RTW: GREENLAND, SLOVAKIA, BERLIN, CHINA

JUNE 1998

Text and Photos Copyright ©2001 Mark E. Halliday

Another Round-the-World trip!

Starting in Pennsylvania, I visited Carson Services in Perkasie.

This company performs air gravity surveys using LaCoste and Romberg gravity meters.

Both Twin Otter aircraft and Sikorsky Helicopters are used.

It was interesting to see the military scrap

used as a source of spare parts.

That night I stayed in Doylestown where I lived from 1966 to 1970.

I had dinner with Greg Senft and Bill Neis

two Doylestown high school friends

I had not seen in 25 years!

I now went to Greenland for a week!

To get to Greenland, you first go to Copenhagen.

From there, SAS has daily 767 service to Sondestrom,

also known as Kangerlussuaq.

Greenland is administered by Denmark, although it has a certain level of autonomy.

From Sondestrom, I flew on Greenland Air

to the popular tourist destination Illulisat.

Views towards the Greenland Ice cap were magnificent!

Illulisat, previously known as Jakobshavn.

The town has twice as many dogs as people,

the most prolific glacier outside of Antarctica,

and the site of the film "Smilla's sense of snow".

The Icefjord.

The dark rock ridge is the location of Suicide Gorge.

Elderly Innuit would throw themselves into the freezing water,

rather than become a burden to their family.

I climbed a hill and sat for at least an hour,

soaking up the sun and listening to the glacier move.

Mosses create unusual bright colors

in an otherwise grey and white world.

The Illulisat Graveyard

Living in the frozen zone has its problems, including burial.

Rocks are piled up on the gravesites,

sometimes on bare rock.

The Midnight Sun. At midnight.

For the next three hours the sun just moved to the right across the horizon.

Entertainment consisted of watching the local Innuit throw beer bottles through the bar window at 4 AM.

Then I flew back fromm Illulisat to the WW2

Sondestrom Fjord Air Force base.

Looking westward down the fiord, the ocean is about 100 miles away.

The fiord is blocked by ice except for a few months per year, when supplies are brought in.

There was a conference of about 20 specialists

in Airborne Gravity Surveying.

This Greenland Air Twin Otter

is specially equipped

with a long range fuel tank

...and skis!

LaCoste Romberg

Gravity Meter inside

An unusual site was seeing two

Concorde aircraft parked on the runway.

They were filled with high-dollar tourists

coming to Greenland from London.

View of Greenland Ice Cap

on flight back to Copenhagen

The next week was spent at a convention in Leipzig.

The old east German city is remarkably transformed,

but it is still difficult to find someone who can speak English!

Howard Golden playing the perfect host at the Icebreaker

Howard makes a joke.

I then passed through Prague to Bratislava,

the Slovak Republic capitol.

I saw this unusual display in the streets,

with bottles full of photographs!

This is a local tradition among high school graduates

who exchange bottles with each other.

I then visited a customer and an old castle in Brno, Czech Republic, and continued on to Berlin.

My last visit to Berlin was when people with red stars on their caps followed you around.....there was a huge difference!

I like the name of this Chinese restaurant.

Berliners are now fascinated by all things Jewish!,

There are many Jewish Restaurants like this one.

Berlin is now the worlds largest construction project.

I visited the scientific center

at Potsdam,

where Einstein worked.

Then a week in China at a trade show.

China seems like a different country each year!

This time the internet was everywhere.

I saw an amazing show with

acrobats and dancers.

Chinese Banquet

The last stop:

two days in Tokyo

visiting customers.

?????

Nigiri Sushi?

Text and Photos Copyright ©2001 Mark E. Halliday