Longyearbyen – Norway’s Arctic Capital
3 August 2019 | Places
▲ The 'capital' city of Norway's far northern island group of Svalbard takes its colourful name from John Munro Longyear, the American pioneer of Svalbard coal mining in 1906.
▲ Visitors come to Svalbard in search of polar bears and the first one confronts you befo...
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Svalbard – way north of the Arctic Circle
9 July 2019 | Places
Maureen and I spent a week on the National Geographic Explorer on a Lindblad National Geographic trip around the Svalbard islands. Look directly down on the north pole on a globe and it’s easy to see Svalbard is in the far north, way far north. At around 76 to 80°N it...
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British Airways Baggage Refund & a Trip to Svalbard
27 July 2018 | Living
I’m a firm believer on travelling only with carry ons, avoiding the hassles of checked baggage. A recent experience with British Airways underlines why that’s a good idea. No, they didn’t lose my baggage, but extracting a baggage money refund from them after a flight ...
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