Sailing in and out of Norway's fjords, bays around islands and the mainland kept us extremely busy over the next three days, culminating in a party to celebrate crossing the Arctic Circle. It involved five zodiac landings and departures, which mostly all work like clockwork.The night before these three busy days, having definitely gained our sea legs in the quiet mirror like fjords and then further smooth coastal cruising north, we had enjoyed our first wine ...

The deep, perfectly still peaceful fjord rippled gently as the MS Expedition glided through. The calmness was a balm to the overworked senses of balance and seasickness. Crossing the North Sea had meant lots of rocking and rolling and discreet use of those concertina paper bags that nestle in airline seat pockets and aboard ships. You know the ones? Enough said. Now the stillness was soothing and suddenly we were hungry for food again and for exploring the beauty...

 We were the luckiest people on the expedition having our own private local tour of the Shetlands. Our friend Leah worked for us at Coral Bay and as she left to go home to the Shetland Islands, we jokingly said, one day we'll come and visit. When planning this trip, we saw that the G Adventures tour included the Shetlands and contacted Leah for a catch up. We only had 3 & 1/2 hours shore time but Leah was ready and waiting for us to make the most of it.We we...

Edinburgh always shines as a destination.Easily walkable, the central area is full of interesting historic buildings, and the magnificent castle overlooks it all. This visit was very short, arriving quite late by train the night before, then some exploring time until late afternoon, before joining our fellow passengers at a pre-arranged meeting place to be taken by bus to our ship. The MS Expedition is the same vessel we travelled on in 2010 to Antarctica. It is...

We got off to an interesting start when our taxi driver (a native of Ghana) couldn't find our mainstream hotel in the Doha Port part of the city. He had to phone a friend. The friend couldn’t help so I showed him that I had the phone number of the hotel as well as the address and he was guided to the hotel by phone directions from the hotel reception. It’s a phenomena we’ve seen in other countries but most notably in Abu Dhabi. Taxi drive...