Now that I’m on the way back and headed in a southerly direction, the dysfunctional satellite internet connection (on this ship) is starting to work. Places like Finland, Estonia, Russia, Sweden, Norway are, they say, just too far north for a reliable connection. I tend to believe that, because Clarke’s Belt hovers over the Equator and the satellite dishes in the northern parts are all pointed so close to 90 degrees as be at the limit of their ability to bend. Here’s a typical example (bandwidth allowing):

How nice it would have been to be able to check in daily and post a picture now and then! At the Hermitage in Leningrad St. Petersburg I ran into one of the longtime sponsors of this blog:

And I saw souvenirs like these Matrushka dolls:

Sheesh!

But I couldn’t even check, email, much less log into the blog. The spammers have of course been having a field day.

Thursday’s horrific events reminded me that terror continues to be a powerful political tool, and unfortunately one which works. Flags were at half mast in Germany, although not in Sweden (a country with an, um, attitude to put it politely.) In Denmark I spoke to several people about the recent Bush visit. They said that despite the fact that two-thirds of the people disagree with Bush and are against the Iraq war), he was politely received, and they seemed pleasantly surprised that their tiny country would receive such attention from a United States president. (Apparently it does not happen often.)

If you ask me, Bush couldn’t have timed it better.

I’ll be traveling the next couple of days and hope to be back by Saturday. Meanwhile, a late night sunset from the land of the midnight sun:

MORE: Until today I hadn't had a chance to even read this blog, and I'm delighted Justin and Dennis (despite the hurricane) have done such a great job.

Thanks! I hadn't gotten away with relaxing in a long time.