I went to the petrified forest when I was 8. I don’t remember much, and definitely not the petroglyphs.
They weren’t the baseball scores carved into the rocks.
And the Murmansk ones weren’t onshore, you had to go by boat in vicious seas.
Drop in at the British Museum to check petroglyphs. There’ll be quite a few. I doubt the Poms will have been shamed into giving them back to their original owners by Christmas.
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Those stories about the Brits stealing things have two sides. Yes, Lord Elgin did just take the Parthenon marbles. On the other hand, until the 1970s, anyone could go to the Parthenon and take anything they liked. The temple was a ruin, and it’s highly likely that if Elgin hadn’t taken the marbles, there would be nothing left of them now.
The Greeks have belatedly realised the value of their ancient sites, and I agree that the Brits should now give the marbles back, knowing that (at last) they’d be well taken care of.
We went Havila which is the upmarket sister of Hurtigruten purely because the rooms and meals looks far better. Hurtigruten caters for a bit more budget conscious and the rooms tend to be smaller and basic wit the meals mainly buffet type put together for groups. Havila leans more towards bigger rooms and a proper dining experience with a decent meal selection. Their ships are much newer and “green” as they have electric powered engines. Most of our days were as calm as anything and you didn’t even know we were at sea but a couple of days we got out into the Arctic and copped massive waves that tossed us around. I don’t get seasick as a rule but this made me ill and I fell out of bed one night 
Scenery was stunning and I’d definitely do it again
Thank you very much. That was in winter?
March
Still plenty of days of snow and blizzards.
Once you get out of the passages that run along the Norwegian coast it can get very blustery. We had days where visibility was only a few feet
Makes it difficult to have a whizz?
Thanks. Much appreciated.
We did this last year, late Jan/Feb, except with Viking. Bergen-Alta-London. Way fewer stops than Hurtigruten but I gather some of the stops on that trip are quite short and probably not practical for passengers to get off.
As @Aceman noted sailing up the Norway coast, in between the offshore islands, was like a millpond. Stunning scenery! Completely different in the open sea where large swells and very strong winds were common. I am prone to sea-sickness but felt no effects at any stage. The weather can turn in that part of the world in an instant so you need to be prepared for anything.
The northern lights are the winter drawcard and while there’s no guarantee chances are you’ll see something.
Thank you very much.
This question should be a chance for Blitz’ only Norwegian native, @bomberdomination18
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I think she’s too busy on her Bachelor of Calculus degree.
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To be fair, that is a tough degree. I bet no-one else here has one of those.
Travel insurance denied any claims and Cunard not refunding any money or even willing to offer travel credit so looks like just under $16k lost on the cruise. Airlines and accomodation either offered full refund or travel credits which is fine as they are now holding about $6k worth of travel credits but we are heading back definitely next year.
The funeral is on the first day of our cruise but if we do want to salvage it we can join up with them on day 3 in Sitka which would probably set us back about $15k in flights if that is the way we want to proceed. My preference is just to write it off and use our remaining leave to head to the ME later in the year for 3-4 weeks or save it and take 3 months off to the US next year
We took possesion of our joint in Samar 2 weeks ago. “Possesion”. We only finaly got the paperwork delivered by some dodgy associate of the engineer this morning.
I still love it here, fully dodgy like me 
Here is a pic of the fish they dragged out of the water in front of my joint this morning.
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Bored tonight so just booked 3 weeks in Vietnam for October. Purely relaxation purposes at a couple of beach resorts
What resorts are your go to?
How do you get so much time off?
We tend to prefer individual beachfront villas with a private pool rather than in the actual resort itself so we have chosen to go to Phu Quoc which we love and will stay at the Movenpick Villas and residences as being Accor Diamonds they treat us amazingly there and give us an automatic upgrade to the 3 bedroom beachfront villas which are massive and set on a beautiful stretch of the beach.
Then we will head up to DaNang and stay at the Premier Village by Accor which has huge beachfront villas on a great stretch of beach.
Will stay 4 days at each and then haven’t decided where else yet.
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