Murmansk, Russia’s largest city north of the Arctic Circle was founded over a century ago as a supply depo to Moscow in wartime. Decades later, during World War II, Murmansk was the destination of the legendary Murmansk convoys. The merchant
In the fifteenth century, when Norway was part of the Kalmar Union with Denmark and Sweden, Kalmar monarchs chose Nidaros Cathedral for their coronation. Reformation and the expulsion of Catholic clerics in the sixteenth century did not end Nidaros tradition.
Norway is still looking for the patron saint of Trondheim, Saint Olav. He was first buried, by self-designation, in 1030, in a spot of quiet repose in a bend in the river Nidelva, in the town of Nidaros, now Trondheim.
Recently, the world was surprised to learn of Russian deployment of a low-tech intelligence gathering source. A Beluga whale was discovered in the North Sea, harnessed to a transmitter. Retrieved by Norwegian sailors, the device was removed for examination. The
High above the fjords of Norway sits the ancient fishing port of Ålesund. Here the city is built on the tops of mountains, strung like little islands, along submerged ice-age carved mountains. For a great view of the island, climbers
Bergen impresses visitors immediately on arrival as a city dedicated to public and performance art. Creativity in Bergen is worldly, informed by access to international influences at the docks, and introspective, impressed by Nordic tradition and folkways. Musicians of the
