EMP

Well if you are anything like me, having arrived here in Longyearbyen yesterday afternoon not knowing too much about the place, today I am full of knowledge having taken a two hour ride around the town with a local and a few others in a taxi van. The town is not very big. Today was a little brighter then yesterday when I arrived to rain, today with the sun attempting to shine late afternoon, but not warmer being 4C all morning possibly reaching as high as 7C later on. There was no wind to speak of so no chill factor. The driver of the van was a retired army officer, full of interesting information, and we pretty much went in every direction and saw all that there was to see. It was originally named Longyear City ... read more

We woke to another fine day, we have got to like this weather after the wet start from Reykjavik seven days ago. It was Nikki's 50th birthday today and Nigel must have mentioned it to Asgeir, our guide, because before we set off he and the driver came down to the back of the bus where we were seated and sang Happy Birthday in Icelandic to her. We drove through beautiful countryside to Deilartunguhver, which is the world's largest and powerful hot water spring with a flow rate of 190 litres of water per second. The homes and businesses of Borgarnes and Akranes use this water for heating and close by there were tomatoes growing in hot houses also using the water for heating. There was a stand of bagged tomatoes with an honesty box so ... read more

Following all day at sea yesterday and cruising overnight we docked in Honningsvag at 8:00am and by 9:00am we were cleared to leave the ship. No - we haven't left the rain behind in Russia, as today was very overcast and misty with intermittent showers. The high for the day was 9C and this is Summer. Honningsgvag is located on the large island of Mageroya in the extreme northern reaches of Norway and is a small, tight-knit fishing community with colourful hillside homes overlooking the harbour and Barents Sea After the restrictions of not being able to leave the ship in any of the Russian ports unless we were on a organised tour, and even those with a Russian visa were unable to just wander about and also had to have proof of a tour organised ... read more

We arrived in Hammerfest this morning at 6:00am, earlier then planned as our next stop is Murmansk in Russia. Yesterday we were advised that in Murmansk they are holding a naval parade and if we are not in the harbour before 6:00am tomorrow we will not be allowed to enter. We are not sure what this parade involves, whether we will see it, whether it will mess up our tour plans, or what. It could be a fun day. As everything had been bought forward we had to leave the ship at 7:30am if we wanted to do or see things in Hammerfest. It is a really lovely small town and they claim to be the northern most city in the world. However Honniingsvâg disputes this as they are further north but they do not have ... read more

Today was just a settling into holiday mode with very little planning going into the day other than having yesterday purchased a ticket for the Hop-On Hop-Off bus run by Gray Line. In my case it was more of Hop-On then Hop-Off. Gray Line run an Express service of six stops or the Grand Circle of ten stops. Surprising they do not kick off until 9:40AM for the Express and 11:10AM for the Grand Circle by then the day is half over in my opinion. The room rate for my hotel includes breakfast and having endulged substantially I set off around 7:30AM with the intention of finding where I needed to be get on the Hop-On Hop-Off bus, as the same stop I also need for the three following days for 8:30AM departures on full day ... read more