a distraction from zero emission technologies such as hydrogen planes, he adds.

Rutherford says the best way to prevent climate damage from supersonic aircraft may be to require them to meet the same environmental standards as other airplanes. “That would, in essence, act like a ban,” he says. “They just can’t meet those standards.”

Posted on

Before I Die 3

This is the third iteration of Before I Die. The first one was published on 2009-06-14. The second one appeared 3070 days later on 2017-11-09. They are both found in the same post. Now, a third was published yet another 3070 days later on 2026-02-06. It occupies a different post. The span of time, 6140 days, between the first and the third is not quite seventeen years. The fourth version should appear 2034-07-04.

Being 77, I may only have between 5 and 20 years to achieve lifetime goals. I have already begun to get frail and forgetful. Thus my first goal is the same as it was in 2009, to remain content with what I have, and not to seek novelty for its own sake.

Back in 2009 I said I could live with the car I had, then yearned to be unfaithful to her.  At this moment in time I no longer own a car, but am content to use Trish’s Buzz. Later this year I will have to undertake an eye test to see if I am still fit to drive. A more comprehensive medical comes when I turn 80.

Literature

My favourite authors remain, in order: Arthur Ransome (1884 – 1967); Peter Dawlish = James Lennox Kerr (1899 – 1963); Archie Binns (1899 – 1971). All produced books for children. Perhaps I should add, in alphabetical order, other contenders, that wrote books for adults: Donald Barthelme (1931–1989); Victor Canning (1911 – 1986); Erskine Childers (1870 – 1922); Douglas Copeland (1961 – ); Ivan Doig (1939 – 2015); Lawrence Durell (1912 – 1990); Stanley Evans (1931 -); Tony Hillerman (1925 – 2008); Colin Macinnis (1914 – 1976); Haruki Murikami (1949 – ); Annie Proulx (1935 – ); Jean Rhys (1890 – 1979); John Steinbeck (1902 – 1968); Jules Verne (1828 – 1905) and David Young (1958 – ). Not all of these are writers that I have read recently, but they are all found in our library. Previously, I also mentioned scientific writers: William Beebe (1877 – 1962); Rachel Carson (1907 – 1964); Ralph Buchsbaum (1907 – 2002). Here again, I should add some broadly non-fiction authors: Derek Hayes (1947 – ) with his historical atlases and books about British Columbia, Obi Kaufmann (1973 – ) with environmental books about California; Terje Tvedt (1951 – ), with books about water, including the Nile.

Later, in 2026, I am looking forward to acquiring Derek Hayes’ Coastal Connections: A History of British Columbia Ferries and Passenger Ships.

I also mentioned authors of religious books, but will not repeat those here.

Music & Video

Most of the music I listen to these days has its origins with YouTube. Some of it is ancient, such as Hawkwind, a space rock and proto-punk band with its Silver Machine (1972) with dancer Stacia Blake (c1952 – ) making a lasting contribution, along with Lemmy Kilminster (1945 – 2015), notably arrested in 1975-05 at the Canadian border in Windsor, Ontario, on drug possession charges. Then there is Jan Hammer (1948 – ), the Czech-American musician and composer, with his Miami Vice Theme (1984), popular in the Americas, or Crockett’s Theme (1984), more popular in Europe. At one time, the musical group I listened most to, was from Iasi, Romania = Iron Cross band with hard rock and heavy metal covers. Band Members consisted of Andrei Cerbu, Andreea Munteanu, Matei Gasner and George Pintilii.

Tony M2 has had a number of channels on YouTube. It seems that these channels get banned from time to time, and he has to start something new. The latest is called Planet ASA. Of course, I also appreciate Tony Basil (1943 – ) and Hey, Mickey. It originated with a song first recorded in 1979 by the English pop group Racey, titled Kitty.

While I have mentioned it in other posts, I still fondly remember Approaching Nirvana, and the first track I listened to: 2nd Flight (2011). I also appreciate music by Savfk = who creates royalty free music, including Instructions for Living a Life (2021). For additional information about my musical preferences see this post.

If I have to choose a modern musical genre, it is EDM = electronic dance music, and other variants of synthesizer music. Here, I often listen to the music of Stephen McLeod, from Glasgow.

Plants

Currently, I am attempting to restrict my gardening to Lego Botanicals. A Japanese Maple Tree has been purchased for me.

In addition I am attempting to acquire a hornbeam = Carpinus betulus. The most northerly native example of it is approximately 50 km south of us in Levanger. However, there may be cultivated examples further north. Hornbeams yield a very hard timber, giving rise to the name ironwood. The wood can be used to make products where a very tough, hard wood is required.

Travel

No, I will never be as well travelled as my mother, Jennie.

Some of my travel goals involve the Baltic. I would like to visit: Latvia and Lithuania at some point, and Königsberg (also known as Kaliningrad) if it is ever free from Russia. There are two islands in the Baltic I want to visit: Öland (belonging to Sweden) and Rügen (belonging to Germany).

In terms of the Mediterranean, my priorities are Sardinia (already booked at the end of February 2026). In addition I would like to visit the wilderness areas of Albania.

In the summer I would also like to visit more of Ireland (especially County Donegal and the area around Strangford Lough) Scotland (many places) and Canada (Quebec is still on my list, along with Churchill, Manitoba and some other places).

If I was not boycotting the United States, there are many fine areas to visit, including:  Grand Canyon, the Everglades, Florida Keys, Carlsbad Caverns, Yellowstone Park, Four-corners, Maui. I also have biological origins in Schenectady, in upstate New York.

In terms of Ukraine, once the war ends, I would like to visit Odesa = Одеса, which is a sister city with Vancouver. Further east, I would like to visit Kharkiv = Харків to meet members of the 225th Separate Assault Regiment = 225 Окремий штурмовий полк. In addition there is the longest trolleybus route in the world, the Crimean Trolleybus Line, which stretches 86 kilometers from Simferopol = Сімферополь to Yalta = Ялта. This route, built in 1959, offers scenic views as it travels through the Crimean mountains and along the Black Sea coast.

Languages

I have decided that I do not need to learn major languages. I am fluent in English and Norwegian. I can read Danish and can understand Swedish. When it comes to Duolingo, I use it for Scottish Gaelic – mostly. This is the language spoken in the Highlands and the Hebrides. With a trip to Milan and Sardinia planned for the end of February, I am currently using Duolingo to learn some Italian.

In addition, I am learning another Scottish language Norn, or more accurately Nynorn = New Norn, a modern variant. Norn was previously used on the Shetlands and on the Orkneys, as well as mainland Scottish locations near Caithness. It is a Norwegian variant.

In terms of my ethnicity, other languages that I should consider learning include Sardinian and Mohawk. Other languages that hold appeal are Finnish and Ukrainian.

Workshop

My workshop is in the process of being transformed into a playshop. My priority is to improve my mechatronic skills: computer aided design, basic metalworking, programming, microelectronics. As I wrote previously, “my secret goal is to combine craftsmanship, video, embedded electronics and 3D production to create an educational environment that promotes a better understanding of sustainability.” I have the same goal today, but with more time and money to achieve it.

Posted on

California 2025

Without having to do any work ourselves, Trish and I (along with Louise Yeoh and Don Wong) became grandparents for the first time on 2025-05-31. Grandson Quinn has travelled north to meet Louise and Don in Richmond, British Columbia, and they have travelled south to visit him. At the beginning of November 2025, Trish and I visited Sequoyah Heights/ Hills, in Oakland, California to meet Quinn, Shelagh and Derek. This is a report on our adventure.

The name Sequoyah has its origins with George Gist or George Guess (1767 – 1843), a Native American polymath and neographer = a person who creates new writing systems, in his case, of the Cherokee Nation, in Tennessee. The genus name of the coast redwood tree (Sequoia sempervirens) was long presumed, initially in Josiah Whitney (1819 – 1896), The Yosemite Book (1868), to honour Sequoyah. However, an etymological study published in 2012 debunked that myth, concluding that Austrian Stephen Endlicher (1804 – 1849) derived the name from the Latin word sequi = to follow, because the number of seeds per cone in the newly classified genus aligned in mathematical sequence with the other four genera in the suborder.

A coastal redwood tree growing in the backyard of the McLellan-Wong house.

This suburb in Oakland is probably not named after either the tree or the person, but Sequoyah Country Club, an adjacent 18 hole golf course, founded in 1913. Wikipedia tells us: the members of the club intentionally chose the traditional Indian = native American, First Nation spelling.

The house the McLellan-Wongs live in is an Eichler, built in 1965. Between 1949 and 1966, Joseph Eichler’s (1900 – 1974) company, Eichler Homes, built more than 11 000 houses in nine communities in Northern California and in three communities in Southern California. One of Eichler’s stated aims was to construct inclusive and diverse planned communities, ideally featuring integrated parks and community centers. Eichler established a non-discrimination policy and offered homes for sale to anyone of any religion or race. In 1958, he resigned from the National Association of Home Builders when they refused to support a non-discrimination policy.

This photo shows the rear of an Eichler house.

His houses have come to be known as California Modern, with feature glass walls, post-and-beam construction, open floorplans, with exteriors with flat and/or low-sloping A-framed roofs, vertical 2-inch pattern wood siding, and spartan facades with clean geometric lines. A signature concepts was to bring the outside in, with skylights and floor-to-ceiling windows with glass transoms looking out on protected and private outdoor rooms, patios, atriums, gardens and swimming pools. Most of these houses lack street-facing windows. There are fewer than 50 Eichler houses in the Sequoyah Hills subdivision.

While my son, Alasdair, I have visited Newfoundland, Labrador and Saint Pierre et Miquelon in 2024, and the other maritime provinces and Maine in 2025, the last time we (and Trish) were in California was in 2020. The last time Trish and I were in British Columbia was in 2017, in part to celebrate my mother’s 101st birthday. On both of these last two trips we met Trish’s sister, Aileen.

We arrived shortly after Halloween. Throughout the neighbourhood there were lots of decorations. Here a skeleton and five bats, along with some dying plants are prominent at Derek and Shelagh’s house.

We arrived on 2025-11-01, All Saints day. The day before, Halloween, seems to be a major celebration in the Sequoyah area, with most houses having suitable decorations. One neighbouring house was equipped with a 3m60cm (12 foot) skeleton, that remains in place all year. Over the next few days, most of these decorations slowly disappeared from view.

We were surprised when Aileen showed up in California on Tuesday, 2025-11-04. Someone had done some planning, others had managed to keep it a secret, still more people (including myself and Trish) were not informed. The two sisters seemed to appreciate the opportunity to meet in person, and not have to communicate using emails or other apps.

The two Commins sisters, Aileen Adams (left) and Trish McLellan (right).

I am thankful for having lived in an automotive age with mechanical powered vehicles, avoiding horses, reindeer, dogsleds and other animal powered conveyances. Admittedly, I could have accepted that there were more electric vehicles, earlier.

Not all of the neighbours have entered the EV age. Here is a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air.

One neighbour owns a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air. I correctly told the owner its year, which impressed him. Yes, I can recognize most American car models from about 1954 to 1967. I am not particularly skilled beyond that range. He then showed me its fully chromed 350 cid (5.7 litre) V8 engine. This seemed a bit large, but I did not have the facts about the original engine in my head. That larger engine was not introduced until 1967. The 1955 model originally had a 265 cid (4.3 litre) engine. Despite that, I managed to impress its owner further by telling him we owned a two-tone yellow and white VW Buzz. It totally lacks chrome! Thankfully. He had seen his first Buzz the day before.

Not everyone has car restoration as a hobby, so a little further away there is also a neighbour who provides a little free library.

We were out walking through the hills of Sequoyah most days, with or without Quinn.

The view from Sequoyah with the tower of Oakland International Airport (OAK) on Bay Farm Island prominent.
Some people at Sequoyah had unconventional pets. Here is someone with a couple of bears.

During our stay we left home several times by car to visit Emeryville, Lake Chabot, San Leandro, Dublin and Pleasanton. I was certainly happy to leave the driving to Derek. At Emeryville we ate dinner at Trader Vic’s. I had last eaten a meal at one in 1962 in Vancouver, so this repeat performance was on my bucket list.

Trader Vic’s in Emeryville, with Shelagh and Aileen in the background.

The photo below shows some of the waterfowl at Lake Chabot. We had originally planned to rent a pontoon boat to explore the lake, but boat rentals were closed when we visited, due to illness at the marina.

Waterfowl at Lake Chabot.

We did some shopping at Trader Joe’s in San Leandro. For me, the most important item on the list was some Virgil’s root beer. Root beer is probably the one North American item I have not learned to live without. It should also be noted that I was unable to visit the first A&W rootbeer stand at Lodi. So it remains on my bucket list.

In Dublin we visited REI = Recreational Equipment, Incorporated. It was here that I was able to buy an insulated Swedish Fjällräven Skogsö jacket on sale. As I age, I have found my uninsulated Swedish Haglöfs jacket, bought in Molde, Norway in 2008, increasingly too cold. Back in 2020, I had purchased a Swedish Wesc winter coat on sale in San Francisco.

We visited the town of Pleasanton twice. It is ranked #2 on the American Social Progress Index. On each visit we bought ice cream treats at the Meadowlark Dairy. Yes, I bought a root beer diablo on both occasions.

A waterway through Pleasanton, California
At the bottom, this area is Sequoyah Hills, but at the top it is Sequoyah Heights.

Note: A visit to the Left Coast of North America gives a time displacement of eight or nine hours, compared to much of Europe. For us, the outward journey is relatively easy to adapt to. By staying up a couple of hours later each day, one is fully adapted within four or five days. It is the return journey that is more problematic. My son tells me that one has to adapt to a fifteen or sixteen hour time difference. Once again, this is done by staying up later each day. On day five of our return, I took a six hour nap between about 15:00 and 21:00. This allowed me to stay awake until about 05:00 in the morning, when I returned to bed to get a few more hours of sleep. I estimate that it will take me another three or four days to become fully acclimatized to Norwegian time.

Posted on

Personal Geography

Poplar Island from Queensborough close to where the Heaps family had their factory, both in New Westminster. Photo: Dennis Sylvester Hurd, 2020-08-20.

I was born in Vancouver in 1948, but in 1951, moved to New Westminster. Both places are in British Columbia, Canada. New Westminster occupies 15.62 km2, located on the banks of the Fraser River. In 1951 it had a population of 28 639 that had increased to almost 90 000 in 2023. For me, New Westminster was noted geographically for its steep slope from downtown to uptown. I walked down to elementary school, but up walking home. In contrast, the walk to secondary school was almost level, but slightly in the opposite direction. My AI assistant tells me New Westminster’s maximum difference in elevation is 152 m.

Many people see their communities in terms of sports. Thus, New Westminster patriots are supports of the Salmonbellies, a lacrosse team. I have seen a game, or more correctly, half a game, when I took my daughter to see one. The only sports I voluntarily played were curling and tennis. New Westminster is world famous (at least in New Westminster) for its anvil battery, which consists of two blacksmith anvils and some gunpowder, pretending to be a canon. Then, there is the Mayday celebration with maypole dancing. One of the aspects of New Westminster that I find most disturbing is its royalist orientation, calling itself the royal city, until 2021-07, when it decided to phase it out as its official brand. Yes, I have a republican political orientation, despite being a citizen of two monarchies. I would prefer to be a citizen of two republics.

Founded 1957-04-03, The Royal City Power Squadron offered a series of courses. I took their basic course, Boating, in the mid 1960s. Completion of this resulted in a boating licence, totally useless at the time. They also offered other courses: Seamanship (now called Piloting), Advanced Piloting, the VHF Course, Marine Maintenance and Marine Electronic. The name of the organization changed to Royal City Power and Sail Squadron. It is now CanBoat Royal City.

The Fraser River has always captivated my attention, and I remember travelling in a fishing boat up the Fraser River to Mission, with my father and members of the dyke commission. For many years I was captivated by Poplar Island located in the Fraser River, in New Westminster. I only visited it once, using my father’s boat. Trees made it very difficult to walk on the island. The Queensborough area of New Westminster is close by, but on Lulu Island, that separates the Fraser River into north and south arms. This is where members of the Power Squadron parked their boats. Trish’s maternal family, the Heaps, at one time had a factory in Queensborough, making forestry equipment in peace time, and ships’ engine shafts during wars. Adjacent to Lulu Island is Annacis Island, located in Delta Municipality. I had worked there building pre-fabricated houses for Habitat Industries. The municipality of Richmond is mainly located on Lulu Island. At one time I lived there for a short period, on Lynas Lane. Harry Andison, my material grandfather, lived in Steveston on Lulu Island, when he first immigrated to Canada from Gateshead, in England. Richmond also occupies Sea Island, where YVR, the Vancouver airport is located.

My favourite walk in the world is along the Fraser Foreshore Trail, mostly in Burnaby, the municipality adjacent to but west of New Westminster. There are additional, similar trails in New Westminster and Vancouver, including Avalon Park. There are many other places that I would like to visit that are located along the Fraser River. Thus, I would like to take a trip by boat down it, starting at Yale, where Harry Andison lived in the 1940s, a fact I only found out looking at census records in 2024. Another stop would be along the Lower Stave River, particularly at Ruskin, where Trish’s ancestors owned a lumber mill and railway. They also owned another railway for transporting timber on Narrow’s Inlet, on the Sunshine Coast, that would not be part of this proposed trip, but could be part of another.

Jennie, my mother, was born at Eburne, now called Marpole, in Vancouver, but she was raised in Kelowna, where her father owned a butcher shop. I spent much of my summers there, and in its eastern, rural offshoot, Okanagan Mission, where my aunt lived. We would also spend a week fishing in the interior of British Columbia. Sometimes we would use a boat to traverse Beaver Lake, walk across a portage to a second boat, then motor up Dee Lake to a wilderness fishing resort at the end of that lake. One time we took a Dodge Power Wagon along the worst road I have ever travelled to get to a fishing resort at Monte Creek. Both of my parents were hunters and fishers, and if there is any one indication that I have not inherited their genes, it is my lack of interest in these two activities.

My father, Edgar’s family lived on Vancouver Island, mostly in Nanaimo. His father was a coal miner who came from Cape Breton Island. Before that his family had come from Swordland, Morar on the mainland of highland Scotland, and South Uist, an island in the outer Hebrides. His mother was born in Pakenham, Ontario, but spent much of her childhood and youth in the Jumping Pound area of Alberta, before moving with her parents to Nanaimo. Her family came from Mohill, in County Leitrim, Ireland.

My father would often take my sister and I out in the woods, frequently to Buntzen Lake, and other wilderness locations in the Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody area. I find much of Inderøy similar to the places we visited.

In terms of Vancouver Island, our family spent many Easters at Qualicum, the preferred location of my parents for their later active retirement years. We had relatives in Nanaimo, Port Alberni and Victoria, so we also visited these places. In 1974, I worked on an archaeological excavation in Port Alberni. My daughter Shelagh attended secondary school at Shawnigan Lake in 2006-7. At one time we had discussed retiring to an apartment at Sidney, at the northern end of the Saanich Peninsula.

In addition to Vancouver island, I also appreciated other, smaller islands in the Salish sea. In Canada, this includes Saltspring and Galiano. When I turned sixteen, I was asked where I wanted to go for a vacation. One place was Orcas Island, in Washington State. We visited it. I also have an attraction to Deception Pass, a strait separating Whidbey Island from Fidalgo Island, connecting Skagit Bay, part of Puget Sound, with the Strait of Juan de Fuca. A pair of bridges known collectively as Deception Pass Bridge cross Deception Pass. The bridges were added to the American National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Somewhere here, I should ad that I appreciated a visit to Barkerville, and some of the places in the Cariboo. This includes: Cache Creek, Lillooet, Lytton, Quesnel, Spences Bridge, Williams Lake, in addition to the various mile houses, such as 108 Mile Ranch. While I did learn how to ride a horse, I also learned how to sail. I regarded sailing as a more important skill.

Scandinavia

In 1979, Trish and I went to Europe, for what we thought would result in a traditional tour of the continent = United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Spain. We started out in England, then heading off on a Baha’i pilgrimage to Israel. There we met some Baha’is who lived in Sweden. They encouraged us to change our plans and to visit the Scandinavian countries. So, after spending a month in Greece, we flew back to England, then took a SR.N4 hovercraft from Dover to Calais. We then took a train to Copenhagen. We then spent a month each in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland before returning to Norway. In Sweden, we almost ran out of time on our tourist visa, so we managed to get a one year extension. After a second visit to Norway, we returned to England and Ireland, visiting many of Trish’s relatives in the process. Then we returned to Canada.

Some of the more interesting places we visited included several islands.

In Denmark we spent almost two weeks on Bornholm, in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland. Apart from the southern coast, it is mainly a granite island. In term of architecture, round churches are found throughout the island. In addition, Bornholmerskolen = The Bornholm school of painters began at the beginning of the 20th century. The artists developed a distinctive style of classic modernism, inspired by the island’s unique landscapes and light. experimented with color, abstraction and cubism. Artists included: Otto Haslund (1842 – 1917), Karl Isakson (1878-1922), Edvard Weie (1879-1943), Oluf Høst (1884-1966), Olaf Rude (1886-1957), Kræsten Iversen (1886-1955) and Niels Lergaard (1893-1982).

Karl Isakson (1878–1922) Bastions, Christiansø (1921)

In Norway, we visited the archipelagos of Lofoten and Vesterålen, which are climatic anomalies with higher temperatures than their latitude would indicate. I am considering a visit to see Hurtigrutemuseet = (Norwegian) Coastal Express Museum, located in Stokmarknes, the location where it started. This will be done off season because, in recent years, they have been inundated with tourists, but without the infrastructure to support them. Potential tourists should be aware of this.

We travelled by ferry between Stockholm in Sweden and Mariehamn (the capital of Åland). Åland is an autonomous and demilitarised region of Finland, with its autonomy determined by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations. It is the smallest region of Finland by both area (1,580 km2) and population (about 30 000). The Åland archipelago consists of nearly 300 habitable islands, of which about 60 to 80 are actually inhabited. The rest—more than 6,000—are small skerries or bare rocks. After visiting the Åland Islands, we continued on by ferry to the Finnish mainland port of Turku.

Norway

For better or worse, we declined vague employment offers in Stokmarknes, located on Hadseløya in the Vesterålen archipelago in Nordland county. It is located just north of Lofoten and west of Harstad. Instead we applied for student visas to Norway ending up in Molde, located on the Romsdal Peninsula. Originally, Molde was a shipping port for lumber to the Netherlands in the late 1500s. It grew throughout the 17th to 19th centuries, becoming a centre for the Norwegian textile and garment industry, as well as the administrative centre for the region and, more recently, a major tourist destination. For me, geographically, it had some similarities to New Westminster, with a steep increase in elevation.

We moved to Molde in 1980, where I took a cand. mag. degree = bachelor’s degree at the regional college with a dual major in business management and computer science. After five years in Molde, and with Alasdair (1983 – ) with us, we moved to Bodø in 1985. When we moved there, the municipality had a population of about 28 000. In 2024, the population had increased to almost 53 000. I also enrolled at the University of Tromsø, to take an advanced degree in computer science. I was awarded cand. scient. degree = master’s degree in 1988. The 14.91 km2 town is the administrative centre of Nordland county, located between Vestfjorden and Saltfjorden, just north of the Arctic Circle. It is the largest urban area in Nordland county. At this time we were able to convert our student visas into work visas, which ultimately resulted in permanent residency permits. Note: It was not until the 2020’s that we became Norwegian citizens. In part, this was because dual citizenship was not allowed until 2020-01-01.

In 1988, we made our final move in Norway to Inderøy. We settled at Vangshylla, at the extreme western end of the Inderøy peninsula. Vang refers to a plain with grass, while hylla refers to a shelf. So Vangshylla is located on a shelf below the other Vang farms. At the end of 1990, we were able to buy a house, where we still live today.

Biology

Some months before my father died, he gave me my original birth certificate. This was probably in 1990. My name at birth was Richard Edwin Salter. In my late 50s, almost twenty years ago now, I applied for (2006) and received (2007) my adoption records. This allowed me to contact my biological mother’s family, the Salters who lived in Essex county, Ontario. I was welcomed as family by my aunts, uncle, cousins and other relatives. I have visited Point Pelee National Park. This is as far south as one can go on the Canadian mainland, and still remain in Canada. Unfortunately, I have not yet visited Pelee Island, which is further south, in Lake Erie. It is on my bucket list. Originally, the Salters were from St Tudy, Cornwell. Then there were the Pentlands, who had settled at Goderich, in Huron county, Ontario. They were from Greyabbey, located on the eastern shore of Strangford Lough, on the Ards Peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. It too is on my bucket list. Before that, they had come from the Orkneys, in Scotland.

I enjoyed meeting all of my biological relatives, and appreciate the kindness they have shown me. In terms of geography, I realized that much of southern Ontario was a little too flat for optimal appreciation. I will write a separate post on the geography of Ontario in the future.

On 2018-10-01, a month before I turned 70, I was contacted by Brad Laesser (1947 – ), who explained that he was my biological (half) brother. We share the same father, Percy Bradd. He was from the same area of Windsor, where my biological mother lived, and where Brad was born. Much of my biological heritage is American. This will be the subject of another post in the future.

Islands

I have a fascination with islands. Inderøy, where we live can be literally translated as Inner Inland. It was an island until 1 000 years ago, but since then has been a peninsula. The closest real island to use, of any size in Ytterøy = outer island.

In the Baltic, I have visited: the Åland islands and Bornholm in 1979, and Gotland possibly 20 years later. I visited two Estonian islands Saaremaa and Hilumaa in 2025. Two islands should have been visited previously, when I had the opportunity: Öland and Rügen.

In the Atlantic I have visited Iceland and the Faeroe islands in 2023, Newfoundland and subsidiary islands as well as the Saint Pierre archipelago in 2024. Then in 2025 there was Cape Breton and Prince Edward Islands, as well as Greenland. There are others still waiting for a change to entice me. These include: the Western Isles of Scotland, especially South Uist, from where the MacLellans sailed to Cape Breton in the 18th century. Then there is Shetland and Orkney archipelagos.

In the Mediterranean there was Rhodes and Patmos, in 1979. In 2015 there was Sicily. In 2025 Corsica. I hope Sardinia will welcome me in 2026.

Literature

In terms of literary geography, I have been significantly influenced by five authors, all male, three Scottish. Chronologically they are: Walter Scott (Edinburgh, 1771 – Abbotsford, 1832); Robert Michael Balentyne (Edinburgh, 1825 – Rome, 1894); Arthur Ransome (Leeds, 1884 – Heald Green, Greater Manchester, 1967); Peter Dawlish (pseudonym) = James Lennox Kerr (Paisley, 1899 – Lamorna, Cornwall, 1963) and Archie Binns (Port Ludlow, Washington, USA, 1899 – Sequim, Washington, USA, 1971). Yes, there are books by all of these authors in our library.

Somewhere around the eighth grade, I read Walter Scott’s Lady of the Lake (1810). By that time I had learned that the name MacLellan was associated with the gilley/ servant of Saint Fillan. However, I had no geographical association for the family, apart from Nanaimo and Cape Breton Island. Thus, after reading some of the poem, I wondered if the Trossachs was our place of origin in Scotland. It refers to an area of wooded glens = valleys, braes = hills, and lochs = lakes lying to the east of Loch Lomond. The fictional setting for Scott’s work is Loch Katrine.

Balentyne’s juvenile novel, The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1857) has as its setting an unspecified island in the south Pacific ocean. Balentyne never visited this part of the world, but borrowed details about its characteristics from other fictional authors. The work concerns itself about the civilizing effect of Christianity, 19th-century imperialism in the South Pacific and the importance of hierarchy and leadership. Presumably, this work was intended to inspire me, including to accept my, at best, middle-class place in the world. Fortunately, it inspired William Golding (1911 – 1993) to write his novel Lord of the Flies (1954), which inverted the Coral Island’s morality where children encounter evil. In Lord of the Flies evil is within them. I do not need to visit a specific coral island, but would appreciate the opportunity to visit one of the Hawaiian islands, preferable one that is not overly populated. The most recent book I have read about south Pacific islands was by the Anglo-Norwegian author Sue Prideaux (1946 – ), Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin (2024), read earlier this year.

Arthur Ransome wrote juvenile novels mainly set in the Norfolk Broads and the Lake District of England. I have visited both places. Ransome can be regarded as my favourite author.

The novel that resonates most with me is Archie Binn’s Sea Pup, set in Puget Sound, on the Salish Sea, south-west of Vancouver, in Washington state. I have two copies of this book to give to descendants.

Posted on

Nuuk

Nuuk Airport in 2025.

Adventure #4 in 2025 took place in August. It began when Alasdair asked me if I wanted a trip to Greenland. He discovered some inexpensive tickets, that he could buy with points. I had not thought about this possibility before, but decided a long-weekend in Nuuk was irresistible.

The trip began on Tuesday, 2025-08-19, when I flew from TRD = Trondheim airport to OSL = Oslo airport, then took the train to Røyken station. Alasdair joined me at about the half way point, at Oslo Central Station. We then drove to Alasdair’s house where we spent the rest of the day, and Wednesday.

On the trip, Alasdair reminded me that this was not our first connection with Nuuk. One of our former neighbours, Olav Næss (1950 – ), had worked there as a machine operator during the construction in the early 1990s of a hydro-electric power plant that provides Nuuk with its electricity.

On Thursday evening, 2025-08-21, we returned to Røyken station, taking the same journey in the reverse direction, to overnight at OSL. There we met Simon Gulstad, the third adventurer, who had flown in from Bergen. Simon was originally from Inderøy, and his mother was Alasdair’s kindergarten teacher! We overnighted at the Radisson Red hotel.

Early the next day we flew from OSL to CPH = Copenhagen airport, then waited several hours, mainly in a lounge, before taking a flight to GOH = Nuuk Airport = Mittarfik Nuuk (Greenlandic), Nuuk Lufthavn (Danish). The reason for the IATA = International Air Transport Association, code is that Nuuk was formerly called Godthåb (Danish) = Good Hope (English).

Nuuk (Greenlandic) = cape (English). It is commonly found in Greenlandic place names. It is so named because of its position at the end of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord on the Labrador Sea’s eastern shore. Its latitude, at 64°11′ N, makes it the world’s northernmost capital, a few kilometres farther north than Reykjavík (64°08′ N). In Comparison Cliff Cottage is 63° 50′ 31.33″ N. This means that Cliff Cottage is about 37 km further south than Nuuk. Because the two places are at almost the same latitude, the distance between them has been calculated to be 2528 km. The flying distance is considerably more.

When home rule was established in 1979, the authorization of place names was transferred to Greenlandic authorities, who preferred Greenlandic names to Danish ones.

The airport was originally constructed for STOL = short take off and landing capable aircraft in 1979. In 2019-2024, the airport was comprehensively rebuilt and expanded, including a runway extension and a new terminal, which allows larger jet aircraft to serve more international destinations. The airport is located 3.7 km northeast of downtown Nuuk. On our arrival we walked into the town. The distance seemed much longer because of the many changes in elevation along the chosen route.

Nuuk Airport New Terminal Airside Interior Photo: Asxm000, 2025-06-14.

At this point I will interupt the story to mention our diet, which was largely meat based. From Friday to Monday in Nuuk we ate three beef burger dinners, along with one pizza dinner. Alasdair, at one point wrote on Signal to family members that store prices are through the roof. 150cl Pepsi costs DKK 45 = NOK 71 = USD 7.

Our accommodation in Nuuk.

Our accommodation in Nuuk is shown above. We occupied the left side of the building. A kitchen and living area, along with a bathroom, were on the main floor, while two bedrooms were located on the upper floor. Many buildings have two numbers on them. A black number on yellow indicates a street number, while a white number on black seems to be a town-wide serial number. Older houses have lower numbers.

Serenity Cruise

Open Street Map showing the fjord system we explored with Raw Arctic. We visited a waterfall at Sermitsiaq = the Saddle, then continued along the western channel bending to the right continuing deeper into the long fjord on the extreme right of the map. We returned passing to the west of Qeqertarsuaq, before reaching Nuuk.

On Saturday, we took a 6 hour serenity cruise offered by Raw Arctic. Our first stop was at a waterfall at Sermitsiaq = the Saddle, then continued along the western channel where we met lots of small clumps of ice in the water. These would be too small to be considered icebergs.

We also observed a whale diving and feeding in the fjord. My suspicion is that this was a Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). We also watched a hunter, alone onboard a smaller vessel, powered by an outboard motor, attempt to kill a seal sitting on a clump of ice. He fired four shots, and missed. Below is a photo of a large clump of ice, complete with seagull on the top.

A larger clump of ice in the fjord system. Smaller clumps of ice can be seen in the background.

Our cruise continued, bending to the right so that we reached deeper into the fjord on the extreme right of the map. However, we did not reach the end of the fjord. After turning around, we passed by Qoornuup, located on the north end of the island Qeqertarsua. The inhabitants of the settlement were forcibly removed from the village in 1972. Qoornuup also once had a railway used for transporting fish. The railway was used in the 1950s, with a small diesel-hydraulic locomotive hauling flat wagons full of fish. The line closed shortly before the town’s last resident left.

We then continued our return journey, passing to the east of Qeqertarsua, before reaching Nuuk.

The crew of the Eqaluk consisted of Martin and Line.

Eqaluk, the name of the boat, refers to Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus). It is designed to carry a crew of two, along with up to six passengers, as long as two or more of those are children, or up to five adults. The boat was built by Targa in Nykarleby, Finland, north of Vaasa, and across the Gulf of Bothnia, from Umeå in Sweden. The boat is powered by Swedish Volvo-Penta diesel engines, made in Vara , Sweden, in a plant that opened in 1977. The Scandinavian in me says it is a good choice!

Among the equipment on board was a life raft for 8 people, a radar system, an electronic chart plotter, and a very high frequency (VHF) marine radio with Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponder to broadcast the vessel’s identity, position, speed and course over VHF radio to other ships and shore-based systems, enhancing collision avoidance and maritime safety. It uses global positioning system (GPS) to determine location and transmits this data automatically to other AIS-equipped vessels within range. In the case of an emergency we were told to activate Digital Selective Calling (DSC) by pressing (and holding for 3 seconds) a single red distress button, sending a digital alert with the vessel’s GPS position, Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) number, a unique nine-digit number that identifies a specific vessel, and other identification to nearby DSC-equipped vessels and shore stations. The system then automatically switches to VHF Channel 16 and waits for a verbal Mayday call to provide two-way communication for assistance.

Alasdair at one point measured the vessel’s speed = 40 km/h = 21.6 knots. Inside Nuuk’s harbour the speed limit is 3 knots = 5.5 km/h.

National Museum of Greenland

There is no admission charge to the National Museum of Greenland on the last Sunday of every month. Despite the last Sunday being 2025-08-31, there was no admission charge on 2025-08-24 either.

The museum was typically ethnographic, showing aspects of the culture that were non western. Below is a photo of one cabinet, filled mainly with masks, along with other artifacts.

There were also other objects on display, many showing artifacts that were part of a transition to a modern society. One cabinet showed a typewriter as well as musical instruments including an accordion and various brass instruments.

Greenland, has a number of prominent rock and rock-influenced bands including: Nanook: a popular and award-winning band that performs in Greenlandic and is known for its energetic shows and for touring internationally; Sussat!: a basic rock’n’roll band; Inuk: a pop-rock band; Pukuut: a metal band; Sound of the Damned: another metal band; Both metal bands blend traditional elements with aggressive sounds; Îva: a collaborative group that includes members from the hip-hop group Tarrak and the previously mentioned band Inuk.

It should be mentioned that there are a lot of places in Nuuk that sell alcohol. I imagine that its consumption is a social problem throughout Greenland.

Monday

Rash decisions. Yes, we had agreed to meet Line at her boat building yard (actually a rubber hall) at 9:00. Our flight was at 14:00. So we had to leave our accommodation at 8:30, visit her, then find something else to do before we walked to the airport. We walked to the yard, and saw a vessel, more stored in the form of raw materials (oak), than in formed parts or something ready to launch. The work had taken a year already. It would take another year to remake into something useful. It was a little less than 20 m in length, and had been originally made in 1938. That makes it 86-7 years old!

I don’t know the details, but the vessel had been damaged by ice breaking the hull.

I thought I would put a photo of Line’s truck here to show that much of Greenland relates to functionality than to superficial beauty.

After the visit we returned to the centre of Nuuk and visited a cafe. We then walked to the airport, including a walk through the only vehicular tunnel in Nuuk, possibly in Greenland.

Nuuk tunnel. There is space for pedestrians and cyclists at the edges, but no physical separation. It is one way driving controlled by traffic lights at the two entrances to the tunnel.

At the airport, we ate our last Greenlandic hamburger, then proceeded to a seating area. Soon we were called for boarding, which was completed 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time.

Then came the announcement from the captain. He explained that the airport had run out of jet fuel. The delivery truck had to drive to Nuuk, fill up more fuel, wait half an hour for the fuel to settle, then take quality measurements which – if passed – would allow the fuel to be used in the aircraft. After that the truck would drive back to the airport, pass through security, and then fuel the aircraft.

We ended leaving Nuuk 90 minutes late. This resulted in many passengers missing connecting flights and having to overnight in Copenhagen. We had booked accommodation in advance, staying at the Comfort Hotel. While this is relatively inexpensive, Comfort is undoubtedly my least favourite hotel chain. I am surprised that they don’t rename it Cheap. For example, the bath towels are too small for large creatures. I had to use two of them to dry myself after showering. The coffee tasted python. Yes, that is a Norwegian expression to express food/ drink that is inedible, or tastes terrible.

After breakfast we then went to the airport terminal, where two people checked in luggage, then we all went through security. Once there we went to a lounge, where better tasting coffee – and more edible food – could be found.

We were taking three separate flights back to Norway: Simon to BGO = Bergen, Alasdair to OSL = Oslo, while I returned to TRD = Trondheim.

Impressions

Nuuk is not the place to go for a beach holiday, or gourmet meals. It is a place to do something! Hands on guided hunting and fishing trips are available, as is camping in the wilderness. While Greenland offers more remote locations, I suspect that most tourists will find a weekend visit to Nuuk is enough to satisfy their curiosity about Greenland.

Note: The video and many of the photos were provided by Alasdair.

Posted on

Cape Breton Island

The bridge on the Canso Causeway takes skinny pedestrians (see those narrow raised concrete structures), road vehicles and trains. Underneath is a short canal for ships.

Cape Breton Island (CBI) = île du Cap-Breton, formerly île Royale (French) = Ceap Breatainn or Eilean Cheap Bhreatainn (Scottish Gaelic). Most of these names refer to Breton, a hilly peninsula in north-western France. Unama’ki (Mi’kmaq) = land of fog. It is a rugged and irregularly shaped island on the Atlantic coast of North America that is part of the province of Nova Scotia.

My McLellan ancestors escaped from Swordland, on Loch Morar, on the Scottish mainland, and South Uist, an island in the Hebrides, and arrived near Inverness, on the east coast of Cape Breton Island about 1790 and settled in the Margaree valley. The brother of my ancestor, was the catholic priest for this group of settlers.

Scottish Gaels settled in Nova Scotia between 1773 and 1850. Scottish Gaelic is a member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages and the Canadian dialects have their origins in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The parent language developed out of Middle Irish and is closely related to modern Irish. Canadian Gaelic is closely related to Newfoundland Irish. At its peak in the mid-19th century, there were as many as 200 000 speakers of this language, making it the third-most-spoken European language in Canada after English and French. The population dropped from a peak in 1850, to 80 000 in 1900, to 30 000 in 1930 to 500–1,000 in 2025.

For the past year or so, I have been practicing Scottish Gaelic with Duolingo on a daily basis. Since 1980, I have also used Teach Yourself Gaelic (1971) on an intermittent basis. This does not mean that I am fluent. In terms of languages it ranks somewhere between fourth to sixth. Languages ahead of it include: English, Norwegian, then Danish (written) and Swedish (spoken), before one comes to French, then Gaelic. In both Scottish Gaelic and Irish my name would be written Broc = badger.

Wild badgers are absent from the Hebrides, because the sea separated the islands from the mainland after the Ice Age. While badger remains have been found in archaeological records from the Outer Hebrides, this evidence suggests they were imported as fur or trophies, not as living populations. In contrast badgers are found on Loch Morar.

From Caribou to Antigonish

Once our ferry had landed from Prince Edward Island at Caribou, Nova Scotia, we drove towards Cape Breton Island, stopping 79 km further east, at Antigonish, to look at the University and to eat. The university is Catholic, and is world famous (yes, not just in Nova Scotia, or in Canada, but in the entire world) for its work encouraging cooperatives. I have written about it previously.

After our meal, we continued on for 52 km to the Canso causeway, The Canso Causeway is a rock-fill thoroughfare that connects Cape Breton Island to mainland Nova Scotia, crossing the Strait of Canso. The causeway is 1 385 metres long, and fills the Canso Strait to a depth of 65 metres making it the deepest causeway in the world. It includes a bridge and a short canal/ channel to allow for ship passage. It is the only road and railway link between the island and the mainland. The causeway was completed in 1955.

Alistair Fraser (1885 – 1965), one time Lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, sold 10 Tg of granite from his property on Cape Porcupine Mountain on the Nova Scotia mainland to fill in the Strait with rock. He was offered CAD 5 000 by the Canadian government for it, but after suing, the Supreme Court of Canada ultimately awarded him CAD 560 000.

It should be noted that while Cape Breton’s coal and steel industry and the Canadian National Railways were eager to have a rail line connecting Cape Breton to the mainland, no environmental assessment was made. The fishing industry were the major losers from this development.

On the far side of the causeway, we turned left, to head along the west coast of the island. This is not my first trip to Cape Breton Island. I had spent Christmas 1975, with a family in Sydney, travelling by train from Halifax.

Our cottage. Mostly blue. Despite the name, we were so far from the sea that we could not feel any ocean spray.

We stayed in a cottage on the Cabot Trail, in Saint Joseph du Moine = Saint Joseph the munk.

The next day we took a tour around the Cape Breton Highlands. We had planned to stop at North Cape. Unfortunately, poorly planned road construction, did not allow us to escape from the convoy being escorted, at the appropriate junction. Nova Scotia had the worst maintained highways we encountered on our trip.

For someone brought up in British Columbia, and spending most of my adult life in Norway, the terrain of Cape Breton Island was appealing. No, I am not a flatlander!

Somewhere in Cape Breton National Park
We even got to experience a cable ferry at Englishtown. The length of the crossing is measured in meters. There are four such ferries on Cape Breton Island, and we took two of them. The other was near Iona, and the Highland Museum.

CBI is dominated by Pitupaq (in the Mi’kmaq language) = the long salt water, referring to its brackish waters. In English and French it is Bras d’Or = the golden arm. Sometimes it is referred to as a lake, but it is an estuary = a partly enclosed coastal body of water in where river water is mixed with seawater. An estuary is thus defined by salinity. To my Norwegian inspired mind, it is a system of fjords. Bras d’Or has a surface area of 1 099 km2. It is connected to the North Atlantic by two natural channels; the Great and Little Bras d’Or Channels which pass on either side of Boularderie Island. To the south there is another connection to the Atlantic Ocean, the artificial Saint Peters Canal, built for shipping traffic in the 1860s. Its maximum depth is 287 m in Saint Andrews Channel. The Bras d-Or draining basin occupies 3 500 km2. The western side is generally shallow and is part of an extensive drumlin field = an elongated hill in the shape of a half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated till or ground moraine. Steep hills rise abruptly on the northwestern side forming the Cape Breton Highlands.

Sydney Mines

Klmuejuapskwe’katik (Mi’kmaq) = place of the coal = Sydney Mines (English) is known for its coal mines. It is also the birthplace of my grandfather, Alexander McLellan (1869 – 1935), a coal miner and later secretary of miners’ union in Nanaimo, British Columbia. However, we visited Sydney Mines, spending time at the local omni-religious graveyard, looking for assorted McLellan ancestors.

Louisbourg

After ceding Newfoundland and Acadia, a New France colony in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River, by the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, the French established Louisbourg in 1713. In addition to Saint Pierre et Miquelon, France retained possession of Cape Breton = Isle Royale and Prince Edward = Isle Saint-Jean, islands. These islands were important bases for a cod fishery off the Grand Banks. In 1719 Louisbourg was constructed as a fortified town, completed in 1745.

The cod fishery accounted for most of Isle Royale’s prosperity. Dried before export, the fish was salted and laid on stages which lined the beaches of Louisbourg and its outports. Louisbourg became a hub of commerce, trading in manufactured goods and various materials imported from France, Quebec, the West Indies and New England.

One might think that the fortress would be prepared for any onslaught. Yet, while the harbour was well defended, the main landward defences were commanded by a series of low hills, some dangerously close to the fortifications. All provided excellent locations for siege batteries.

In 1745, following a declaration of war between Britain and France, New Englanders attacked Louisbourg. After 46 days the fortress was captured. However, three years later the town was restored to the French by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. In 1758 Louisbourg was besieged a second time. Within seven weeks Louisbourg was captured. This time, the British demolished the fortress walls.

It was interesting to visit the fortress site, and to learn more about the French history of the area. Between 1961 and 1980, the Canadian Government Invested CAD 25 M to reconstructing approximately one-quarter of the original town and fortifications. Abandoned after 1763, Louisbourg became the only major colonial town without a modern city built on top of it.

Louisbourg Railway Museum

Sydney & Louisbourg Railway Museum Photo: Dennis G. Jervis, 2017-06-14

Of course we could not leave Louisbourg without visiting the local, Sydney & Louisbourg Railway Museum. They offer a business card titled Pocket Poem, with the railway logo on one side, complete with a Facebook address = slrailway. The poem, titled My Job, reads:

It is not my place / To run the train. / The whistle I can’t blow. / It’s not my place / To say how far / The train’s allowed to go. / To shoot off steam / Nor even clang the bell. / But let the damn thing / Jump the track … / And see who catches hell!

Miners Museum at Glace Bay

I appreciated the name, Miners Museum, not Mining Museum. It was an interesting place to visit, and to find out more about the life of miners in Cape Breton, one of which was my grandfather.

One of the volunteer guides commented that the first thing a miner should do is to inspect the roof of that part of the mine where the miner is working. He explained that he had lost two colleagues who didn’t do that.

The Margaree Valley

The rainbow, including the use of a rainbow flag, has been the symbol of the co-operative movement since 1928. Various modifications have taken place over the past 97 years. I find it irritating that latecomers think they have an exclusive right to that symbol. Its use by various groups of homosexuals came 50 years later. Of course, I also take exception to the use of the word pride. It originally referred to an excessive love of one’s own excellence. Pride = hubris = ὕβρις (Ancient Greek ) = futility. It is considered the original and worst of the seven deadly sins, the most demonic, and the source of the other deadly sins. Pride is viewed as the opposite of humility.

The Margaree area is multicultural, largely populated by descendants of the original Acadian (French), Irish and Scottish populations. We took one final drive though the valley. The Margaree River = Abhainn Mhargaraidh (Gaelic) has three branches. The northeast branch of the river derives from the watershed of the Cape Breton Highlands, while the Southwest Margaree flows northeast from Lake Ainslie, the largest natural freshwater lake on Cape Breton, approximately 20 kilometres long and 5 kilometres in width, on average. It was formed during the Pleistocene, about two million years ago, when glacial outwash blocked the drainage of the valley of Loch Ban. The two branches join at Margaree Forks. The river then flows north to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence at Margaree Harbour. The river system is 120 km in length and drains an area of 1 375 km².

Baile nan Gàidheal (Gaelic) = Highlanders’ town (literal English translation), although signs tell me it is called The Highland Village.

We had an enjoyable visit to the village, learning about the way of life that in many ways contrasted with the mining and industrial life portrayed at the Miners Museum.

This building is a reconstruction of a stone house found in the Hebrides.

Note: of the places we visited on this trip to Canada, CBI is the one place I would like to visit again, with a possible excursion to Prince Edward Island. It is probably the most affordable place in Canada where I would want to live, since the Lower Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island are undoubtedly beyond my economic capacity.

Return to Norway

After visiting the Highland Village Museum, our CBI adventure was over. We drove to the Canso Causeway, crossed it, then continued on to the Halifax Airport. We took a flight to Reykjavik, then transferred onto a flight bound for Oslo.

Posted on

Prince Edward Island

Onward to Prince Edward Island over the Conferation Bridge. PEI in the background.

First, a repeat of 7th grade social studies. Canada is a federation = a union of partially self-governing provinces, states or other regions under a federal government, rather than a confederation = an association of sovereign states. Prince Edward Island (PEI) joined this federation on 1873-07-01, becoming Canada’s seventh province. Initially, PEI had rejected the idea of confederation (the political process of forming a federation) in 1867-07-01 when Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick joined. Yet, the first meeting to consider confederating was held in Charlottetown in 1864-09-01 to 09.

For inclusivity’s sake: on 1870-07-15 Manitoba and Northwest joined Canada as a province and territory, respectively, followed by British Columbia as a province on 1871-07-20. Facing increasing debt and swayed by the Canadian government’s offer to take over this debt, provide subsidies, and finance railway construction, PEI joined Canada. Yukon separated from Northwest to became a separate territory on 1898-06-13, Alberta and Saskatchewan took land from Northwest Territory and Rupert’s Land, to join as provinces 1905-09-01, Newfoundland and Labrador joined as a province 1949-03-31. Nunavut, became the largest and northernmost territory of Canada, when it was separated from the Northwest Territories on 1999-04-01. The three territories cover 40% of Canada’s land, but represent only 0.3% of the population. The difference between a territory and a province, is that a territory lacks sovereignty. A more detailed look at Rupert’s Land, will be the subject of another weblog post.

The challenge for PEI is that it often refers to itself as the birthplace of confederation because of the 1864 conference, but initially decided not to be part of Canada. This allowed two other places to join as provinces, before it. Yet, I understand. Everyone makes mistakes, and some even try to hide inconvenient facts.

Back to the travelogue

The fixed link or Confederation Bridge = Pont de la Confédération, is a multi-span balanced cantilever bridge with a post-tensioned concrete box girder structure. It carries the Trans-Canada Highway across the Abegweit Passage of the Northumberland Strait, It links New Brunswick with Prince Edward Island. Construction took place from 1993-11-01 until May 1997-05-31. It cost CAD 1.3 billion. The 12.9-kilometre bridge is Canada’s longest, and the world’s longest over ice-covered water. Yes, everyone has to find something to distinguish themselves. Travelling from New Brunswick on the Bridge, or from Nova Scotia on the ferry to PEI, tolls are not paid, only in the reverse direction! On the map below, one should be aware that the ferry from Souris goes to the Madelaine Islands, Quebec.

Map of Prince Edward Island.

We stayed for three days at a cabin at Grand Tracadie, north of Charlottetown. It was a suitable place.

Our cabin and rental vehicle on Prince Edward Island.

Tracadie (French) from Telagadik (Mi’kmaw) = gathering place (English), but frequently translated as camping place. It is located close to Prince Edward Island National Park. We drove through the park on our way to Summerside. Here we visited the Eptek Art and Culture Centre. While Alasdair talked to the tourism hostess, I moved 10 meters to talk to theatre hostess, mostly about Cape Breton Island, where she came from. There were no theatrical events until September.

The Prince Edward Island Railway exists no more. It ran from Tignish in the west to Elmira in the east, with major spurs serving Borden-Carleton’s train ferry dock, Charlottetown, Montague and Georgetown and the original eastern terminus at Souris. A spur from Charlottetown served Murray Harbour on the south coast. The line officially closed on 1989-12-31. Rails were removed between 1990 and 1992. The PEI government received a one-time payment of $200 million to upgrade the road network in exchange for not opposing the closure.

The provincial government purchased the properties in 1994, and 75 per cent of the route now forms the basis of the Confederation Trail rail trail system. The station in Elmira at the eastern end of the line is now used as the Elmira Railway Museum. Readers will be surprised to learn that we did not visit this museum on our trip. We did visit Kensington, and its train station.

Scott O’Neill, Heart of PEI (2021) at the Kensington Train Station.

We discovered that reddish brown dirt shirts are a popular product for young boys. They are designed to avoid showing the red mud colour found almost everywhere on the island.

North Ruatico

The next day, travels took us to Charlottetown. Alasdair navigated us to the Baha’i Centre, shown in the following photograph.

Alasdair in front of the Charlottetown Baha’i Centre.

We also visited Charlottetown. Among the creatures we encountered was a life sized sculpture of a bluefin tuna made of stainless steel. The scales are made from spoons. Bluefin Bullet was sculpted by Gerald Beaulieu (1964 – ) in 2011. The sculpture is adjacent to the Library and learning center. Despite appearances, the sculpture does not eat people.

Gerald Beaulieu, Bluefin Bullet (2011), Charlottetown.

Below are two landscape photos of locations close to the cottage we rented.

Of course, these weblog posts always have more information than readers want about transportation. For those not interested in the details, the remaining paragraphs can be skipped. They can be summarized in one sentence: We left Prince Edward Island by ferry.

From 1979 to 2021, the MV Holiday Island, built in 1971 at Saint Catharine’s, Ontario, was a Canadian roll-on roll-off (RORO) ferry, that operated across the Northumberland Strait. A serious fire in 2022 resulted in it being so severely damaged that it was broken up in 2023 by R.J. MacIsaac Construction in Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia.

The MV Saaremaa 1 was then hired to act as a temporary replacement ferry. This was originally built at Fiskerstand, Norway, to serve Saaremaa and Hiiumaa islands, in western Estonia, until 2019. In 2019, the ferry was sold to Société des traversiers du Québec (STQ) in Canada to operate on the Matane – Baie-Comeau – Godbout route in Quebec. It should be noted that not any old ferry will do on this route, as in Estonia, ferries have to have icebreaking capabilities.

We left Prince Edward Island on the ferry Northumberland. This ferry was built by Aker in Aukra, near Molde, Norway in 2007 as the car ferry Fanafjord. Until 2018, it sailed on a route that connects Bergen with Stavanger. It uses LNG as fuel. On 1 April 2019, it was planned to be sold to work on a German route. This was postponed. In 2020, it was chartered by the German company Elbferry, and changed its name to Greenferry I. The goal was for it to operate on a newly started route in Germany. In 2021-11, it was announced that Elbferry had gone bankrupt due to a fivefold increase in LNG prices and less truck traffic than expected.

In 2024 the ferry was sold to Northumberland Ferries Limited, for its route between Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island and Caribou, Nova Scotia. Before delivery, the ferry was modified at Fiskerstand. I am uncertain, but this might have been to improve its icebreaking capabilities.

A replacement ferry for the Northumberland Strait is not expected to be ready until at least 2028. This new ferry is being built by Chantier Davie Canada, located in Lauzon, Quebec, Canada. It is the oldest continually operating shipbuilder in North America.

Posted on

New Brunswick

We left Maine after driving on Interstate 95, past Houlton, and entering Canada at Woodstock, in New Brunswick. The border guard (or are they now called agents?) took our Canadian passports, looked at them and then us to make sure there was a vague resemblance between photos and people. She then asked, “Do you have any firearms?” to which we could honesty reply, “No.” She then asked about recreational drugs. Again we could honestly reply in the negative. One final question involved what is technically referred to as a slew of products, to which we also replied that we did not have any of them. Our passports were handed back, and we were allowed into Canada on highway 95.

Our first stop was at …

Fredricton

Fredricton city hall, with the Freddy the Nude Dune fountain in front. Photo: Wladyslaw, 2008-09-17.

Of course I realize that nobody is interested in the city hall, only the fountain in front of it. A nude cherub = Putto with Fish (official name) = Freddy the Nude Dude (popular name) was donated by George Edward Fentey (1812 – 1899), sometime mayor and architect, in 1885. Since 2013, the original Freddy is kept safely inside the city hall, while a replica entertains tourists.

Located in downtown Fredericton we encountered the New Brunswick College of Crafts and Design, with its goal to prepare students for success with design and entrepreneurial skills. Programs include: 1-year Certificate Programs in Foundation Visual Arts (FVA) and Advanced Studio Practice. 2-year Diplomas in 3D Digital Design, Ceramics, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Jewellery/Metal Arts, Photography, Textile Design, and Wabanaki Visual Arts = history and traditional crafts of the Wolastoqey, Mi’Kmaq, and Passamaquoddy First Nations cultures in Atlantic Canada. This can be transformed into a 2+2 = 4-year Bachelor of Applied Arts Degree with the University of New Brunswick, also located in Fredericton.

Sports enthusiasts may want to find somewhere else to live, as Fredericton has no professional sports teams.

In New Brunswick we stayed at the BayBreeze restaurant and motel in Pocologan, run by Greek immigrants John and Maria. They had lived in Canada for about as long as we had lived in Norway. John is a couple of years younger than I am, but continues to work. This enterprise is seasonal. They also spend time in Ontario, visiting their daughter and grand daughter. They also spend time in the village in Greece, where they have their origins.

Saint John

Canada Day, 2025-07-01 and we are heading off again to Saint John (yes, without an ‘s as in Saint John’s, the capital of Newfoundland). We had been there for a quick visit the day before, but this time we were going to explore the city for real. It is located 43 km north-east of Pocologan, where we stayed.

While there were lots of people, and almost as many Canadian flags, in downtown St John. One of the more interesting natural phenomena was the Reversing Falls. The primary industrial operation near the falls is the Irving Pulp & Paper mill. The mill is located on the west side of the gorge. The Irving family has been described as having an economic monopoly in New Brunswick. Yet, their origins are modest. James Dergavel Irving (1860 – 1933) started the family business empire by opening a gas station in Bouctouche, approximately 40 kilometres northeast of Moncton. Since then the range of businesses owned has grown to over 250 located throughout Canada and the United States. In 2017, the various petrochemical, logistics, retail, and media companies were estimated by MacLeans to be worth $14.5 billion at the end of 2024.

The cormorants at the Reversing Falls provided the most entertainment. At the far end they would fly forward, then allow themselves to drift down with the current. Presumably, when the current flowed in the opposite direction, their flight path would be reversed. I did not wait to see.

The 8.9 km2 Rockwood Park claims to have six or ten lakes (sources vary) and 55 trails (sources are consistent). We circumnavigated Lily Lake and enjoyed the sculptures found there.

Sunshine and Moonlight over Saint John (2012) by Japanese sculptor Hiroyuki Asano (1963 – )

One of the first sculptures we encountered with Sunshine and Moonlight over Saint John (2012) by Japanese sculptor Hiroyuki Asano (1963 – )

The Day of Mourning was first observed in 1984 by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and later adopted by the Canadian Labour Congress. The date was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the first Workers’ Compensation Act in Ontario, Canada, in 1914. In 2023, the latest year for which I have been able to obtain statistics, there were 1 057 workplace fatalities recorded in Canada. Among these deaths were 29 young workers aged 15-24.

The Day of Mourning Monument (2011) by Fred Harrison and Darren Byers.

The Day of Mourning monument in Rockwood Park, Saint John, New Brunswick, was unveiled on a National Day of Mourning (2011-04-28) to honor workers who have died, been injured, or become ill due to workplace hazards. The monument depicts workers lifting a beam, with two ghostly figures representing lives lost with a woman on a crate symbolizing unsafe conditions. A canary on the beam also serves as a reminder of the use of canaries in mine shafts to detect toxic air. The Day of Mourning is observed annually on 04-28. It was made by Fred Harrison and Darren Byers.

Jhon Gogaberishvili, Time and Universe (2014)

Georgian (as in the European country) sculptor Jhon Gogaberishvili (1953 – ) is responsible for this artwork found in Saint Stephens, New Brunswick, titled, Time and Universe (2014). Saint Stephens is situated on the east bank of the St. Croix River, which forms a large section of the border between Maine and New Brunswick.

Pocologan to Moncton

Our route from Pocologan to Moncton took us along the highway 1 freeway, before we turned off onto highway 114. allowing us to drive through Mechanic Settlement. Yes, it has to be one of the most appealing location names in all of Canada, for people with an interest in technology. Soon we reached Fundy National Park (FNP). In 2025, free admission to Canadian national parks was available to us, and everyone else, from 06-20 to 09-02, inclusive, as part of the Canada Strong Pass initiative. The Canada Strong Pass is not a physical or virtual pass that you need to get. One just shows up at the included attractions.

After leaving FNP, we encountered the fishing village of Alma, where one could appreciate the tidal height differences, and its inventory of modern fishing boats.

Fishing boats at Alma.

After stopping and admiring the village, we continued on to Hillsborough, where the New Brunswick Railway Museum is located. It has the largest collection of railway artifacts in New Brunswick, about half being from passenger operations, while the other half is of freight, maintenance-of-way and service equipment.

The museum is also home to one aircraft, a preserved CF-101 Voodoo fighter jet, an all-weather interceptor aircraft operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force between 1961 and 1984. They were manufactured by the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri.

Also near Hillsborough is the Weldon Private Park, where we stopped for a few minutes.

Residents of the Weldon Private Park.

We did not spend much time in Moncton itself. About 46% of the Moncton’s population is bilingual and understands both English and French. The only other Canadian cities that approach this level of linguistic duality are Ottawa, Sudbury, and Montreal. Moncton became the first officially bilingual city in the country in 2002. This means that all municipal services, as well as public notices and information, are available in both French and English. It is also the fastest growing metropolitan area in Canada.

I remember Jane Cooper telling everyone in our class at John Robson Elementary School, about visiting Magnetic Hill, an optical illusion, on the outskirts of Moncton. About seventy years later, we paid our CAD 10 entrance fee, and experienced it. My advice to readers is to save their money.

Posted on

Maine

Yes, Maine is the 6th American state I have visited. In Chronological order the others are: Washington, Ohio, Oregon, California and Michigan. If I visited American places associated with my ancestry, I should visit Schenectady and Staten Island in New York, North Bergen in New Jersey and Baltimore, Maryland. Other places of interest include Hawaii, Nevada, New Hampshire and Vermont.

The Cat Ferry leaving Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Photo: Regan Murphy, 2016-07-31.

The Alakai = Sea Path, in Hawaiian, was designed and built by Austal USA, a subsidiary of Austal, an Australian company that is the world’s largest builder of fast ferries. Construction began in 2004-06 in Mobile, Alabama. It was launched 2007-01. It originally cost US$ 88M. Originally Hawaii Superferry’s first high-speed ferry, was intended to operate between various Hawaiian islands. Unfortunatelly, the owners forgot to undertake an environmental assessment, and use of the ferry and its sister ship the Huakai = Journey, in Hawaiian, were banned. Both vessels are now owned by the United States Navy Military Sealift Command, bought for US$ 25 M, each. Officially, it is now named the HST-2, although Alakai still is painted on its bow. It is referred to as The Cat. The vessel is chartered by Bay Ferries to operate a ferry service between Yarmouth, Nova Scotia and Bar Harbor, Maine. It travels at a speed of 35 knots = 65 km/h, taking 3.5 hours for a one-way trip. Bay Ferries operates in eastern Canada with headquarters in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. It is a subsidiary of Northumberland Ferries.

Long before a new American president had taken over, we had paid for our Maine accommodation. We had considered abandoning this part of our trip, but decided not to. We began to ensure a safe passage through the American border by eating the two bananas we had with us on board the ferry. No fruit is allowed to be taken into USA. The interrogation at the border was much more thorough than before. We were asked how long we were staying = three days. In addition to our Canadian passports, the guard wanted to see documentation for our rental car and its insurance. After learning that we lived in Norway, he wanted documentation for our exit from Canada. With those formalities in order, we were allowed into USA.

My son, Alasdair, could tell me that he wanted to visit Bar Harbor, because of Fallout 4: Far Harbor, an expansion pack for the action role-playing game. It is set 210 years after The Great War, which began 2077-10-23, and resulted in nuclear devastation across the United States. So the game is set sometime in 2287-8. The main difference between game and reality, was that while Far Harbor was depopulated, Bar Harbor was experiencing a summer tourism surge in population. It is located on Mount Desert Island. Samuel de Champlain (1574 – 1635) observed on 1604-08-06, that the summits of the island’s mountains were free of vegetation, as seen from the sea. This led him to call the island L’Isle des Monts-déserts = island of barren mountains.

Bar Harbor. We parked behind the purple car.

After a couple of hours experiencing an overcrowded Bar Harbor on foot, I was happy to drive on. However, I appreciated the scenery of Acadia National Park. The park began as Sieur de Monts National Monument in 1916, but was reestablishing as Lafayette National Park in 1919, the first national park east of the Mississippi. The name Lafayette was changed to Acadia in 1929.

Belfast

The first place we visited in Belfast was the Public Library. Because we didn’t know we would be stopping here, we thought it would be a good location to find out something about the geography and history of the place. It was settled in 1770, and from about 1850 developed into a shipbuilding center, producing hundreds of schooners. Materials for wooden boat construction were shipped down the Penobscot River from Bangor, the lumber capital of North America during the later 19th century. Wooden ship construction faded by 1900, so the local economy shifted to distributing seafood for the Boston and New York markets. After World War II, the emphasis was on poultry production, but that died out in the 1970s. Fortunately, boomers started to invade the area wanting to live in more rural areas.

A Belfast, Maine resident.

We learned that people in Maine choose Moxie over root beer. We had to try some, so we bought a dozen tins. One empty tin even made it back to Norway as a souvenir. It looked like rusty water, and the taste was similar, but it was an acquired taste, that grows exponentially. Yes, that means the second tin tasted four times better than the first one.

Bangor

Our accommodation was about one kilometer from the Maine Air Museum, in Bangor. Alasdair had originally visited it without me, but I caught up to him to appreciate it. Yes, rail and air transport related facilities are always high priority places to visit on our trips.

Yes, this is what a nuclear bomb looks like, without the active ingredients!
Helicopter at the Maine Air Museum.

We also visited downtown Bangor, where its artwork was appreciated:

As in most places, we continued to eat. We had dinner at the Happy Chinese Buffet in Bangor. It makes a change from Pizza.

Biologically, I am the youngest of five brothers, four of which involve my paternal family. The next youngest is Brad, who was born in Windsor, Ontario, but who moved with his family across the Detroit River to Michigan. He discovered me, one month before I turned seventy. Soon after, he and Janice visited us in Norway, then we visited them in Macomb, Michigan just as the pandemic struck. On his way to Maine, he and his wife Janice had visited Dick, the adopted son of our father, who lives in Keene, New Hampshire. This was the last piece of the puzzle explaining my name at birth, Richard Edwin Salter.

We met for a third time in Bangor. This photo was taken at the Hilton Garden Hotel where Brad and Janice were staying. Alasdair and I were some kilometers away at a Quality hotel.

Brad & Janice Laesser, Alasdair and Brock.

Note: Content about the Maine Air Museum along with other photos was added on Tuesday, 2025-08-05.

Posted on

Nova Scotia

It was almost 50 years between visits to Halifax. My first visit was to study there for a year during the 1975-6 academic year. Notably, it was my first prolonged exposure to cold. Clothing suitable for a winter in Vancouver, were not suitable for a winter in Nova Scotia.

Every urban visit seems to promote the same reaction. I am a ruralist, and this is not really my scene.

Positive experiences

My relationship with the Staples office supply chain is directly related to my use of Logitech computing accessories. Previously, when in Canada, I would visit a Staples store, and look at the latest Logitech keyboards. English language keyboards were often available before Nordic keyboards, so I could make a decision earlier based on what I found. This is why I own seven Logitech keyboards, including two of model K380, my favourite, kept in reserve, just in case . In Halifax, there were no new accessories, so I spent more time looking at curved monitors. It was a positive experience. Prices seemed to vary extensively from over CAD 1 000 to under CAD 120. My companion explained that much of this price difference could be attributed to the monitor’s refresh speed. He felt that an ultrafast refresh was only something for gamers and video producers to worry about, not his father.

50 years ago, I worked part-time as a security guard at the Killam Memorial Library, part of Dalhousie University, in Halifax. Here I am with Alasdair. My daughter Shelagh commented that it looked as if we were dressed for two different climates.
Not everything is as it was 50 years ago. I appreciate

Of course we had to visit the Halifax train station. It is undergoing a CAD 6M rehabilitation that started in 2018. The challenge with trains in Canada is that they most often do not meet the needs of travellers. Earlier this year in France, we used trains as our primary means of transport, although there were a few bus substitutes on Corsica. This was not possible in maritime Canada or Maine. Only one train a day arrives and leaves the Halifax train station.

Peggy’s Cove

Peggy’s Cove is less than 50 km/ one hour by car from Halifax. It is a tourist trap. Instead of visiting it, spend your time in Lunenburg, 100 km/ 1h10m down the road, or even a bit less if one just drives there from Halifax.

The Lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove, complete with tourists everywhere.

Lunenburg

A decommissioned Halifax – Dartmouth ferry in Lunenburg.

Lunenburg is a port town on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada, founded in 1753. Historically, its economy relied on the offshore fishery. It experienced prosperity in the late 1800s, and much of its architecture dates from then. In 1995, UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site. UNESCO considers the site the best example of planned British colonial settlement in North America. The core of the town is also a National Historic Site of Canada. The Schooner Bluenose (1921) and its 1963 replica were both built at Lunenberg.

Bay of Fundy

When we left Halifax we headed towards the Bay of Fundy. We headed out of Halifax on Highway 101. The first stop was at Windsor, and its railway station. It is the antithesis of the one found in Halifax. No trains stop there any more. The station is owned by the Windsor and Hantsport Railway, which no longer operates trains. This prefabricated metal structure replaced an earlier station building when the railway line’s route through Windsor was changed in the 1970s.

The Windsor railway station.

We then visited the Greenwood Military Aviation Museum, which had a Canadian made Lancaster bomber on display, along with other aircraft. While not really open to the public we got to see more than most tourists, because one visitor was receiving a special viewing of the Lancaster, because her father piloted such an aircraft during World War II. The inside of the museum was also interesting.

Continuing on, we then stopped at Digby.

… with murals and old boats. The tidal difference can be up to 8 meters. This contrasts with about 2.5 meters near Cliff Cottage.

Yarmouth

At the end of the day we reached Yarmouth, where we stayed. Standard procedure says that we stay three nights in one location. This was the one exception on the trip, one night. In the morning we boarded The Cat that departed for Bar Harbor, Maine.

Yarmouth, with The Cat ferry in the background.

Culture shock

Whenever I visit Canada I experience culture shock. One would almost believe I was born in Norway, not in Vancouver. Here are some of the less than positive experiences I encountered on this trip.

Walking the streets of Halifax, I came across the Board Room. Sometimes, this is a cafe. At other times it is just a place where one can play 600+ board games. At Cliff Cottage, the choice is probably only about 50 games. However, you will not be charged anything for playing any of them. At the Board Room the fee for 3 hours is CAD 10 + sales tax. My first challenge was understanding North American urbanese. What time is 12PM? All my devices (indluding my brain) present time using 24 hour clocks. However, in a matter of ms, I had translated this to 12:00 = noon. If it had been 12AM, my brain would translate it as 00:00 = midnight.

Travel involves the use of money. For me that means a bank card, sometimes an app called Vipps – that works in Norway and Sweden. I have come across restaurants that do not accept cards. These places know where the closest automatic telling machine (ATM) is located. I decline to use it. I suspect the reason for their non-acceptance of bank cards involves tax evasion. I pay my taxes, and expect everyone else to pay them too. I have always found a restaurant close by that accepts a card. I do not want to end up with currency that I cannot use.

Sales tax vs Value-added tax (VAT). In Norway, the VAT rate is 25%. So when a shopkeeper buys or sells something, the price includes the VAT. The VAT earned on sales minus the VAT paid on purchases is paid to the government. This system means that the price marked on an item, or shown in a menu, is the price to be paid. There is no sales tax added on afterwards.

Tips. Tipping just isn’t done in Norway. People are expected to do their work, and employers are expected to pay living wages (or more) for it. Thus there is no need for tips. I especially dislike the north American card readers used in restaurants, and the range of tips expected. Yes, I should have taken a photo of one of them: It had five choices: 15, 20 and 25%, other % and fixed amount. I had to use the fixed amount and insert 0. It worked. Of course, the amount paid included the sales tax.

For the Halifax transit authority (HTA), money also means cash. Cash is a very messy medium of exchange, even if tax avoidance is not an issue. Coins and bills are typically dirty, Cash has to be counted, up to several times. So, I can’t understand that the HTA reduces their costs by demanding cash. In this particular case, the situation meant that I could not take the Dartmouth Ferry.

Then there are the parking garages. They don’t accept cash. We came across multiple apps. They typically have a wallet where one is expected to deposit funds to pay for the parking, but they want an excessive balance put into that wallet. We have always found parking and apps that allow for direct payment of the specified amount.