The Inner Child Keeps on Growing

So we're back from Norway. In general a good time was had (there will be photos later!).

Highlights:

• We managed to see the Northern Lights three times. None of them were huge, spectacular displays but we were happy!
• On the day we crossed over into the arctic circle it was dark and snowy and looked wonderfully like the arctic should (even if we're not really in the arctic proper at that point!)
• Most of the people we shared the trip with were very nice, including 3 women either recently retired or bordering on retiring who were just lovely: funny and cheerful and just, well, nice. When I get to that age that's the sort of retiree I want to be!
• We were not 'over-programmed' so got lots of reading done.
• The fjiords were just beautiful.
• Contrary to myths about their gloominess, all the Norwegians we met were cheerful, helpful and spoke extremely good English.
• They also have the most polite drivers I have every met. Almost every time we were waiting to cross the road cars stopped for us, even when there was no pedestrian crossing.

Less positive things:

• Some aspects of the trip were not as well organised as they could have been, especially when compared with the Egypt trip from the same company (VJV). Nothing major but just enough to niggle.
• One of our company was the epitome of the bad side of The Englishman Abroad. He was a retired architect who didn't say much but when he did... Classics included saying that there was no point in learning another language because all the important countries (my emphasis) spoke good English. I tried to make a point about this being an unfortunate side-effect of our imperial past but was shouted down...
• Only two or three hours of daylight a day takes some serious getting used to. Actually, I'm not sure I could get used to it.
• Some of the tour guides were not as knowledgeable as they might have been (and certainly not knowledgeable about local history earlier than about 250 years ago.)
• Food and alchohol in Norway is obscenely expensive. Seriously, I couldn't believe how much it all cost. We'll have a big credit card bill this month and it will almost all be food...

Just to add a little interest to coming home again:

• We found out that the person we spent New Year's Eve with has tested positive to Meningitis (they are recovering fine) but because we stayed over there was a small risk that we might have picked it up, so we had to get an antibiotic dose from the doctor.
• I couldn't log on to my credit card web site and it turns out that someone tried to use pennski's card number while we were away for about £700 worth of goods. Luckily it was blocked but getting the info from the help line was just painful - especially as one of the 'security' questions they asked was to verify a previous payment I'd made ('You made a payment to an insurance company in October - which company was it?') Through not even slightly gritted teeth pointed out that since I couldn't log on to my account I couldn't check...