Beginning in Longyearbyen -- August 23-26
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In August-September 2006, Susan and Louis went on a trip to Svalbard. The main
activity was an expedition cruise 'Around Spitsbergen' with a ship called the
Professor Molchanov. These cruises are somewhat unpredictable due to weather
and ice conditions. The itinerary we actually did is drawn on the navigation
map (link above).
Before going on the cruise we stayed in Longyearbyen, the main settlement on Svalbard, for three days. |
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| First view of Svalbard, from the plane. |  |
| Just before landing, these are the bird cliffs in Isfjorden. |  |
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We arrive at about 14:00 at LYR airport. Bus to hotel does not work too well.
Longyearbyen looks very ugly. This a place for vacation??
Weather : cold and grey after rein. Rain is rare in Svalbard, this is an arctic desert. |
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| We walk into town looking for lunch. First café serves us nice spanish omelette, but no drinks. That's only after 5. Later we find out that they close at 6. |  |
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We find Kroa, the only bar that is open. Sit there nicely, but smoking is
outside. We reserve a table for dinner. We then want to go to the tourist
office but we are told that that is closed at 4. We rest a bit in the room and
then go to the hotel bar for an aperitif. We sit outside, fortunately we are in
the time window in which drinking outside is allowed (13:00 - 24:00).
On Thursday we want go to the tourist office after breakfast but it opens only at 10 am. We take a walk at the mudflats. At 10 we go to the tourist office where we are given a program of the activities of the week. It's in Norwegian though, the only thing they have in English is the program of activities for last week. And it's too late to book anything today. There is a very nice museum at the tourist office. We get the impression that, if you have lived in Longyearbyen for 20 years, your portrait is displayed in the museum together with a story about your life. Five people seem to have made it. We then go to the travel agent who books us for a boat trip on friday. We do a bit of shopping. There are no less than four excellent outdoors stores in Longyearbyen. The supermarket has everything including 3 sizes of tortilla. Everything here is tax free. |
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| The bank. |  |
| Longyearbyen is actually charming. You feel that you are near the end of the world. People are nice. Though they suffer a bit from 'Norwegian grace', like if they put something in front of you on a table it's often with a bang. No bad intentions, it's the style. |  |
| We talk to two guides and learn more about Longyearbyen. It has some 2000 inhabitants. It cannot really sustain itself (we are a bit surprised) and is subsidized by Norway. Coal mining is the major industry but the prices of coal on the world market are low. You would think that tourism would be enough but apparently it is not. The season is of course short. The population consists of people between 20 and 40 and a lot of children. Actually, the third kindergarten is being built. Children can go to school here until 16 years an for some specializations until 19. There is a university, a collaborative effort of 4 Norwegian universities. | |
| Means of transportation for the winter. |  |
| Next: A boat trip from Longyearbyen, August 25 | |