Iceland and Greenland

I flew back from Amsterdam to Dallas on Friday, July 18th. I have to say, summer brings out the worst in people. I never saw so much line-jumping as took place when I was waiting to clear passport control, security, and then getting on the plane. Line-jumpers in each case, and at passport control, people were actually bypassing the line altogether for the security check and going straight to passport control. Security was a bit lax. I waited in line for 15 minutes only to have someone walk right to front of the line. When I was waiting for the security check, an elderly Chinese couple was carried by cart to the line, where they promptly walked right up to the front. They did the same when we got on the plane; walked right to the front. Must be the tourist season, as I haven't seen it like this before.

Anyway, that's a digression. Every time I fly back and forth to Europe, I always sit on the north side of the plane. The reason for that is that I love to get a glimpse of Greenland if we fly close enough, and the weather was clear. On 7/18/08, I flew back from Amsterdam to Dallas, and not only was Greenland quite visible, but for the first time I could clearly see Iceland from the plane. Mark James, another person traveling on the same flight was taking some pictures, and I asked him if he could send me some copies (I had left my camera in Europe). Below are the pictures from the window of the plane, and they are impressive. The display said we were at 34,000 feet, but it seemed that we were much lower than that.

Vestmannaeyjabær off the Southern Coast of Iceland.

Credit for all Photos to Mark James



Icebergs off the Eastern Coast of Greenland



The Eastern Coast of Greenland



The Southern Coast of Iceland

I spotted that town off of Iceland from the air, and looked it up. It is Vestmannaeyjabær. You can see some pictures of it from the ground here: http://www.world-geographics.com/europe/iceland/south-1755/3412095-vestmannaeyjabr.html