The Living Journey

Restaurants line a street in Vegueta (Old Town), Las Palmas, the capital of Gran Canaria in the Canary Island
 
We embarked on this journey (heading down the west coast of Africa) in Las Palmas, Gran Cararia, Canary Islands (part of Spain) – our second visit there on the Ship in 2018.

Leaving Rome, we set course to Palma de Mallorca, which we have visited before, but enjoyed again. Here, the Catedral de Mallorca is the star; its flying buttresses and towers seem to be visible from every corner of the city,

Le Macchiole (winery) is in Bolgheri, Italy, on the Etruscan Coast — “in this magical place, where rolling hills are blanketed by forest, where vineyards and olive trees meet with the Tyrrhenian Sea”
 
From our dock in the port of Livorno,

City Hall dominates Piazza Municipio in Livorno, Italy, a port city that is regarded by many Ship passengers as the gateway to nearby Florence, but it has a history as a global trading port in the 17th century that resulted in its reputation as a multicultural city throughout Europe
 

Kirkwall from the Ship’s anchorage
 
We arrived in Kirkwall, Scotland and went on a tour of the local archeological sites. The Orkney Islands have been inhabited for a very long time. We visited Skara Brae, a remarkably well preserved Neolithic village that was first inhabited over 5000 years ago.

Overnight we sailed out to even more remote parts of the Shetland Islands. We started our day with an expedition briefing and cocktail where we were introduced to the Expedition Team. After lunch, we went for a Zodiac cruise along the rugged shoreline of Papa Stour Island.

Where to begin? After more than six weeks in Norway, we have a real sense of it. The word “clarity” comes to mind. It is so tranquil that it is possible to gain perspective beyond our everyday cares. The air is remarkable –

This morning brings our last day of the Svalbard Expedition 2018 aboard The World. It is always bittersweet as things draw to a close, but glad to have one last day in the incredible arctic sunshine to explore yet another area in the Svalbard archipelago.

Raudfjorden (The Red Fjord), Spitsbergen Island, Svalbard
 
After two days looking for wildlife in the Arctic Pack Ice north of Svalbard (setting a record for the furthest north the Ship has ever sailed — reaching Latitude 82º 41’ North and Longitude 022º 57.91’ East),

Arctic pack ice, north of Svalbard, at Latitude 82º 37’ with the forward section of deck 7 of our Ship (packed with viewers on the lookout for polar bears) visible at the bottom of the photograph
 
From Lilliehöökfjorden on the northwest side of Spitsbergen Island,

The Svalbard Expedition was well described by one of our Expedition Leaders as “epic in scale – exquisite in detail.” This huge area north of Norway proper and amazingly near to Greenland is vast and nearly completely untouched, with mountains,